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From Chachu in the Eastern Cape to Koekenaap on the Western Cape coast, graffiti artist Falko One travelled South Africa’s back roads for 14 months, brightening walls in small towns and settlements along the way.
On Thursday, Cape Town’s trendy set sipped energy drinks and tequila, slightly abuzz while admiring an exhibition of the boisterous 43-year-old’s work at the Red Bull Studios in Bree Street. The hipster crowd swayed to beats by DJ Eazy.
Falko milled around, amusing the crowd with jokes. “The reason I go to small towns is that small towns need it the most. You’ll see most of the artworks are bright. I try to put a happy spin on it. These people deal with a lot of s**t, so I try to bring brightness to their lives,” he said.
It was tough to get a sponsor – but then Red Bull came along. The project, called Once Upon A Town, saw Falko and photographer Luke Daniel hop between hamlets in South Africa’s countryside, with bags full of spray paint
in tow.
In the settlements, Falko painted murals, mostly featuring animals, on mud huts, stranded containers or concrete watering holes, all the while chatting with the locals, as Daniel photographed the process.
One picture shows a mother and her son next to their grass-roofed hut, on which Falko painted a bright koi fish, in Underberg in the Drakensberg as a storm brews overhead.
In another, a man named Willem Boomslang plays a harmonica in front of his modest house, on which Falko painted a snake, in the Western Cape karoo town of Prince Albert.
All the exhibited photographs are accompanied by captions that tell the stories of the people the two men met in those towns.
How did they choose the locations?
“I’m going to be a little philosophical about this,” said Falko. “Throughout my entire life, the universe has kinda been on my side. We basically had a 99% hit rate in terms of finding the right people and places ... I’d just be like, ‘thanks again, universe’.”
He was born in District Six, but Falko and his family were forced to move to Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats when he was just three years old.
He first painted a wall at the township’s Westridge Secondary School, where he matriculated, and initially thought of graffiti as a way “to get the girls”.
Later, he was delighted to learn that he could make a living practising his art.
Today, Falko has painted murals around the globe, including five around Greece in the build-up to the 2004 Olympics, and is regarded as one of South Africa’s top graffiti artists.
He considers graffiti a social tool and, in 2006, was chosen as one of the Mail & Guardian’s 100 young South Africans to watch.
In Joburg, his notable works include elephants at the entrance to The Market theatre in Newtown.
Once Upon A Town will be on display at the Red Bull Studios in Cape Town until the end of August. Meanwhile, Falko and Daniel are already planning another road trip later this year.
