Thought provoking art that questions the roles of everyday women
|Published
Mbail Tshabalala’s – Untitled. Supplied image.
Johannesburg - When Lufuno Muthubi-Mthethwa was growing up, her mother, who was a church deacon, used to run a soup kitchen out of her own pocket
At some point, after she was informed by someone at Woolworths that, when food has been on the shelves for a while they get rid of it before it expires, she started going to Eastgate and collecting food that they were removing off the shelves to donate to church members that could not afford to buy food.
She was supported by two taxi owners who offered her free transport to pick up the food and distribute it around Diepkloof.
Witnessing this was a catalyst in inspiring Muthubi-Mthethwa to establish the nonprofit organisation FutureAzania.org as an e-venue to make a change, no matter how small.
From 19 March to 21 March, Basile Art and Projects will be hosting a group art exhibition (and panel discussion) titled Game Changing Women in collaboration with FutureAzania.org that seeks to shine the light on and celebrate unsung women heroes that are game changers in their disciplines.
“It’s very important for us to label them and to give some kind of credence and representation to those women in our everyday life,” said Muthubi-Mthethwa.
The all-black, all-female curated exhibition, was created by five renowned women artists that use different mediums to illuminate the rhetoric of women as the game-changers they are.
The exhibition will form part of the broader Human Rights Festivities at the historic venue as part of the Heritage Festival at Constitution Hill.
“Essentially, we are just wanting to celebrate normal women who are changing the world in their own world, no matter how small it is; we wanna celebrate them,” she explains. “Because when we find these kinds of exhibitions usually it’s talking about politicians or some famous artist or actors.
“We came together and we thought there aren’t a lot of female artists that are being profiled in the space. But to go a bit further, there aren’t a lot of female artists that are profiled that are doing impactful work in terms of our societal issues. So we came up with Game Changing Women to highlight this.”
While the exhibition opening and dialogue are invite-only, the public is invited to attend the exhibition and walk-about over the weekend where the artworks will be on sale with prices ranging from R1 500 to R30 000.
Parts of the proceeds will be going to the Philip Kushlick School – Special Needs School in Diepkloof Soweto to create a sustainable art space.
For those that miss out on the weekend activities, the exhibition will be housed at the Women’s Jail from 22 March to 22 April.
Muthubi-Mthethwa explained that part of what inspired this exhibition is the belief that representation is important – “And not only representation as females but as black females in our different industries.
“And black females that are normal. So for us, game changing isn’t this grandiose thing that you do that brings in millions, or that brings in notable change in the world, it’s women going about their lives.”
She went on to mention that visitors to the exhibition from 22 March to 22 April can look forward to thought-provoking art pieces that are not only great to look at, but make us question ourselves as a society if we are doing enough to change the game in our own contexts.
“They need to expect a body of work that’s going to provoke them to really stand up and think about how far have we come in this democracy and have we really changed anything, particularly for black females.”