Jonathan Wood, Harold Wilson, Dirk Chalmers, Dark City, detail with guest, Jide Pinheiro 2019.
Jonathan Wood, Harold Wilson, Dirk Chalmers, Dark City, detail with co-worker, Jide Pinheiro 2019.
Jonathan Wood, Harold Wilson, Dirk Chalmers, Dark City, detail, Lagos Biennial 2019.
Harold Wilson (Hariwe)
Born South Africa (1985)
Jonathan Wood
Born Johannesburg, South Africa, lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa
Dirk Chalmers
Born Johannsburg, South Africa (1988), died in Bulwer, South Africa (2019)
Dark City 2014 – 2016
academic and artistic project
Courtesy of the artists
Dark City is a collaborative project between Jonathan Wood, Dirk Chalmers, a filmmaker who passed away in 2019, and Harold Wilson (Hariwe), an architect and visual artist who initially began the work as a thesis for his Master’s degree. The project took an academic and artistic approach to looking at the issue of dark buildings (these are abandoned buildings where the poorest and most vulnerable squat without water, electricity or trash removal) in Johannesburg. Conditions are dire and massive risks lay inside and outside for residents as well as children who live within the skeletal shells these buildings have become. The occupants are usually illegals from other Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho, with the rest coming from all corners of South Africa for various reasons. This interaction sparked a new interest in immigrants and where they come from in order to further understand the age old migration of immigrants to Johannesburg for work and money.
