Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the disruptive, subversive and inclusionary potentialities of public art in a context where formal democratic processes falter by looking at the work of Dlala Indima, a Hip-hop collective working with graffiti in the Eastern Cape township of Phakamisa.

Paper long abstract:

It is largely uncontested that South African spaces are still fraught with inequality. This paper will explore the disruptive, subversive and inclusionary potentialities of public art in a context where formal democratic processes falter (Pieterse). This paper looks at the work of Dlala Indima, a Hip-hop collective working with graffiti in the Eastern Cape township of Phakamisa. This paper argues that the project is remarkable for four reasons. Firstly, unlike many public art projects that tend to involve urban, middle class artists working in so-called marginalised spaces, Dlala Indima were working in the neighbourhood they grew up in. Secondly, Hip-hop is arguably the most dominant global youth culture, and therefore the artists were working in a popular register that (especially young) people could relate to. Dlala Indima were not only replicating an existing Hip-hop vernacular, but were also experimenting across new ways of visual and verbal representation inspired by the local context that challenge the rural-urban divide. Thirdly, working with a small budget of a meager R150 000, they were able not only to decorate a range of public spaces to the community's pleasure, but also to renovate a dilapidated building into a functional community centre. Whereas cultural planning results in the delivery of (often defunct) community centres, and culture-led development strategies usually emerge from a state or private investors' desire for property development, this project demonstrates an interesting viable alternative. Finally, what this culminates in is new forms of collective cultural citizenship through insurgent practices and spaces.