Clint Strydom’s high-contrast black & white photos project the rural side of soccer. Barefoot pre-teens, who sport broad smiles, are seen kicking a ragged, rounded object through sand and dirt. Strydom pointed out that hardly anyone of them would ever get to see the World Cup stadiums. Their love for the world’s most popular sporting activity is in abject contrast to millionaire players inside the stadiums. They are privileged enough to secure hugely lucrative endorsements.
The US goalkeeper Tim Howard and some of his teammates purchased signed prints of his photos. The works were presented to the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter. Marcus Jansen, a painter from America, came up with urban expressionistic works that set the popular sport in a surrealistic asphalt jungle.
Apart from Clint Strydom, another South African artist Esther Mahlangu’s paintings are also there. Done in the style of the Ndebele wall painted works, colorful geometric designs used for decorating houses of the Ndebele people from the southern Transvaal region in the Northwest. The exhibit’s managing director, Craig Mark, mentions in The New York Times interview:
“With simple geographic shapes, she’s actually managed to portray the game. There are several South African artists involved and they each have their own unique styles. Each has been selected for that very reason. We feel that their works have the power to become iconic images of this World Cup.”A South African sculptor, Keith Calder, came up with a series of bronze statues, comprising several large-format versions – over nine feet - on display in many public spaces around Johannesburg.
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