Fire Walker, Steel sculpture at Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Fire Walker is a steel sculpture at Queen Elizabeth Bridge that depicts a woman with a brazier, constructed from scattered steel pieces. The 10-meter-high figure sits at the corner of Sauer and Simmonds Street and is reachable by multiple public transportation options.
The sculpture was created by William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx as a memorial to women who once carried braziers through Johannesburg streets to sell cooking fires. This monument honors an important economic activity from the city's past.
The fragmented steel pieces show a woman whose form hovers between dissolution and reassembly depending on your viewpoint. This image speaks to the transformations within the city's urban life.
The sculpture stands at the corner of Sauer and Simmonds Street and is easy to reach by public transportation. Best access is from Queen Elizabeth Bridge, where several bus stops and taxi ranks are nearby.
From different vantage points, the female figure appears to shift and move in ways that seem to defy stillness. The artists achieve this optical effect through carefully dispersed steel pieces that overlap and separate depending on where you stand.
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