Jonas Gerberding aka liesoa, born 1980 in Hamburg, took his chance to
come to South Africa and get a glimpse of what's going on in the art
scene in Johannesburg. The painter is mainly influenced by Street Art,
Comics, music and movies, as you can see in his pieces of art. "I'm
painting on canvas and wood. Therefore I use spraypaints, stencils and
acrylic markers."
There are different reasons why he choosed to
come to South Africa. "Well, on the one hand to shorten the german
winter and on the other hand to learn about and get in touch with the
south african art scene... and to paint, of course." There is no doubt
for him, that it was worthwhile so far. "I've met many interesting
artists, get inspired by their work and had the possibility to fulfill
different projects."
So he had the opportunity to paint a wall
in Melville, Johannesburg. The neighborhood is known for his lively
art-, student- and gay scene. It took him 2 ˝ days to finish the app. 3
by 3 metres wall. "What I really liked, were the reactions of the people
passing by. Cars stopped or hooted, gave me thumbs up, walkers came to
me, discussed the painting and told me, they like it and can't wait to
see it finish. I really enjoyed that. This kind of reaction is rarely
seen in Hamburg."
Beside this painting he also worked with young
people in Kliptown in Soweto, organizing the Graffiti-workshop "Make
your mark", where the 10 to 16 years old youngsters from the Soweto
Kliptown Youth (SKY) could learn how to use spraypaint and stencils on a
wall. "I had a plan, what to do in this workshop. But in the minute
they got a hand on the spraycans and the stencils – you couldn't stop
them. As they were obviously having fun, I cancelled my plans and
sticked on helping them and giving advices, while we were spraying the
wall. Since they usually don't have any money to buy paint, they were
happy to try it out."
The last couple of weeks he's got in South
Africa, he hopes to collaborate with some of the interesting artists,
he met so far and to empty a couple of more spaycans....
Rayka Kobiella
read more about the Graffiti workshop "Make your mark" at the Soweto Kliptown Youth (SKY)
