#ed17
August 2019
Wheatpaste Edition
editorial
Hello, dear reader, and welcome to Edition 17 of Ja. magazine.
As a publication in three parts, Edition 17 is comprised of a collection of new written and visual work published on our Medium, a series of works wheatpasted across various South African cities, and of course, this zine that you’re reading. Wheatpasting content from one of our editions is an idea that the Ja. team has been wanting to do for some time, and the project follows a natural trajectory in our experimental publishing journey. The visual language of a South African city is, when viewed on the move, a chaotic blend of concrete, trash, billboards, and ambitious posters peddled by streetwise doctors. We tried to put forward something else. Putting the work of our contributors into the public eye – in heavily-trafficked areas and secret spots alike – serves to further the reach of these works, and to engage public space using visual and text-based mediums. Public spaces are becoming more and more policed and surveilled – and isolation and loneliness in the City is a common sideeffect of late-capitalism. Seeing a poem extract on a bus stop, or a softly composed image on a rubbish bin may not seem like much, but it can remind us of our connectedness to one another – and that there is still much beauty to revel in, and more work to do. Once a wheatpasted work is out in the world, what kinds of interactions is it prompting? It is this possibility for engagement with other human beings that excites us. It’s also just a lot of fun to do. The works you see in this zine are pasted up in the city centres: witness the tunnels and streetlight bins of Durban, the electric boxes and pastoral reaches of Makhanda, the main roads and public parks of Johannesburg (including the charmed lawns of Delta Park where Niamh, in her childhood years, “saw a dead body once”), and the taxi ranks of Cape Town. Thank you to all our contributors for creating the beautiful work that is alive (if only temporarily!) in these cities, and to Joseph Coetzee and Sphe Mgnuni who helped us put a few of these works up. To more accessible publishing of literature and art, The Ja. team In memory of Nkcubeko Balani (1996 – 2019)
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CONTENTS
Art | Public artworks by Joe Coetzee Art | South America in paint by Sarah Rose Art | Three of the Seven by Joe Turpin Poetry | 7:11by Loic Ekinga Poetry | Blue by Francine Simon Photography | Journey to Self, with images by Lihle Menziwa Photography | So Much Younger Then (Visions of Home) by Madeleine Bazil Photography | Submissions by Lucinda Jolly Poetry | An Instagram filter for shitty people by Ariana Smit Poetry | Merge by Melissa Sussens Poetry | A Wolf Beneath The Sheets by Carel Olivier Poetry | ACCESS by Joe Coetzee Fiction | Her Red Badge of Courageby Alexandra Jane Tribute | Dear Nkcubeko
Durban
CORNER OF JOSEPH NDULI ST & DIAKONIA AVENUE, CITY CENTRE
KZNSA, GLENWOOD
CORNER OF LENA AHRENS AND CHE GUEVARA RD, GLENWOOD
KZNSA, GLENWOOD
ML SULTAN/ STEVE BIKO RD, CITY
BLUE LAGOON
ML SULTAN/ STEVE BIKO RD, CITY
BUS STOP, UMBILO
Johannesburg
DELTA PARK, JOHANNESBURG
PUBLIC TOILETS, JAMES AND ETHEL GRAY PARK
PUBLIC TOILETS, JAMES AND ETHEL GRAY PARK
JAN SMUTS AVENUE, JOHANNESBURG
CORNER JAN SMUTS AVENUE AND RUTLAND ROAD, SAXONWORLD
CORNER 8TH STREET AND 4TH AVENUE, MELVILLE
CORNER AVONWOLD AND JAN SMUTS AVENUE, PARKVIEW
CORNER JAN SMUTS AVENUE AND DUNDALK AVENUE, PARKVIEW
CARLOW ROAD, MELVILLE
RUSTENBURG ROAD, MELVILLE
Cape Town
TAXI RANK, CAPE TOWN
Makhanda
1820 SETTLER NATIONAL MONUMENT, MAKHANDA
BOTANICAL GARDENS, MAKHANDA
HILL STREET, MAKHANDA
HIGH STREET, MAKHANDA
JOHANNESBURG
MAKHANDA
MAKHANDA
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