“Language as a Boundary’ is South African artist Faith47 newest mural created in Cleveland, Ohio for the Inter|Urban project.
The mural draws inspiration from ‘Language as a boundary”, a book by Nigerian post-colonial writer and Nobel prize winner Wole Soyinka.
According to Soyinka, ‘of all forms of boundaries known to man, language is one of the most persistent, insidious and tragic.’ He also adds that language is the most penetrating means of identity within a community, being itself a repository of a people’s history and culture. About the subject Faith47 adds:
Looking at language as a lived phenomenon, with its dualistic function of providing necessary self-affirmation on an individualistic and cultural level. Yet simultaneously acting as one of the key factors in embedding the separatist definition in social consciousness.
Thus further solidifying colonial boundaries and obstructing the humanist search for a common understanding.
The mural shows the image of eight herons without head, but whose interlaced necks seem connected to each other in a poetic way giving shape to rather delicate communication network.
The mural was .
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
