One night mid 2005 I crawled over the Nelson Mandela Bridge into the heart of the city of Johannesburg for a durational performance. I was accompanied by the artist Christian Nerf who hosted me for a 24 hour residency at the now defunct City and Suburban Studios. Barefoot and wearing only old jeans, I also covered myself with an cheap blanket that had been torn apart by dogs. I slowly entered the Johannesburg CBD like so many of the city’s unseen citizens would – with nothing. It was literally freezing (0 degrees centigrade) that night and fearing frostbite I nearly gave up a few times. But by midnight I finally made it to the other side of the bridge. It took over two hours to complete the action.

The work was never exhibited or made public until now. I do so now in honor of the artist Wiliam Pope L. who sadly passed away on 23 December this year. He was a great inspiration to me and, in particular, this artwork was made in response to his crawling pieces of the 1970’s. Like in many of Pope’s crawling pieces I carried an object in one hand, a video camera in my case. The camera stopped recording after 12min 26sec.

Rest in piece William, your work mattered.

Video still: ‘Crawling (The city of gold)’, 2005, Johan Thom. #art#contemporaryart#williampopel#performanceart#africanart#contemporaryperformanceart#crawling#southafricanart