A Covid-19 awareness campaign in Philippi Village, a township in Cape Town, South Africa, brought together local artist Nardstar and the people living there to show a positive side of the pandemic.
Nardstar spent time with the community in order to paint two 20-meter-high concrete silos in the township in a way that portrays the community as a positive force during the pandemic.
“The community said that the people in the community started leaning on each other more, because they started losing their jobs and they were struggling, so they needed to help each other,” she says.
The community described it as Ubuntu, or ‘humanity towards others’.
At the bottom of the mural, she painted the phrase ’I am safe because you're safe'.
"It basically means if you get vaccinated, you’ll be safe and I’ll be safe, so let’s all get vaccinated," she says.
It took Nardstar 15 days to paint the mural with the six faces; she did not pick specific people, but a composite of the community members she met.
The three female faces, including one with a Covid-19 symbol in her earring, and three male faces, represent different age groups of Philippi Village residents, and are painted against a creamy yellow backdrop.
“It’s not anyone specific, but I wanted the people who lived in this area to be able to relate to the mural,” she says of the mural, which was part of an awareness campaign sponsored by Open Society Foundations.
Nardstar says the mural will last a lifetime.
“I specifically focused on people of color, women of color specifically, is my main focus in my murals, so I want people to see themselves being celebrated on a large scale, taking up the space,” she says.
