A new wall in Hout Bay, Cape Town, and part of a larger initiative to raise global environmental awareness in the lead up to COP26.

‘The Choice’ serves to highlight the duality inherent in the decisions we face when it comes to plastic, waste and sustainability, both as individuals and as part of a community.

Two penguins mirror each other. One represents humanity’s uninformed choices, (or simply the lack of options) when it comes to consumption and then waste management. The other, striving to meet its fellow, symbolises harmony, sustainability, and potential for the survival and health of the other.

In a more spiritual sense, Penguin is a powerful symbol of togetherness and adaptability. In order to become effective stewards of the natural environment, we need to work together in order to be successful. Hout Bay, where this mural is located, is a place of this potential in this sense. Despite facing challenges, there is still such a strong desire to move forward together in support of each other. A vegetable garden will be grown in the earth at the base of this piece (we’ve ceremoniously dubbed it ‘The Penguin Patch’), and the goodies grown therein will be available for anyone to harvest.

BIG thank you to Greenpop and Baz Art for all of your hard work and for commissioning me for this project, as well as the wonderful community members of Hout Bay who I got to know across my couple of weeks at this wall.