Performing the Streetlamp

The exhibition STREETLIGHTS | JOHANNESBURG was the culmination of a project that set out to understand and explore the city through the way it is illuminated. The project mapped the infrastructure that provides this illumination and was made up of two components.

The first component was the website VAUGHN SADIE | STREETLIGHTS which archived and mapped a small percentage of the streetlights in the city. The website attempted to bring about a new way of perceiving Johannesburg.

The second component comprised a series of workshops entitled performing the streetlamp. These workshops explored and responded to the use of artificial light in public space and the impact each has on social practice. The workshops culminated in a series of temporary interventions in an area of Fordsburg, Johannesburg, and the documentation of the interventions were presented alongside the website.