Art As Therapy
By
Robin Opperman, Director - Umcebo Trust
I write as Director of the Umcebo Trust and as someone who has worked tirelessly in the field of HIV/AIDS, therapeutic artforms and development. The Umcebo Arts and Crafts Trust aims to create an inclusive environment where skills-sharing and learning are facilitated. For more information on the Umcebo Trust, click
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Sun Banner by the Umcebo Trust. Photograph by the Umcebo Trust
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here. One of the most important components of the Trust's work is the integration of HIV/AIDS as a theme and those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS into the programme, thereby using Art as Therapy to overcome the obstacles presented by HIV/AIDS.
Within its artwork programme, the Umcebo Trust creates banners. Essentially, these are large bull denim canvasses, which are adorned with a variety of bought and found materials, and combined with wire and beadwork. These banners or wall-hangings, outline and express important issues in the creators' lives. These banners represent every artist who has been involved in the creation and enables them to challenge the traditional notions of art. By combining principles of recycling (most of our materials are regarded as waste material) and a communitarian ethic, we have created unique and popular artworks. So popular that many of them now hang in some of the most prestigious corporate and private collections in the world.
The banners enable us to collect people's everyday experiences and record them in unique art documents. With HIV/AIDS being so prevalent across all of our lives, it was inevitable that it began to show in the works we produce.
The need to integrate HIV/AIDS into our work made us think - we needed a fresh approach to the issue. Not for us the doom and gloom imagery - we wanted to make a positive contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS through our artworks. HIV/AIDS presented us with an opportunity to truly celebrate life through our work - tackling this issue did not limit us, as we initially feared, but actually freed us. We need to overcome our fear in order to fully take on this mammoth issue.
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HIV/AIDS Banner by the Umcebo Trust. Photograph by the Umcebo Trust
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The creation of banners centred on HIV/AIDS has provided us with some of our most exciting and challenging art pieces - both for the creators, and the audiences who viewed them. The Trust is often commissioned to create banners around specific issues, such as the banner we created on commission from Art for Humanity. We enjoyed this commission, and essentially this was the start of our approach to the issue of exploring HIV/AIDS. Essentially, Art for Humanity allowed us to tackle the issues of and related to HIV/AIDS however we saw fit. It is this creative freedom, we believe, that is a crucial key to dealing with the effects of the epidemic.
The banners also provide for personal release, and have proven to be a great therapeutic exercise for their creators. Participants come away feeling empowered, stronger and freed from negative energy. The banners also help us to understand each other - they are a simple expression of our daily lives and, through their creation, we can begin to understand each other, specifically in light of HIV/AIDS.
Despite pressures from prospective funders, we do not want to be exclusive and work only with those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and neither do we want to limit ourselves in terms of subject matter. Hence, we focus on as many social issues as we can, and cater for all, not just a specific target group.
We find our work has united people, empowered people and led them to a path of acceptance. Acceptance of difficulty, which leads to overcoming life's myriad of hurdles. Art as therapy can be a groundbreaking tool in the sphere of HIV/AIDS.
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