Cape Town - At first glance, the design on the shirt in the 11-storey artwork of Nelson Mandela on the windows of the city’s Civic Centre may seem like a typical Madiba shirt he made famous the world over.
But it’s a collage of Cape Town’s “most iconic” symbols including Table Mountain and District Six.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said earlier the city would honour Mandela’s legacy throughout the year.
This is one of the projects for this year, along with an exhibition honouring his life. It will be unveiled at the Civic Centre at 2pm on Sunday.
The uniquely constructed 42m-high and 17m-wide display was drawn by Linsey Levendall, a Capetonian living in Canada.
It was designed by Cape Town artists Abie Collins and Alberic Vollmer of Dreamfuel Media.
“The drawing of Mandela’s face was inspired by a photograph taken by Matthew Wilman for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The shirt containing iconic symbols associated with Cape Town, like Table Mountain and the colourful houses in District 6 is (Levendall)’s own creation,” Vollmer said.
A high definition scan was used to upscale the original artwork which was drawn on A3 art paper.
This was cut into 448 separate blocks which took a team four days to fit on to the outside of the Civic Centre’s windows.
“The entire process took us a really long time. We wanted to relate his (Mandela’s) multi-coloured presence and grace with all the colourful symbols here in Cape Town.” he said.
“We really pushed the boundaries with this piece,” he added.
Vollmer and Collins said it was ironic to see their artwork, created to celebrate Madiba’s life, on display during his hospitalisation.
The display is part of project “Cape Town Honours Nelson Mandela” managed by Ayesha Ismail Media Inc for De Lille.
Vollmer and Collins also designed the exhibition being installed in the Civic Centre.
It consists of a collection of photographs by Benny Gool and Adil Bradlow reflecting Mandela’s activities in the city.
Cape Argus