2026-10-14T15:37:04Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33981793 2026-09-29T08:57:41Z category_25600 category_25603 item_type_11 month_year_09_2026

Social Relations anmd Street Art - Falko one's Once Upon a time project Suhaila Mather (25000507) Art theory Visual cultures art history grafitti <p dir="ltr">his paper examines South African graffiti artist Falko One’s <i>Once Upon a Town</i> project, focusing specifically on its intervention in the Underberg region of KwaZulu-Natal. Developed in collaboration with Red Bull South Africa, the project sought to transform walls and homes in rural communities into sites of public art while, according to Falko, changing local perceptions of value. The paper investigates how the project produced, negotiated and represented social relations between the artist, local residents, artworks and the wider community.</p><p dir="ltr">Drawing on Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics, Samantha Vice’s concept of aesthetic injustice, and scholarship on graffiti, public space and spatial occupation, the study combines visual analysis of the Red Bull TV documentary episodes with fieldwork and observation conducted in Underberg. Particular attention is given to the ways murals created points of interaction and social gathering, as well as to the contrasting representations of local residents within the project's media documentation.</p><p dir="ltr">The paper argues that while the murals generated new social encounters and transformed private and public spaces into sites of interaction, the project also exposed significant tensions surrounding representation, agency and outsider intervention. The Underberg murals could function as catalysts for community interaction and collective meaning-making, yet the limited representation and participation of local residents in the project's documentation raises questions about whose perspectives were being prioritised. The paper therefore considers <i>Once Upon a Town</i> as a complex form of socially engaged street art, situated between community outreach, artistic intervention and the claiming of space, while questioning the assumptions that underpin attempts to use art as a means of transforming rural communities.</p> 2026-09-29T08:57:41Z Text Online resource 10.6084/m9.figshare.33981793.v2 https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/composition/33981793 CC BY 4.0