Kruskal Avenue upgrade

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Oct 28, 2020

KRUSKAL AVENUE PHASE 1 COMPLETE

Infrastructure upgrades are strong signifiers of a city’s commitment to improving the quality of life for citizens. In January last year, the City of Cape Town embarked a programme to upgrade Kruskal Avenue, a busy pedestrian thoroughfare that connects the Bellville public transport interchange with the Bellville CBD. The first phase was completed in February 2020, and the GTP team joined the City’s team in a completion ceremony on 28 October.

The development includes two new artworks by Ralph Borland. Giant grasses form an entrance to Elizabeth Park: they celebrate the persistence of nature in the city, monumentalizing the tiny grasses that grow up through cracks in the pavement. The work represents tenacity and fruitfulness, and flourishing on little. Across the site, sculptures of Red-Winged Starlings rotate in the wind on top of striped poles. These starlings are clever and resourceful birds at home in nature or in the city, and found all down the East Coast of Africa from Somalia to Cape Town. Both artworks draw playful attention to small natural elements of the space that might otherwise be overlooked, and reflect to the diverse people who inhabit the site their own resourcefulness and tenacity, as they go about their daily lives.

Photo credits: Ralph Borland and City of Cape Town

 

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