African Ginger brings Jewel City to life

Image supplied: Seth 'African Ginger' Pimentel

Our Story, the mural in Jewel City, is meant to tell a meaningful story that gets those who see it thinking about their place in life and their experiences.

Art is for everyone

Pimentel is a multi-faceted visual artist who tries to push the boundaries on conventional mediums of art. After a workshop with the Converse team, Pimentel sat with them and a few other young creatives and was given several topics to work with. These ranged from ethnicity, race, religion, gender and more social issues that touch each of our lives.

“The whole conversation of the mural is a conversation between people of different walks of life and how we can convey our individual aspects through the use of colour,” Pimentel said in an interview with Bizcommunity. “This mural, for me, is very different from my current work because it’s very bright, very colourful and very saturated. I wanted the colour to extend the idea of gender, ethnicity, race and religion.”

Image supplied: Seth 'African Ginger' Pimentel painting a mural

The mural is meant to be an experiment in transcending beyond typical symbolism. “It’s up to interpretation. I really wanted [people] to stop by and look at the mural and really engage with it,” Pimentel said.

The inspiration for the mural was born from collaboration and inclusivity. Sitting together and weaving ideas from Pimentel and the other creatives involved in the project was how the mural came to life. Pure and genuine interaction was the only way they would get to the point where they could express themselves in a way that was meaningful, according to Pimentel.

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“In a visual sense, I just wanted to stick to my visual language and my visual approach. I love portraiture work, you can convey so much emotion, meaning and humanism in portraiture,” he said. “We see portraits in everything we look at. It’s the first factor we recognise - eyes and a nose and lips.”

Collaboration is key

This is not the first time Pimentel has worked with Converse. In 2020, they came together to work on a global campaign called ‘City Forest’. This time, they wanted to work together again but get more young artists involved in creating the mural.

This was the main question - how can we collaborate with the younger generation?

Image supplied: The Our Story mural in Jewel City

“Especially with young artists, we need to put them in these spaces because you can experience so much life and gain so much knowledge, but not pass it on,” said Pimentel. “The whole premise is to pass on knowledge and pass on skills. Putting younger artists on, you are shifting the entire creative world in South Africa. You’re evolving it to the point where we need to be at.”

Nurturing the idea of creativity in South Africa doesn’t only begin with collaboration, but providing young creatives with the opportunity to learn and gain valuable experience.

Overcoming the challenges of being an artist also starts at this point; understanding how to work together and create meaningful messages starts with bringing previously unheard voices to the forefront and making art more accessible.