Think back to the best holiday of your life. Would you rather give away the money that experience cost you … or only forfeit all your memories from the same holiday?
Chances are almost 100% in favor of you keeping your memories.
How could we predict your answer?
In 2003 two psychologists, Tom Gilovich and Leaf Van Boven, made the scientific discovery that the secret to human happiness resided in our buying experiences rather than material goods.
We didn’t know this, and we cannot claim a scientific approach to travel. We simply love it and wherever we ran Safaris, throughout the world, our Travel Designers always happen to be hunting for experiences that would bring a destination into focus for our guests. Because we instinctively understand that; even though it is possible to do what everyone else does and skim along the surface quite happily,
many of our discerning travelers want to get under the skin of a city when they travel.
So, we make that happen. And our travelers are ecstatic and now we know it is a happy accident of science.
Take the graffiti experience you can have with legendary graffiti artist Mak1one in Cape Town.
Urban and street art has creeped onto the scene throughout the Cape peninsula and if you look you will find an explosion of cultural expression on walls, in doorways and under bridges.
Ordinary spaces now speak for the people of the city and to the people of the city. Defiance and revolt can still be found but time has honed the messages into sharply crafted dispatches of political and social significance.
Mak1one believes teaching is part of every artist’s work. On this tour of Cape Town’s underground graffiti scene his guests become his students and they learn of the various creative styles and processes, the political history of his country.
On this tour travelers are given the gift of a private insight into what it means to have been born into a family of artists as Mak1one was and raised in Mitchell’s Plain in the 1970’s. A world where finding food on the table was never a given. Where every person you knew lived with poverty and choices belonged to another universe.
Maybe you will be able to see the art from a completely new perspective as you follow along on the journey of discovery of this expressive medium. You might be able to imagine a young boy who saw drawings on walls and started sketching and then selling those sketches to his primary school classmates.
Then he acquired his first can of electric blue spray and he drew a meter-high spear-carrying Zulu skater on a wall in Beaconvale… and the future was born. His almost accidental discovery of his talent led to him painting a backdrop for a West Side Story production at Aloe High in Lentegeur and eventually he would have exhibitions and then was part of a crew of artists.
Mak1one had found his liberation as a kid from Mitchell’s Plain. He was able, not only to express himself, but also to have his thoughts heard by the greater community.
Today his biggest inspiration remains nature… but he also leads these tours, introducing people to his world, so that he can experience the world through the eyes of his guests. And draw inspiration from the world at large.
“I have become more conscious about the impact that artwork can have on an area, community which motivated me to focus my work in South Africa. There is an amazing wealth of artists who learnt their trade in this country, but not many who teach.”
With freelance graffiti work the projects never stop and Mak1one can fall in love with the pieces he paints over and over again. Graffiti is a living art form and he wants to keep the conversation going from generation to generation.
He has been active on the graffiti scene since early 1989. He is entirely self-taught and has worked extensively as a mural artist in South Africa and abroad. Experienced in 3D chalking 3d wall installations and painting with light he has collaborated on mural projects in Greece Germany, Belgium and the US. His cutting-edge concepts and ideas about the potential of graffiti has garnered him high profile clients including the City of Cape Town, Fifa, Adidas, H-Factor, Red Bull, VISI and a local Boutique Art Hotel.
His work can be found all over Cape Town, on Long Street in the CBD in District 6 and trendy Woodstock
Today Mak1one works hard to emphasize the power of graffiti’s positive impact on disadvantaged communities and individuals. Especially the youth. At a time in your life when it is tempting to surrender to dark thoughts uplifting messages in areas plagued by poverty, social injustice and limited access to information can mean all the difference.
The experience speaks to Mak1one’s belief that street art crosses all boundaries. Countries and continents and strangers can connect through this form of expression. And on this tour that is exactly what you will do. As you move through Mak1one’s world you will be guided all the way from history to the contemporary social world. Where the varied creative styles and processes are now celebrated.
You won’t look at Cape Town the same every again.
You won’t look at your home town or any other town again the same way.
Graffiti won’t be the same.
And you will emerge a little changed.
It really is all the best things travel can possibly offer, in one experience.
PS:
We ask him what the protocol is for photographing graffiti.
It is important, he says, as long as the images are taken with respectful intent.
And where does his artist name come from?
An amalgamation of his birth name and a nickname give to him by his paternal grandfather.