Martha Cooper – I Art Joburg

Martha Cooper catalyzed, albeit by accident, what was to become a global popular art movement. Her book Subway Art, was for years the only available book about street art. For anyone who didn’t live in New York City, the book became a source of inspiration, used to study the techniques of the movement’s originators. Cooper was in the Maboneng Precinct for the duration of the mural project to document the process of each of the artists who all have huge respect for the “super president of graffiti culture” – labelled so by artist Remed. Cooper, who’s has been around from the start of it all offered this insight into the global art movement: “There’s nothing negative about putting murals in the city. I like to see street art, and graffiti and murals in progress. Any city could use street art, I think it’s a great way of making art accessible to everybody. I do think street art is still relevant because it’s changing and I like how things are changing. It’s a positive thing and there should be more of it. When you look around an see how much advertising there is in this world, up on walls here and there, I would like to see art counteracting that.” While in Joburg, Cooper found the inspiration for her next project: Soweto | Sowebo, which photographically shows the uncanny similarities and differences between Soweto (Southwestern Township) and Sowebo (Southwest Baltimore). (via)