Once upon a time, Robben Island wire meant imprisonment. Today it means freedom. In a deliberate twist of irony, the scrapped Robben Island fences were imagined as a story to help South Africa learn from the past. With the commissioned help of struggle artist Willie Bester, the ugliness or Robben Island wire got transformed into a 13-metre-high Tree sculpture. Shares in the tree, offered to South African people and enterprise, will raise funds to educate children locked out by the system. The story gives ordinary people and organisations a way to acknowledge the broken fences of the past. And a way to mend them for a better future.
“ This innovative narrative strategy turned scrap metal into a living thing. Now money does grow on trees ”
Dave Liddell
Trustee