The project was a community initiative aimed to uplift and improve the existing building of the CAPE TOWN DISTRICT ASSOCIATION FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED. Spearheaded by the Afrika Burn collective, the project was project managed by Karen Stewart (The Ah HA Company), as part of the Streetopia Legacy Street Festival. The benefactors of the project were Afrika Burn and OBSID. Their funding contribution was the foundation for the support of the project.
The upliftment of the building was seen as a way to improve the overall environment of Observatory, and to include various community members in the process.
Architect and artist Lorenzo Nassimbeni was enlisted to design and implement the mural. A decision was made with Karen Stewart to work with the Mary Kihn School For The Deaf in Observatory and to conduct an art workshop with the students of the school. As such, the community of Observatory was engaged. The staff of the Mary Kihn School were closely involved in the process of the workshop. Much was learned and gained by all participants. The workshop produced fantastic artworks and experiences, and was seen as the most important part of the project, with the actual mural being a representative physical manifestation of it. The mural is a marker for this wonderful workshop experience.
Lorenzo Nassimbeni in collaboration with project facilitator Thandile Giyama worked with students of the Mary Kihn School For The Deaf in the workshop process. The workshop was designed to generate artwork material which would form the basis of the mural design. Students were taken into the Observatory neighbourhood to draw typical buildings. These drawings were translated into shapes, which Nassimbeni in turn translated into the mural design. As such, the students took ownership of the mural, which they essentially had directly worked on. The students were brought in to visit the process of painting the mural, so that they could see the result of their participation.
Further to this, members of the CTDAHI were included in the process through a presnetation of the process of the project. Hosted by Karen Stewart, CTDAHI members and Afrika Burn representatives saw a presentation by Thandile Giyama.
Motebang of KIEF COLLECTIVE was involved in the implementation process, as he had worked in the context of Observatory as an artist before.
Thandile Giyama, Simon Chinoda and Motebang Masitha worked with Lorenzo Nassimbeni in the implementation of the mural.
Artist Ralph Borland, who has created public artworks in Observatory before, was enlisted to create 2 illuminated artworks which would for a related part of the mural. He worked collaboratively with Lorenzo Nassimbeni.
Client :
Afrika Burn Streetopia Legacy and CTDAHI (Cape Town District Association for the Hearing Impaired)
Project Manager :
Karen Stewart (The Ah HA Company )
Artists :
Lorenzo Nassimbeni (mural) and Ralph Borland (illuminated artworks)
Project facilitator:
Thandile Giyama
Project custodians:
OBSID (Observatory Improvement District) and Mary Kihn School
Mural implementation:
Simon Chinoda
Motebang Masitha