Urban giraffe calls Lagoon Drive home
Artists brings uMhlanga's urban giraffe to life.
LAGOON Drive is a mixture of elegant pastels, chic design all jumbled together with a row of restaurants lining the cobbled paving. So it was a shock to see a 10 foot giraffe nonchalantly eating, oblivious to the gawking stares by passers-by, some in a state wondrous astonishment, others in admiration. No folks, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, the giraffe is calling uMhlanga its home.
The beautiful mural is a piece of urban art created by Urbanloveza, an urban art movement. Urban art transforms dull and forgotten areas into visual masterpieces that is both engaging and appreciated, by bringing self expression into the public space.
Urbanloveza is the brain child of three talented artists, Warrick Shannon, Dustin Scott and Tammy Lambson. Though the trio only formed a month ago, and already their artwork has graced the walls of Ballito Drive and now Lagoon Drive.
We’d actually dropped our girlfriends off at Gateway and were walking down Lagoon Drive when we spotted the wall. We bounced a couple of ideas around and I thought a giraffe would be perfect because of the length of the wall and because I love wildlife,” Warrick explained.
Using the technique of dust tagging or reverse graffiti (method of creating images on walls or other surfaces by removing dirt from a surface) the trio along with volunteers transformed the dirt-ridden wall into a beach-themed work of art in just under six hours.
“We had an 80-year-old man come up to us and tell us the art work was so cool. That was amazing. We were all stoked once it was finished and when we were approached by the uMhlanga Urban Improvement Precinct (UIP), I thought they were going to ask us to remove it but they loved the giraffe too,” Dustin enthused.
Tammy added the way to think about urban art was “refacing walls rather than defacing them. Urban art can either the scourge of a city or part of what makes it unique, depending on your viewpoint. I’m super proud of the giraffe, he’s just amazing,” she said.
For more on Urbanloveza visit their facebook page or follow them on twitter @urbanloveza.
