Arts Alive celebrates the arrival of Spring

The Johannesburg Arts Alive International Festival celebrates the arrival of spring with a profusion of art, music, dance, performance art, spoken word and drama. Its artists take their place in the spotlight or in the sunlight, as in the case of the Arts Alive Commissioned generative "living land art" by Neil le Roux.

Emotively titled "A Livable City through Living Arts" this work can be seen on the grounds of the National School of the Arts and epitomises the promise and generative power of spring, which invigorates us all physically and emotionally.

This fascinating work is classified as Biological Generative Art and can be referred to as an agro-ecological "living sculpture".

"Generative art isn't typically about having a specific end product in mind and coming up with ideas to reach that end product. It is rather about coming up with ideas and seeing what end product emerges out of it," said Le Roux.

Issues of food shortage and sustainability

This living art will see the growing transformation of the Melle Street embankment into a "green pocket", a living illustration of how a green environment contributes to healthy urban areas. The ethos of the work addresses crucial issues of food shortage and sustainability. It has also been principle in generating an ongoing "greening" conversation, which has far-reaching possibilities for the National School of the Arts, including water harvesting and solar power generation and more active utilisation on the available grounds for possible urban vegetable gardening.

"This landscape thus designed is more than just an aesthetic or visual installation, it provides functional uses alongside many smells and habitats for a host of important birds, insects and other creatures, which research has shown to be declining in city environments.

"Let's see what emerges from this idea of mine and whatever it is, hopefully it can create positive future histories for the National School of the Arts, Braamfontein and the City of Johannesburg," Le Roux concluded.

The artists and arts leaders of tomorrow

An attractive artistically defined entrance is certainly befitting a burgeoning creative suburb like Braamfontein that not only boasts the National School of the Arts but The Joburg Theatre, The Alexander Theatre, numerous galleries, the Eland, the Firewalker, the Wits Art Museum, and so much more. "A Livable City through Living Arts" land art will mark one of the perimeters of this dynamic creative precinct and offer an extension to the cultural arch that links Braamfontein to Newtown. The National School of the Arts is pivotal in this creative precinct for it is an incubator of the artists and arts leaders of tomorrow.

Helping to mark the significance of the arrival of this land-art will be award-winning theatre maker, director and artist - in residence at the NSA Downstairs Theatre, Kyla Davis whose Well Worn Theatre Company is celebrated for its eco-activism. The opening will also be the NSA's contribution to Arbor week - planting roots for a creative and sustainable tomorrow.

A documentation of this work will also form part of the FNB Art Fair in late September, which will have NSA learners in this environment for the first time as they join Neil le Roux in an exhibition of the process and offshoots of this Biological Generative "living sculpture" commissioned by the City of Johannesburg through its celebratory Arts Alive International Festival 2013.