15 days, one assistant and 22 metres above the ground. Those were the factors involved in street artist Nardstar, AKA Nadia Fisher completing one of the biggest murals in South Africa, and the largest in Cape Town.
Dubbed “Ubuntu”, the mural is set in the old cement works in Philippi where the old factory acquaint the newly constructed Philippi Village.
The art is no nonchalant ‘I woke up and decided to paint a mural today’ work either, but a piece in a larger COVID-19 awareness campaign.
The Open Society Foundation for South Africa, or OSF-SA, was responsible for the idea of awareness through art.
The mural art project was focused on certain communities in the Mother City that aimed to send powerful messages in creative mediums. Tafelsig, Philippi, Lavender Hill and Langa were all chosen as creative community settings.
The focus was to learn about the various Cape Town communities, and really see their perspective on what became social issues like the pandemic.
For the Philippi community, according to Nardstar as per Street Art TV, the question “what could possibly be a positive outcome of the pandemic” had one answer. ‘Ubuntu.’
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This is why the work has the tag ‘I’m safe because you are’ at the bottom right of the tower, paying tribute to the famous Ubuntu parallel ‘I am because you are.’
“People had lost jobs and loved ones, and so the community turned toward each other,” she notes.
Nardstar was an obvious choice. She’s one of the top street artists in the country, represented all over the world from the US to Brazil. One of her other recent collars also saw her working with the sneaker brand Converse. Her bold geographic and colour-popping style draws any eye towards her artistic manifestations.
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Alongside her assistant, Bernard Greybe, the two used the mechanisms of roller paint, cans and a cherry picker to create the vision.
The entire piece was done against an even bigger canvas than the towers, namely an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, stricter third wave lockdown restrictions and the taxi violence in the Cape.
“I wanted this mural to be a constant reminder and a celebration of their fighting spirit and that, when they are faced with challenges, they choose to stand together and strengthen each other,” Nardstar expressed.
Picture:@yaltaninja
