The #FeesMustFall protest changed South Africa. When the youth rise up, a tide turns. This time, it seemed to bring the bile to the throat of the country, in an impassioned outpouring of anger.
The change was recognised by acclaimed South African artist FaithXLVII, who now lives in Los Angeles and visual artist Imraan Christian, whose poignant image captured the protest.
The pair deconstructed, then pieced together the image to create a three-part series of mural-collages called 21.10.2015.
It was installed at the Magic City exhibition in Munich and Stellenbosch before arriving in Cape Town this week, where the original image was shot.
"The photograph documents a pivotal turning point - the moment when peaceful protesters reacted violently as a response to sustained police brutality. It poses the question of how we as individuals, as well as the media, become complicit in a culture of consuming violence - where it is normalised, without real investigation into the systemic causes," FaithXLVII says.
The artists, who have documented politics and social issues through their sometimes surrealist work, deconstructed the image into fingernail-sized squares, then reorganised it into a large-scale mural.
"[It] observes how specific events become part of the fabric of both personal and collective memory, and become transformed and fragmented over time," says Faith XLVII. "Sometimes we need to dissect things in order to see them from a different perspective. This process allows us to meditate on things in order to come to terms with the gravity of them."
For Christian, the image creates a conversation "that transcends our everyday limitations. Transcendence is important to me because we are a young nation that needs to heal, but also needs to be innovative and begin building our future.
"Like most of the world in these shifting times, there are several fractured understandings and opinions within our collective headspace. Most importantly, I think the youth are fed up of asking gatekeepers to assist and empower us to build our future, because the calls have mostly fallen upon deaf ears or sordid agendas," he says.
• '21.10.2015' will be included in a gallery show at the Everard Read Gallery in Cape Town this month.
