@titaniumphotographyanddesign
After plenty of excitement and just over a week of plastering, priming and painting, graphic designer and artist Matthew Kearns (aka Lucky Friday) unveiled his latest project to the public – a six-metre-wide mural of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Hermanus Waterfront in South Africa.
Kearns, who is originally from New Zealand and now living in Hermanus, got the idea for the mural from a conversation he had with local resident Lynn Hardbattle, who suggested painting the Archbishop on the bus stop shelters between Hermanus and Hawston.
A short while after completing the design for the bus stops, Kearns blew a tyre near Peregrine Farm Stall, where he was forced to stop, and ran into a group from the Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Programme (of which Tutu was the patron) while getting a much-needed cup of coffee. The group, led by Director Rev Edwin Arrison, was on their way back to Hermanus after visiting the Desmond Tutu exhibition in Cape Town.
Kearns was given a flyer from the exhibition from one of the young men in the group and struck up a conversation with Rev Arrison, mentioning the bus stop design he had just completed of Tutu. The reverend immediately loved the idea and suggested that Kearns instead do a prominent mural of the Archbishop in the Hermanus CBD.
Feeling inspired, Kearns approached the Desmond Tutu Foundation with the design, which was welcomed and approved by the board. He quickly set about finding a prominent wall to paint in Hermanus, as well as sponsors for paint, and someone to assist him with the piece.
In just a few days, everything came together. Hermanus Waterfront offered him a space, sponsors came forward for paint, and Rev Arrison introduced him to local artist Lutho Nyatela – who turned out to be the same young man who had given him the flyer at Peregrine Farm Stall!
Kearns and Nyatela began sketching out the design after priming the wall on 13 March. During the five days they were painting, Kearns received a lot of support from excited passers-by, who stopped to take photos.
By 18 March, the last details were completed and ‘The Arch’ became a permanent feature of the Hermanus landscape.
In the mural, Tutu’s face is painted alongside one of his well-known sayings: “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah moved to Hermanus in 2017 to properly retire from public life. In 2021, at the age of 90, he passed away peacefully in Cape Town. Thanks to Kearns’ mural, Tutu will continue to live on in Hermanus.
