‘Mandela’ sunglasses draw criticism

The giant pair of Ray Ban-branded sunglasses on Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town honouring former president Nelson Mandela has drawn criticism.

The sculpture is perceived as advertising, not art, and a violation of Mandela’s memory. It has emerged that the link to Mandela came after the artwork was conceptualised.

Rebecca Hodes wrote in the Daily Maverick: “Disguised as a tribute to Nelson Mandela, this hulking pile of plastic and metal shaped as a pair of Ray-Ban wayfarers is corporate advertising masquerading as public art.”

The massive sculpture, called ‘Perceiving Freedom’, is positioned on green lawns facing Robben Island. The sculptor, Michael Elion, won this position for his artwork when he submitted a design to Art 54. Through the programme, artists were invited to make submissions, a selection process then followed, and some artworks were chosen to be installed.

Elion said the project was originally about perception and the sculpture was going to be on Camps Bay beach. The lenses were originally conceived to be mirrors where people could see their reflection. This would allude to the disparity between how people view the world and how the world views them.

“We would have needed to get an environmental impact assessment done if it was going to be on Camps Bay beach. We couldn’t do that so they offered me another site on the Sea Point promenade. I had already secured funding by Ray Ban early on before it became a project about Robben Island and Mandela,” he told Tourism Update.

Elion says that it was only after the orientation of the glasses had moved and he was shown a picture of Mandela wearing similarly shaped glasses that he scrapped the mirror lenses. According to him, the clear lenses represent the invisible barriers and prejudices that people have in their own perception.

According to Elion, no one commissioned the sculpture and he had received sponsorship for it, Ray Ban being one of his sponsors. However, the installation has cost Cape Town tax payers R200 000.

Councillor Garreth Bloor, Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development at the City of Cape Town told Tourism Update: “The ward paid R170 000 towards the broader project [Art 54] and the Arts and Culture Department gave R30 000, and is using the project as a pilot to improve its public art management framework.”

Bloor added: “Artists all fund-raised additionally and more than R2 million has been raised from the private sector for works. This is a temporary art project, with works up for no longer than six months.”

When asked what the reasoning behind the artwork and its connection to Mandela was, Bloor said that when the artist approached Art54 no mention was made of a commercial sponsor or a link with Nelson Mandela. “Approval was granted for his initial concept. It is only subsequent to the installation being erected that a link was made by the artist between his piece, Ray Ban sunglasses and Nelson Mandela.”

To gain approval for such a display, Elion said there were a number of departments it had to go through before it was granted and that everything was “done by the book.”

The City is investigating whether the Perceiving Freedom artwork is in contravention of any by-laws.

Source: Tourism Update