January 25th, Street Art

 January 25th: Street Art in Salt River

Hello! We are Emma and Quinn. We had a wonderful day looking at street art in the town of Salt River which is about 10 minutes away from where we are staying. In 2017, street art started to become more prominent in this neighborhood.

We met up with our guide, Nadia, who is an active member in the community and whose passion for social issues and justice is palpable. She led us on a 2 hour tour of murals throughout the neighborhood. We saw a wide range of art spanning from marine life to support for Palestine. Nadia explained that in order to create a mural, you need a permit and special permission from the city and some of the surrounding buildings. The city can take a long time to sign off on a mural, and there has been rebellion against the notion of needing to have a permit. The photos below will display some of the amazing art we saw today.  

Our guide, Nadia, is standing in front of the “freedom fighter wall” consisting of 36 human rights heroes from around the world.

This mural is called “Man with Dreadlocks,” and it was done in 2019 by a French artist by the name of Maye. On the 14th day of working, he was told he had one day left to finish. The artist then completed this piece in 15 days. 

This mural is depicting the colorful buildings in Bo-Kaap, which we visited just a few days ago. If you look in the upper right hand corner, you can see that the artist was trying to depict a phone screen. 

This mural was done to represent the power orcas have, as they have killed a majority of the great white sharks on the coast of Cape Town.

This mural was done in 2019 with a combination of spray paint and brush work.

This mural depicts the newspaper article of Mandela’s release from prison. We found that it was an interesting artistic choice to have the artwork appear sideways.  

 

This mural depicts the advocacy by the community for environmentally friendly practices. Nadia told us that there are no litter bins in Salt River, which will hopefully change in the near future.  

This mural, by Petra Vonk, was painted in 2019 as a representation of the Archie comics.

Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American journalist who was killed while reporting on an Israeli raid in the city of Jenin on May 11, 2022. This mural is a tribute to her.

This mural was painted in 3-4 hours by a screenwriter, and it was painted before having a permit from the city.

This mural was apart of the section of the neighborhood that was dedicated to the genocide in Palestine. Our tour guide talked about the solidarity between South Africa and Palestine.

These murals were painted by children in the community. Behind the murals is the community garden which is in the process of development but has not made progress as of now. 

This is a photo of the Salt River neighborhood. Colorful buildings and beautiful scenery add to the rich history of the neighborhood. 

In this picture, we are listening to Nadia talk about the area of Salt River that has street art dedicated to Palestine. We really enjoyed what she had to say, and she was very engaging during our whole tour!

After our street art tour, we had a group lunch at a restaurant called Table Thirteen. It was delicious! We then headed back to our hotel and had a reflection session about our tour around Salt River. We had the rest of the afternoon free, and we can’t believe we only have a few days left! This tour added to our long list of fun activities in Cape Town, and we are sad to be leaving soon.