The sculpture was commissioned by the Arts, Culture and Heritage department of the City of Johannesburg. It was unveiled by the Mayor of the City on the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth.
The 2.5m high bronze statue depicts Gandhi as a young lawyer — aged 32 — wearing a legal gown.The plinth has wooden benches positioned around its base.
Gandhi worked as a barrister, and was subsequently convicted for pass offences, at the Johannesburg Law Courts, which were situated on the square in early Johannesburg.
Gandhi operated from offices located around the corner from the Square, at the corner of RIssik and Anderson streets.
The sculpture is one of two works in the inner city which commemorate Gandhi and the formative period that he spent in Johannesburg between 1904 and 1914 - the other being Usha Seejarim’s Gandhi Memorial in Fordsburg.
In contrast to Seejarim’s work, this work adopts a more traditional approach to art in public space. A youthful Gandhi is shown in the barristers' gown that characterised his identity during the first part of his stay in Johannesburg – prior to his renunciation of this ‘colonial’ identity and of all trappings of material wealth and station in society, associated with the latter part of his life.
The sculpture was commissioned by the Arts, Culture and Heritage department of the City of Johannesburg. It was unveiled by the Mayor of the City on the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth.
2024 © City Of Johannesburg — Arts, Culture & Heritage
