“Jo’burg City

I travel on your black and white and robotted roads,

Through your thick iron breath that made you inhale,

At six in the morning and exhale from five noon”

(Mongane Wally Serote)

The city of Johannesburg was born just over 120 years ago with the unearthing of gold from beneath the broad grassy plateau of the highveld. Now the largest and most populous city in South Africa, it has become a working metropolis, home to glorious electrical storms, the world’s largest urban forest and a darker side that is juxtaposed by equal amounts of compassion and generosity.

GOLD RUSH incorporates a diverse range of art in terms of mediums, styles and ideas as each artwork navigates the artist’s personal relationship to Johannesburg. Some responses to the city present an acquiescent view of the places they represent. Some function as a rebellion against the notions that these structures and contexts have come to embody. By investigating and engaging with these places, the artists deconstruct and reconstruct sites, whether real or imagined.

From the jacarandas that bloom all over the city to Johannesburg’s distinctive skyline that brands the city with a backdrop to our stories. From maps hidden under video footage to tounge-in-cheek commentary, to portraits of Jozi inhabitants that seem so familiar, GOLD RUSH features artworks that take a more thoughtful look at the city that lives in the artists’ blood. The city that exemplifies the people’s vacillation between the deepest of anguish and overwhelming optimism is represented here in the art that has touched the spirit of Jozi.