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Bead art book gets positive on HIV/AIDS
Jeanne Viall. 06 November 2003. Cape Argus. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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It's an art book with a positive HIV message, featuring colourful beaded art made by unemployed Khayelitsha women. Add a CD, made by the same women and a Norwegian group, and you have a multi-media creative collaboration that's a feast for the senses.
Called Positively HIV, it was launched last night at the V&A Waterfront, and is a visual take on HIV/AIDS in the southern African region, with a strong educational element. No overwhelming statistics here - the message is one of love, hope and playfulness rather than doom and gloom.
Positively HIV aims to educate youth in an entertaining and non-confrontational way, as well as expose the creative opportunities offered by bead art. It's a collaboration of the Monkeybiz Bead Project, the Norwegian government's Agency for Development and Isandi, a Norwegian arts and crafts distribution company.
Monkeybiz, is a non-profit beading collective well-known for creating one-off images, dolls, animals and bags. Since its inception four years ago 250 Khayelitsha women have joined the collective, many of them the sole breadwinners in their households. They make about 1 000 items for Monkeybiz every month.
Monkeybiz has won acclaim at exhibitions worldwide, including Sotheby's in London. Each item featured in the book has been made specially for this publication.Positively HIV targets people aged 15 to 24 and anyone who enjoys bright visual images.
"We feel the book creates an artistic and cultural bridge," said creative director Dion Viljoen. "Each design tells part of a story - it's not just more abstract words about HIV/AIDS saying 'Don't do this' or 'Do that', words and facts that people can't really identify with."
The book is in English and Xhosa. Sotho, Zulu and Afrikaans versions are planned and 5 000 copies will be distributed at schools and universities in the Western Cape.
A special edition is accompanied by a five-track CD entitled Statements, featuring narratives by Monkeybiz artists mixed into Afrobeat tracks by Norwegian group SaS.
The music echoes a community's experience of HIV/AIDS, from the opening track, Wazula Umahambi Etheni, describing an older woman watching a young woman growing thinner and thinner, to the closing hymn Come Down, entreating "the Lord to come down again".
The tracks have a jazz and kwaito influence fused with traditional African rhythms.
Monkeybiz was initiated by well-known ceramic artists Barbara Jackson and Shirley Fintz four years ago when they were approached by Mataphelo Ngaka, a young woman who worked part-time in Jackson's ceramic studio, with some beaded bracelets that her mother had made.
The company backs up its HIV/AIDS education efforts with counselling and has a wellness clinic where a Lifeline counsellor attends to the bead-artists every two weeks. |
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