Alex people to decide artwork winner

An Alex artist will walk away R10 000 richer on 8 May when the winner of an artwork competition is voted for by the people of Alexandra.

This follows a decision by Kyalami company Dial-A-Mula, which is a subsidiary company of Aurum Wealth Creators (Pty) Ltd, to partner with Alex FM and take up office space on the second floor of the Yarona Building where it will create a kind of mural art exhibition space for a winning Alex artist.

The mural space will be directly opposite the Alex FM studio with a long corridor that leads up to the Alex FM reception desk.

Group chairman of Dial-A-Mula Juan Meyer decided to earmark the wall for the creation of a mural, whose subject matter would be ‘How Aurum Wealth, Dial-A-Mula and Alex FM have come together to change the lives of the people of Alex’.

The mural will help celebrate the art and culture that originates from the community. “We decided that the mural should be executed by a local Alex artist and we then opened the brief to include any original artwork originated by the artist in any medium of expression,” said Meyer.

“This meant that the ‘mural’ could be rendered as a 2D-relief sculpture, a painting, graffiti art, a photo essay, a wallpaper design, or anything that could be put up on the wall.”

Meyer said the winning artist will receive a cash prize of R10 000 as there is only one wall to be made available hence there can only be one winner. In recognition and merit to the winning artist, his or her contact details will feature on the wall.

Artists that participated in the competition that opened on 20 March and closed on 30 April, attended briefing sessions on the logistics and requirements around the competition, which included that artists render an A3-sized sketch of their proposed design.

All entries were judged on concept, execution, and creative flair and out of that process. top 10 designs were selected and made available to be voted on by the people of Alexandra. A total of 25 artists between the ages 20 and 30 attended the three briefing sessions.

Meyer said the competition is titled ‘Let Alex Decide’ because the people of Alex must come through to the office and cast their vote for their favourite artist.

“We are planning to temporarily turn the office into an ‘art gallery and will sub-divide the walls into 10 sections to accommodate the top 10 designs that will be placed on the wall for the people to cast their votes on a ballot paper for their favourite design.

A draw will be conducted for lucky voters who enter the draw and three winners will be selected and each winner will receive a cash prize. The first winner will receive R5 000, the second winner R2 000, and the third winner will receive R1 000. To qualify, the voters must be present on the day of the draw.

The voting will take place on Saturday, 8 May at the Yarona Building Dial-A-Mula office from 9 am until 1pm. The art competition winner will be announced on 8 May at 6pm and the voter lucky draw will take place thereafter.