The Johannesburg Development Agency asked me to make work for a community hall in Bram Fischerville, a neighborhood in Soweto named after human rights activist Bram Fischer. He was the defense attorney for Nelson Mandela and saved Mandela from the death penalty. Later, Fischer himself was sentenced to a long imprisonment and died because of poor medical treatment he received in jail.
I designed a five-circle mural series and a large tondo (round painting) because the windows in the hall are circular. Each circle represents one aspect of his personality, and I chose five and the bright red background to echo the 5-pointed star of the Communist Party, of which he was a founding and prominent member, back when it was a powerful force in anti-apartheid activism.
Then, on the display wall at ground level, I wrote a bio of Bram Fischer and had it letter-stencilled onto a big sheet of Plexiglass, and hung that on the wall. Next to it, I cut out a thick piece of chipboard Supawood and painted a head and shoulders portrait of Fischer there.
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