Mosaic Artwork

ONE of the few pieces of public art in Observatory is almost hidden as a bus stop shelter outside the University of Cape Town’s medical library in Anzio Road, but once it catches your eye, it is as striking as the story behind it.
The mosaic mural called “Long Life” originated in 2002, when HIV positive women produced “body maps” on which they depicted their feelings and stories of living with HIV.
They were part of a support group called Bambanani (Xhosa for “hold” or “support each other”) in Khayelitsha. The members traced the outlines of their bodies on large pieces of paper.
On these figures, the women drew and wrote about aspects of their life with HIV.
The idea was to help them to come to terms with it, and to help free them from the stigma of the disease and feelings of guilt and shame that went with it.
It was at a time when HIV was highly politicised and was just emerging from its stigma as a death sentence to be seen increasingly as a treatable chronic disease.
The body maps produced in the workshops became quite well known and were exhibited as far away as New York.
In 2006, the University of Cape Town’s Works of Art Committee commissioned ceramicist and mosaic artist Lovell Friedman to turn it into a mural on the once-drab wall of the medical library.
The mural, consisting of three of the body maps, tells a remarkable story of healing and hope.