Peter Cohen’s exhibition creates an image of a Johannesburg that is frozen in time

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
One thing that you will not miss in the art works of architect and artist’s exhibition is the absence of people in the prints of old Johannesburg that adorn the walls of David Krut Gallery in Parkwood. These are drawings from the pictures that he took of old Johannesburg during the years gone by.

This exhibition is an incredible solo exhibition opening by the architect and artist, Cohen, which opened on Thursday 3 August 2023, at David Krut Projects 151 Gallery located at 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg.

“”David Krut Projects is pleased to present City of remembered futures, an exhibition of new drawings and unique lithographic works on paper by Peter Cohen. As a practicing architect, Cohen has an affinity for the built environment, with the relationship between the artificial and the natural, and populace and place, foremost questions in his practice. City of remembered futures explores the disconnect between notions of utopian and dystopian cities, and what emerges from the imagery is a sense of both the tension and harmony between natural elements and concrete counterparts.”

Looking at these images, which were created of course with the architect’s eye, you can tell that the buildings were created with people in mind and obviously there must be an interaction between Johannesburg’s people and the buildings.

However Peter Cohen insist that when he took these images in the 1980s Johannesburg from which he created these prints in the David Krut Projects Workshop from the beginning of this year together with a team there it was not his intention to exclude human beings.

But when you look at these images you sort of get it there behind these grey images of the building there are human beings doing what they normally do in Johannesburg on a working day. Some of the images of the buildings are juxtaposed to sunflowers, and this give the impression of a tension between the natural world and the artificial man-made structures such as the tall buildings creating some kind of mystery.

I went to the gallery on Saturday having missed the opening of the exhibition last week as I had a tight schedule. However as fate would have it, I fortunately found the artists there and had an opportunity to chart to him.

“I work in monochrome and these images are a result of that. I have been working as an artist for the last two and half years. What happened is that during the Covid-19 lockdown, while in isolation, I felt like I was wasting time if I simply read books or watched television. That is when I started painting and I have never stopped, as I normally work in the night when it is quiet and during the day then go to the workshop to make prints,” he explained.

The architect says that when he was young, he used to attend art classes till the age of 16 when he stopped. “So there was a 40 year gap before I resumed making art,” he laughed.
Cohen also explained that he does not find it difficult to switch from architecture to art.

“For it just happens naturally with not much effort of conscious decision to switch from one discipline to the other,” he explained. These black and white prints from drawings are visually appealing indeed and they sort of transport you back into what Johannesburg may have looked and felt like at the time that Cohen took these images.
“There were certainly less people than they are now in Johannesburg, but in my images you will never see figures of people. It is buildings throughout,” he emphasises.

He also explained that his sense of place, such as a city is informed by the idea that buildings make a place in the city. “In other words a city exists between places.”

This exhibition in reality seems to have frozen the Johannesburg of the 1980s, and it is quite interesting to note that even as Cohen has managed to freeze the city managing to make it to standstill through these images the reality is that Johannesburg since the 1980s has undergone several metamorphosis as its demographics keep on shifting. It is actually a city in transition, always on the move always struggling to create a distinct identity for a sustained period of time.
The city is in fact on a constant migratory trajectory as people come in change its complexion for a while, but as they move on with new people coming in, it also changes its identity and profile. This is where viewing Cohen’s exhibition becomes interesting in that he has managed to create an image of city through these images that situate it in the 1980s

.City of remembered futures, is currently on at David Krut Projects Gallery 151 Jan Smust Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg.