New kid on the block, Ismail Farouk (33) is an artist whose work is poised to make a difference in the changing landscape of Johannesburg. This is because his work is, in fact, about the changing landscape of Johannesburg. Street corners abuzz with random activity he sees as meaningful entities reflecting human development on a macro scale.
Farouk’s work combines stills photography, video and performance. An early intervention saw him setting up a spaza in Braamfontein in 2001 at which he sold rocks for the hefty price of R150 — the price a hawker would have to pay as a fine for contravening city bylaws. It was an act of solidarity with harassed traders and it drew scorn from the local cops.
In 2004, he produced a four-minute movie titled Yeoville that won a merit award at the Sasol New Signatures competition last year. In Bertams, the suburb nearest the Ellis Park sports precinct, earmarked for development for 2010, Farouk shot a series of a burning house that was, in fact, a heritage site. Titled Sometimes a Fire (2006), the series exposed the living conditions of residents whose desperate lives seem less secure as a result of the impending Soccer World Cup.
The reason for this interview is the upcoming exhibition of Farouk’s most recent digital video work JHB626GP at the Venice architectural biennale. The five-minute loop will be seen in the context of explorations of 16 cities, globally. Archival footage of a more sedate Johannesburg in the apartheid era is juxtaposed with the frenetic city today. At times, the city seems almost out of control. On closer inspection one finds that cars and people are actually moving backwards. Surprisingly, Farouk points out, the entire work is made from a mosaic of stills.
But Farouk’s artworks are made in tandem with his official occupation as urban geographer for some of Johannesburg’s most significant heritage and regeneration projects.
By profession you call yourself an urban geographer. What does this mean?
Professionally I am an urban geographer. I look at the dynamics of urban processes, the inequalities of living in all aspects of the city. But I specialise in processes of urban restructuring — processes of gentrification.
My research is specifically about mapping social networks and communtiy based organisations in poorer neighbourhoods. I look at how youth organisations and other existing cultural activities can become the primary drivers of regeneration in declining areas. In Bertrams, I work with an organisation called Thusang Youth Network, a group of unemployed youths who are tired of their conditions in the inner city and have taken it upon themselves to improve things. They are cleaning streets, cleaning parks, they organise parking for big events at Ellis Park, they marshal, they hand out condoms and are involved in SAPS youth desks.
In the area of research I have been working for a large architectural and urban-design firm for the past three years.
What is your relation to Johannesburg?
I was born in Durban. At the age of one month we moved to Johannesburg, so I’m a Jo’burger. I grew up and went to school in Lenasia. My family moved to Vereeniging when I was in high school, but I continued to commute, travelling 80km a day to school because I wanted to study art at an Indian school in Lenasia.
Where do you regard being from in Johannesburg now?
I am from Yeoville. I really grew up in Yeoville — I was 25 when I moved there.
There is apartheid artifact in your most recent work.
I find myself going back into the southern townships more and more. I am currently working for the Hector Peterson museum doing a research project, mapping the narratives and routes of the uprising of 1976. Soweto currently has two major nodes of tourist attraction: the Mandela family museum and the Hector Peterson museum. But there’s a lot of development pressure to diversify on tourist attractions. I’ve been called in to map struggle victims’ homes, landmarks, meeting places, as well as documenting the old township.
What does “mapping” mean?
I create maps based on data collected primarily through interviews. These maps go beyond the physical. So I map people, places, activities or perceptions in relation to other spatial data. In Soweto currently there is a process managed by the Johannesburg Roads Agency where the various routes of the 1976 uprising are being paved. In my view there is too much emphasis on physical upgrading at the expense of existing social networks and activities.
Is this being done so that people can take some sort of tourist pilgrimage?
Predominantly, yes. It’s also been done as part of a larger process of formalising township roads and sidewalks.
Why did you combine current and archival footage in your most recent video work?
I used this footage to document the history of our city, as best — using whatever was available to me.
When you watch it, obviously you are supposed to look at the present in relation to the past. Do you think the current condition in Jo’burg is as a result of apartheid?
Are you asking if apartheid has a lasting legacy? Definitely. I think the effects of apartheid are very important to recognise, but you should keep an eye on the current issues: the forces of globalisation and the race to realign the city in the heirarchy of the global economy. In my view, the country’s neo-liberal policies are far more damaging — we think we are free but we really are not. People are still hung up on racial politics and are not recognising the endangered vibrancy of Jo’burg street life in the face of the enforced privatised city. I think this pretty much comes through in my movie.
Does it key into any particular agendas around the city?
It addresses a lot of the challenges — the tensions between the formal and informal world and the impending housing challenges in developments around 2010.
I have animated the redlining of Bertrams heading to Ellis Park, where there are heritage homes within 200 metres of the soccer stadium. Apparently, there is a Fifa regulation that you cannot have residences within 400 metres of the sporting infrastructure.
So there’s an impending conflict?
People have been served with eviction notices. The shot after that is of the historical pepper-pot houses, heritage buildings that suffer from structural problems and socio-economic problems.
Are you trying to be an artist?
No, I am not trying to be an artist at all. I am continually searching for new ways of expressing pertinent to me, in the most creative way possible. I am an entertainer. And I like to entertain well.
Ismail Farouk’s photographs and JHB626GP are on show at the Parking Gallery 149 Pritchard Street, Johannesburg, on July 29 at 6pm. Tel: 073 024 7308