Moving art at Comic Con
SAMURAI-FARAI: A MERCEDES-BENZ CAR AS CANVAS
Reveals production process and what African culture looks like creatively.
Johannesburg-based visual artist Farai Engelbrecht, 25, pseudonym Samurai-Farai, previously tipped to be an artist to look out for by various publications, is making a huge mark on the art scene with his current three-dimensional art piece being exhibited at this week’s Comic Con.
A modern artist who mainly practices cubism in his art pieces, he invokes the use of bold outlines and bright colours, with a touch of street art, fusing the traditional and current.
Some would even compare his work to that of Jean Michel Basquiat with a fine and cleaner edge and lines that tend to be neater and more mathematically aligned.
He majored in printmaking at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, securing a degree in art and going into the world with a different approach to the creation of print pieces.
In his current collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, he was tasked with using the outer shell of a Merc as a canvas in a piece that would speak to the world while expressing the vision of an African artist.
Samurai-Farai explained: “I think how the collaboration came about was Mercedes-Benz wanting to have a showcase of the new C-Class and merge it with South African culture, also reveal the production process and what our culture looks like creatively. A vision board on a car.”
For him it’s a multidisciplinary event that will give him the opportunity to create a contemporary symbol of elite South African black fine artists, joining the ranks of Esther Mahlangu who has taken part in previous collaborations of a similar nature.
Created using spraypaint and acrylic markers – the car is probably the brightest C-class you’ll ever see.
His work was recommended to the car manufacturer and he hopes that his love of fine art played a role in his procurement.
The travelling canvas, which is the car, has already been showcased at musician Black Coffee’s Grammy award-winning party and will be a showstopper at Comic-Con in the Urban con section this week until the weekend.
It’s a section that relates to urban culture for visitors and showcases various aspects of local urban culture.
Explaining his vision of how the car may be seen, Samurai-Farai said: “The car is the canvas and it sees the person who’s viewing it as incredibly brave.
“It can exist on paper and canvas, clothing or a T-shirt or an adornment.
“One day I’d love for people to feel more comfortable with having art involved in their lifestyles. If you are sitting at the robot and see the painted vehicle next to you, be curious.
“I want people to experience the bold colours, feel shocked and surprised at the brashness of the piece.”
There’s an emotion that comes with creating bold pieces and he expresses this as wanting people to revel in the bright colours, perhaps even feel the braveness of the piece.
It’s not every day that an expensive car is transformed into a moving artwork.
Future plans for the moving artwork include an auction in Sun City, Rustenburg, this December.
For his future collaborations, he said: “I’d love to do so much more with Mercedes-Benz, this time more than one car.
“I’m looking forward to whatever may come into this space.”