MBDA calls for public views on Leap of Faith artwork

Four years after Port Elizabeth artist Duncan Stewart submitted his Leap of Faith public art project, the Mandela Bay Development Agency has asked the public to give their views on the artwork.

Stewart’s awe-inspiring artwork for the Baakens Street traffic circle and the unfinished freeway right above it was a design concept of massive concrete hands in the traffic circle below, “catching” a group of children as they backflip, jump and leap for joy off the unfinished freeway.

The MBDA said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that; “the Leap of Faith public art project was submitted to the MBDA by Duncan Stewart Fine Art as part of a competition in 2015.

“The concept behind the sculpture is to communicate (in a profound way) both the courage required to leap, by faith, into the future, and also the confidence that the city can provide a strong, stable foundation necessary for others to succeed!

“This piece places value on creativity, children, courage, community and collaboration.

We love the piece and would like to get your views on the idea.”

MBDA spokesperson Luvuyo Bangazi said the agency wanted the public’s view on the matter as it usually did with most of its projects.

'We want to know what people think, in line with everything else that we do, we want the public's opinion on this artwork,” Bangazi said.

Earlier this year Bangazi said the project had been scrapped following, among other issues, environmental impact studies that had found the artwork could cause accidents.