Johannesburg. The city with an electric energy that often has people forming love-hate relationships with the lifestyles it engenders. The streets are the storytellers of the city’s complex history. Bright, colourful characters and lettering have been woven into the city streets by well-known and emerging street artists, providing a layered and living alternative documentation and form of expression.
King ADZ was asked by Nando’s to come to Johannesburg and make a documentary that looks at the rise of street art through a collaboration with the young street artist Karabo Poppy Moletsane. In conversation with artists and cultural commentators, the evolution of these artworks is tied together with the evolution of the city. Street art has opened up the doors to the art world and removed its elitist connotations, and the value of this art form is demonstrated through revealing how it is shaping the lives of a new creative generation. Artworks that through its very existence breaks down ideas of what art should look like, who can view it and how it should be displayed. Making the streets the gallery and those walking by its viewers, admirers and critics. Discussions paint a picture of how street art blends with protest, art, celebration and freedom of expression.