Body Maps of hope captured in mosaic

Body paint: Sandi Mdekazi, Sibongile Memani and Xolani Badli put together the Body Maps mosaic at the Medical School library.

The figures and life stories of three women now grace a section of the Medical School library's wall, thanks to an evocative mosaic inspired by the Body Maps Project.

The artworks, Body Maps, originally done on brown paper, were created by three women in the Bambanani (which means to support each other; to lend hands) HIV/AIDS support group, in a workshop run by Jane Solomon in Khayelitsha in 2002.

UCT's Christopher Peter, director and curator of the Irma Stern Museum, commissioned Lovell Friedman, artist and teacher, for the job. Friedman chose to recreate the Body Maps in a mosaic on a section of the library's Anzio Road-facing wall.

"The artworks were a way of telling these women's stories of courage," Friedman says. "This is a way for the public to access their stories."

Four community artists, Xolani Badli, Sibongile Memani, Mbuyiseli Somdaka and Sandi Mdekazi, carefully recreated the mosaics.