Deaf arts student shows he’s not disabled
Emerging artist Raymond Fuyana shone at the RMB Turbine Art Fair this year.
The young artist from Artist Proof Studio in Newtown, Joburg, won the first prize in the Irma Stern Still Life Competition in the print section.
Still Life series are paintings or drawings of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and those contrasting with texture, such as bowls and glassware. Fuyana and other students were required to interpret Stern’s Still Life work in their own way. The works were exhibited alongside Stern’s exhibition.
The competition is a response to Stern’s work which was introduced to students during a road show to various institutions across Gauteng. The deaf student says he was excited to win. He admits that he was up against the best in this competition. “When I see the work I feel happy. I feel inspired and incredible to see my work being compared to Irma artist in the world.”
His interpretations impressed the judges and earned him R5 000 cash prize. As a painter he uses oil and canvass.
“When I was working on my interpretation, I had to understand Irma’s works.
“I know her works are inspired by her culture and Africa. I try to do the same in my own work. Irma was a great artist and I like her approach to her work.”
Born in Zimbabwe, Fuyana came to South Africa in 2009 to learn sign language. The third year student at Artist Proof Studio in Newtown started painting at the age of eight. He believes that it was art that chose him.
As a deaf person Fuyana is faced with a lot of challenges in terms of communicating with others, but he says he was lucky to meet a friend called Itumeleng Nhlapo who started learning sign language when he met Fuyana to assist him with interpreting. “I became interested in sign language, and he taught me,” Nhlapo said.
Stern was one of SA’s internationally acclaimed visual artist.