11 on Justice Walk

In 11 on Justice Walk and 12 on Justice Walk, it’s firstly important to understand the weight of the history of District Six, which is what the works are based on, but secondly, to understand just how integral play is to Sibeko’s practice. When he undertakes these frottages of streets riddled with potholes, he wants us to remember “there was life here, there was colour here, there were adults here, there were people who used to play here.” The works entice every nostalgic bone of play within you as your eye jumps from colour to colour, but Sibeko also insists that these bright colours carry violence too. The smiling, ghostly figures appear playful, but there is something unsettling that you cannot quite shake. That violence speaks to the contemporary reality of District Six and streets like Justice Street, which have experienced neglect and become dumping sites, hidden away from the freeway and from those who matter.The colour therefore makes visible what has been allowed to disappear. And the red figures themselves are created from the negative spaces of the potholes Sibeko picks up through frottage. This is where the work connects so strongly to Kindred: Sibeko transforms something associated with neglect into something strange, playful and alive. The pothole becomes a body; the absence becomes a figure; the street becomes an archive. His other-worlding is therefore not an escape from history. It is a way of reimagining what remains within it—using play and transformation to make visible the life and memory that violence has attempted to erase.