Drive around Cape Town and if you’re paying close enough attention you’re bound to spot Faith47’s exceptionally visual and engaging graffiti on a wall somewhere. Armed with her spray cans Faith47 goes into spaces where very few dare to tread to bring her artwork and its message to the community.

Wealz130 of the YMB crew introduced her to graffiti 12 years ago and has been her mentor ever since. It gave her the opportunity to not only express herself, but also gave her a way through which to grow and become the artist she is today. She is humbled by its temporary nature and by the interaction with the environment that it provides – not only for the artwork but also for herself.

Faith47 isn’t just a graffiti artist. She is a mom whose son paints with her, an emerging name in gallery shows throughout the world and a thinker who believes that in order for people to own language it needs to be destroyed and then rebuilt. She is inspired by nature, urban environments, textures and the inherent creative and destructive nature within people and society.

In this series of films, Faith47 goes into the streets of South Africa with Rowan Pybus, as they film a series of videos exploring the stark realities of the country and the people that live within it. Through her graffiti Faith47 is able to show how her designs reflect on the surfaces she paints on while these surfaces give her art a meaning, each telling a story to those who come in contact with it.

The Cape of Good Hope tells the story of the tragic and sometimes horrific newspaper headlines that people are faced with every day. It captures the darkness while suspending the headlines in time through a visual installation in the grimy district of Gympie Street in Lower Woodstock, Cape Town. The music for this video was produced by Inge Beckmann.

the cape of good hope from rowan pybus & faith47 on Vimeo.

The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty portrays Faith47’s graffiti artworks throughout South Africa and the nuances, textures and feelings within those spaces. The music for this video was produced by Fletcher Beadon.

the restless debt of third world beauty from rowan pybus & faith47 on Vimeo.

Epitaph, the most recent in the series, explores lost spaces, not jut through graffiti but through sounds and images, finding stories in the most desolate of places. The music for this video was also produced by Inge Beckmann.

epitaph from rowan pybus & faith47 on Vimeo.