Local image #162
2026, Acrylic on board, 30x30cm
12 May 2023
A flaming sword. Loud voices outside, full of laughter and bravado, carrying through the street. They strike me as drunken, smug, unconcerned with how they sound to others, as though what is being said is far funnier or cleverer than it really is. Perhaps I hear them this way because of what has been happening here.
Electricity cables have been disappearing constantly. At one point there were three open cable theft reports on Tshwane City's WhatsApp issue line for this area; a few days later there were seven. Between the private security companies, the police, the TMPD, and CPF volunteers, one wonders how so much theft can continue. It seems incredible. One begins to suspect collusion with the criminal syndicates.
Our own cable was stolen a few months ago. Last year, after thieves removed the grounding copper from a substation, a surge caused R34,000 worth of damage to our household.
Does this painting—this shape, these colours, these textures, this arrangement of paint—embody what I feel about these events? I hope these feelings remain embodied there in the painting, because I fear what might happen were I to act upon them.
A flaming sword. Loud voices outside, full of laughter and bravado, carrying through the street. They strike me as drunken, smug, unconcerned with how they sound to others, as though what is being said is far funnier or cleverer than it really is. Perhaps I hear them this way because of what has been happening here.
Electricity cables have been disappearing constantly. At one point there were three open cable theft reports on Tshwane City's WhatsApp issue line for this area; a few days later there were seven. Between the private security companies, the police, the TMPD, and CPF volunteers, one wonders how so much theft can continue. It seems incredible. One begins to suspect collusion with the criminal syndicates.
Our own cable was stolen a few months ago. Last year, after thieves removed the grounding copper from a substation, a surge caused R34,000 worth of damage to our household.
Does this painting—this shape, these colours, these textures, this arrangement of paint—embody what I feel about these events? I hope these feelings remain embodied there in the painting, because I fear what might happen were I to act upon them.