Yma O Hyd (Still Here): Ayla and the Jogja Disability Arts Murals
When disabled teenager Ayla Halewood first saw herself depicted on a mural, she thought she looked like a god. She has now appeared on nearly all of the ten collaborative artworks led by British artist Andy Bolton (of Community Murals CIC) and Jogja Disability Arts (who are based in Indonesia). Ayla died from cancer halfway through the project, shortly before her eighteenth birthday. Andy explains that the latest murals – currently on display on hoardings opposite Walliscote School, Walliscote Road, in Weston-super-Mare, complementing the recent Weston Wallz event in the town – became an act of memorialisation, a celebration of Ayla’s strength and all the ways that she is ‘still here’.
The project began in 2020, when Jogja Disability Arts contacted Andy to ask if he would be interested in joining forces to produce some murals celebrating disability pride. Andy is passionate about collaborating with disabled people on work which centres their ideas and experiences, but wondered how he would complete the project with the world in lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. When he told his family bubble that he was unsure how to find and photograph a model, Ayla (who was adjusting to a new prosthetic leg) joked: ‘I’m disabled. It could be me’. Andy replied: ‘It actually could be. Do you want to do it?’
So, the two began working together. Andy observes that ‘it was quite a long process of getting her to feel comfortable’, but she eventually found ‘an expression that suggested confidence and certainty’. He took a series of photographs to create a composite image; adorned her dress with pictures drawn by young people with disabilities; and printed her onto metal many times life-size. The ‘huge’ Ayla mural captured ‘the strength of disabled people’ and was displayed on the streets of Cardiff and on the island of Java in Indonesia.
Andy applied for more funding and continued to work with Jogja Disability Arts. They contacted artists on different Indonesian islands to showcase the huge range of cultures across the country. Many of these murals draw on traditional patterns, including Indonesian batik and Welsh blankets. The international collaboration united ‘totally different visual cultures’, expanding ideas of what street art could be while fostering a ‘strong sense of togetherness and solidarity when you’re working together’. Ayla became a recurring motif, with nearly every mural featuring her silhouette or her face.
When Ayla died, she remained at the heart of the project. Her family joined the international team painting the murals in October and November 2023, and her uncle played music for the exhibition opening. As Andy explains, ‘the depth of all the artists’ involvement with Ayla and her family has given a lot of integrity to the work’. Ayla had always wanted to travel, and her mum is ‘delighted that she is now popping up on the other side of the world’. The Ayla murals are a wonderful example of the ways that making art with and about someone who has died can help us commemorate and connect with them. As Jane Harris and Jimmy Edmonds write in When Words Are Not Enough: Creative Responses to Grief (2022), ‘the process of creating new images and stories that belong in the “now”’ sometimes has the effect of ‘liberating memories from the past and rejuvenating them in ways that they become embedded in our lives today’ (p. 119).
One of the most recent murals features an image of Ayla’s face taken a few months before she died, wearing one of the Welsh football supporters’ hats which have the phrase Yma O Hyd on the back. Yma O Hyd roughly translates as ‘still here’, but also holds the sense ‘here to stay’. ‘She’s right in a way that she looks like a god’, says Andy, ‘There’s something. She’s strong; she was always strong’.
The murals will be on display in Weston until early next year. Why not visit them during Good Grief Weston?
For more information about Andy’s collaboration with Jogja Disability Arts, visit his website: https://www.communitymurals.org.uk/project-04
The lead photo shows Ayla standing next to the first mural in Cardiff that featured her.