Imagining A Richer Art Experience

Google has developed tools that will enormously enhance the user’s experience of visual art.

- Lloyd Gedye

In late 2015, I moved to the suburb of Westdene in Johannesburg. One of the first things I noticed about my new neighbourhood was the amount of graffiti that was dotted all around the suburb. But these were not just tags from teenagers with cans of spray paint, these were fully realised works of art. I felt lucky to be moving into a neighbourhood that clearly valued visual art.

In those first few weeks I was keen to discover as many of the murals as possible, and I soon developed a favourite – a mural by an artist called Veronika, near the corner of Second Avenue and Monmouth Road.

The work features a gorilla’s head, mouth open, staring down at pedestrians walking past. The gorilla is painted in shades of blue and purple, with touches of green around the cheeks. The gorilla’s head is surrounded by miniature stick figure UFOs, as well as some pink and purple dots.

Veronika’s mural was conveniently situated along the route I take to the local supermarket, so I was soon passing it every two or three days, staring into the gaping mouth of razor-sharp teeth.

Every time I did, I found myself wondering about Veronika. Is she a Westdene resident? Does she even live in Johannesburg? Where could I find more of her artworks?