World stage for Shallcross artist
SHE showcased her work at art fairs around the country but this week a Shallcross woman will be fulfilling her dream when she makes her international debut in New York, at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair.
Alka Dass headed for the Big Apple on Monday after she was invited to exhibit her artwork on a global stage.
Dass, a 25-year-old Durban University of Technology art graduate, said she looked forward to rubbing shoulders with her global peers.
But choosing art as a profession initially did not go down too well with her conservative Indian family.
She had struggled to convince those closest to her that this was the right career choice.
“They were not thrilled with the idea of me studying art. That is normal. But I was set on doing it even though I faced family objections and other challenges.”
Dass said her passion for art began at an early age and that she was not attracted to anything else.
“I attended the Department of Fine Arts’ open day at DUT and subsequently enrolled as a student.”
Her artworks, she said, depict aspects of feminism. The one on exhibition is entitled Little Lolitas. In it she uses film reels partly covered with woollen jerseys to get the message across that young girls are viewed in some quarters as passive objects.
The exhibition, featuring the artworks of more than 60 artists from Africa and its diaspora, ends on Saturday and Dass, who matriculated at Holy Family College, will thereafter travel to France for three months visiting art galleries there.