From the beginning, a challenge was to make a work on the fence with its looming barbed wire outside the Community Centre opposite from Greatmore Studios in Greatmore Street, Woodstock, Cape Town. It seemed so immediately to call for attention. The intention is to reflect what a trauma it must have been for the people to be ripped from the cohesive community of District 6; the barbarity and indignity of the Apartheid years and the need to find a way to cleanse the past as much as is possible and move on into what one can only hope are greater opportunities. The barbed wire with vermillion and crimson, blood-like tape represents the past and the pain of the past reaching down into the present, over which one puts bandages in an attempt to heal. The central vermillion (a scarf) is a W for wound, or Woodstock.

The boards with digitally transferred images (thanks to Lea Bult for the technique) depict Greatmore Street as it is today but aged by varnish and the effect of the bamboo (for strength and adaptability) showing through. The three images together represent that moment when the present becomes the past in which we may become locked (locks), unless we make choices (footsteps) so that we can choose to heal. For me, this goes beyond Greatmore Street itself. The Woodstock coat of arms below the footsteps reflects the pride and dignity that people are beginning to invest in the area.