Transforming inner-city places into welcoming people spaces

Meet James Delaney, contemporary artist and one of the champions of Jozi My Jozi’s campaign called Babize Bonke (“let them all come” in isiZulu), which invites people to experience the revival of the city through the eyes of its creative citizens.

Delaney’s studio in Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, on the eastern edge of Johannesburg’s CBD, is a fabulous double-volume, light-filled space showcasing his artworks – metal sculptures, photographs, prints, lithography and charcoal drawings. It is guarded by his faithful golden labrador, Pablo, who has long been part of Delaney’s artistic journey and qualifies as a Babize Bonke champ in his own right.

Delaney is a multidisciplinary artist whose focus at the moment is on sculpture and art as a tool for place-making. Standing at the intersection between art and landscape, his pieces highlight how the spaces we inhabit – be they city streets, wild spaces or man-made parks – affect and are affected by our presence.

In the past two decades, Delaney’s work has been shown around the world, and he has won awards from Business and Arts South Africa and the South African Institute of Architects for his public art installations. In Jozi, he is most famous for his work restoring The Wilds, a beautiful 16ha park on the edge of downtown. Once neglected and dangerous, it’s now a glorious green lung featuring indigenous gardens, pools and water channels, huge trees and, of course, Delaney’s simple and powerful sculptures – a remarkable 62 in total.

“What started as a hobby of trimming the trees and clipping the overgrown plants became a rejuvenation project. I was familiar with how Central Park in New York was restored – basically by attracting people who become the positive eyes and ears – and I thought surely it could be done here.

“In the past 12 years, I’ve got to know plants and understand landscaping, but mainly I’ve done the creative projects, the things that enchant people,” he says.

One of the enchanting things was to create places for people to sit, pause or dwell – intentionally designed areas that encourage reflection, rest and mental rejuvenation. The most rewarding thing about The Wilds, says Delaney, is that by far the majority of visitors are women, which is testament to just how safe the gardens have become. On weekends they are filled with walkers, picnickers, romancers, selfie-takers.

Delaney also took on the role of landscape designer for Indwe Park in Braamfontein, a new addition to the landscape of Jozi’s inner city. Indwe is also a famous Jozi landmark as the watershed of the Limpopo and Orange rivers. All the rain that falls to the south of the watershed eventually flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and all the rain that falls north eventually flows into the Indian Ocean.

Delaney’s most recent public artworks are the beautiful white metal zebras and egrets that were installed recently at Gilooley’s Interchange, providing a calming and uplifting sight for motorists in the traffic.

He has also been involved with Jozi My Jozi’s renovation of both the Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth bridges leading from Braamfontein into the inner city. He oversaw the installation of benches on the Mandela Bridge, which people use to simply sit and look, read a book or take time to reflect.

Delaney’s studio at Victoria Yards produces sculptures for clients around the world, and every year he also works in New York, where he has produced various print works featuring the remains of history in the architecture and public art around the city.

But Jozi is home. “I love the climate and the trees here,” he says. “I love the green spaces and the simplicity of habit and home. And the fact that Pablo has green spaces in which we can walk.”

Join James Delaney at The Wilds on 29 and 30 November for a free walkabout and talk. Visitors can also bring indigenous plants and cuttings to donate for planting at the Library Gardens in the CBD. DM

Bridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.