An Arresting Portrayal: Marco Cianfanelli's Release at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site

On August 4, 2012, an extraordinary monument was unveiled on the rural outskirts of the small town of Howick in the Midlands of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa (Fig. 1). Comprising fifty discrete black steel components, each between 6.5 and 9.5 meters tall, Marco Cianfanelli's Release is approached via a paved pathway set between two embankments. While it is initially unclear what the sculpture may represent, this changes as one proceeds down the pathway. When the viewer arrives at a spot some 35 meters in front of the sculpture, the work reveals clearly an image of Nelson Mandela's face in profile, looking towards the west, the side where the sun sets (Fig. 2, Cover). Then, as the viewer moves closer to the structure, the illusion disappears, and it becomes evident that the sculpture is in fact made up of a series of wholly abstract steel...