(10 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa – 25 February 2025
1. Artist James Delaney placing metal sculpture of elephant inside studio
2. SOUNDBITE (English) James Delaney, Artist and Printmaker: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 3 TO 5++
“What I found at The Wilds, is that I spent a couple of years fixing the park and planting and weeding and restoring the infrastructure. We did a lot of work and we couldn’t get people to go back. And then I had this idea of making laser cut steel sculptures, and it’s that which turned The Wilds around. We live in an era now of the photograph. It’s all about the photo that you take, particularly if you could be in the photograph and next to something which is a landmark. And art, public art is a landmark.”
3. Delaney moving elephant sculpture
4. Mid of sculptures
5. Various of Delaney using charcoal to draw next sculpture
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Johannesburg, South Africa – 26 February 2025
6. Giraffe sculpture at The Wilds nature reserve
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Nadia Nicholaaspar, Johannesburg resident: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAYED BY SHOTS 8 AND 9++
“When you come upon a piece of art where you least expect it, it’s like magic, you immediately smile and you wonder, you ask questions: ‘How did this happen? What’s the story behind this? Who are the people who put this here?’ And it makes you think, well, somebody or a group of people love this place enough to put this effort into it.”
8. Owl sculpture in tree
9. Various of deer sculpture
10. Wide of giraffe sculpture
11. Wide of the The Wilds signage in Johannesburg South Africa.
STORYLINE:
James Delaney wants his public art in South Africa’s biggest city to be more than a magnet for selfies and a delight for children.
He’s determined to have the vibrant metal sculptures change the mood of its gritty and sometimes dangerous neighborhoods.
Over the past decade, Delaney has designed more than 100 sculptures for The Wilds Park in Johannesburg.
A striking red steel kudu antelope stands near a hill’s summit. A curious assembly of stencil owls peer down from jacaranda trees. A life-size pink giraffe installation dominates a grassy clearing.
"We live in an era now of the photograph. It’s all about the photo that you take, particularly if you could be in the photograph and next to something which is a landmark," said Delaney, a 53-year-old sculptor and painter who has exhibited his work in London, Paris and New York.
"Art, public art is a landmark.”
Authorities in Johannesburg have encouraged public art to improve safety and environmental conditions in the city of some 6 million people whose downtown has a reputation for crime and degradation.
Johannesburg is considered one of the world’s most dangerous cities, based on crime data.
Delaney first encountered The Wilds as an overgrown, deserted park while walking his puppy Pablo — named after Picasso — in 2014.
Since then, he has repaired and painted benches, pruned plants and attracted volunteers and donors to help turn it into a buzzing meeting point.
The special ingredient might be the sculptures that now draw moms with babies, yoga enthusiasts and schoolchildren from nearby apartment blocks.
AP video shot by Alfonso Nqunjana
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