An unconventional monument to mark the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela has animated one of Joburg’s oldest streets. And it’s all the work of two international artists and 98 children.
Created out of the vertical bars of the palisade fencing of St James Preparatory School in Belgravia, the sudden piece of public art was designed and created by Usha Seejarim and Jonathan Freemantle. The children were the pupils of St James, a small private school.
Although Seejarim, who was born in Johannesburg, has had a number of successful solo exhibitions, she is particularly renowned for her large-scale, community-based public artworks.
These include the figures representing articles from the Freedom Charter which have drawn global attention to Kliptown, Soweto, and the façade of the South African Chancery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Freemantle, a South African, undertook a five-year apprenticeship in drawing, painting, sculpture and geometry in London. He has shown his work in that city as well as in Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Johannesburg and Cape Town and is represented in collections worldwide including the private collection of Prince Charles. Also a curator, academic and author, Freemantle was co-founder of the HAZARD gallery in Maboneng.
The fence surrounding St James Preparatory Primary School has been painted with a quote from Nelson Mandela and a view of his home town of Qunu, Eastern Cape. Picture: Simphiwe Mbokazi/African News Agency (ANA)
Seejarim and Freemantle have children at St James, a primary school which has gained a reputation for its memorable Mandela Week events. Since 2013, its programme has featured speakers and panellists from across the political and socio-economic spectrum.
This year, its guests included presidential investment envoy Trevor Manuel and former Alexander Forbes group chief executive Edward Kieswetter. Previous years have seen SECTION27 director Mark Heywood, former cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils and activists Naledi Chirwa and Zaakirah Vadi address the parents and children.
But it is not only words which have distinguished the school’s emphasis on Mandela’s legacy. So too its service to its community and its growing body of Mandela-inspired art.
Seejarim initiated the process of making art to reflect Mandela’s ideas when she embarked on an ambitious mosaic involving every pupil at St James in 2013.
St James Preparatory Primary School pupils work on the project
A remarkable artwork, it is a permanent fixture in the school’s dining room, where the children have daily vegetarian lunches.
Featuring Mandela’s face looking into that of a child, it included hundreds of coloured pieces of paper which the children cut out and used in her design.
The school’s new public artwork came to life over two weeks and can now be seen running along the fence both north and south - depending on which side you are walking or driving - on Marshall Street, between Berg and Grace.
As you look south, you read Mandela’s words: “The anchor of all my dreams is the collective wisdom of mankind as a whole.”
As you look north, you see the landscape of Qunu gently coming to life across the lines of the fence.
Seejarim and Freemantle - who have collaborated in the past - were inspired in part by artist Marco Cianfanelli and architect Jeremy Rose’s magnificent exhibition at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site on the R103 in Howick, kwaZulu-Natal, That sculpture comprises 50 steel columns which, when viewed from the right angle, bring to life a portrait of Mandela.