Human rights wine collection
STUDENTS from a Durban college are flying the Kwazulu-natal flag high, creating human rights awareness through art.
The Centre for Fine Art, Animation and Design (CFAD) students each designed and drew a wine label to raise human rights awareness.
The series was commissioned by human rights activist and winemaker Feng Wei Fred Huang. He said it was designed to reflect the continued decline of human rights in the world.
“It is hoped the series will remind everyone of the value of human rights. It shows six wines, featuring the old worldstyle Zhuang Lourensford Estate (1700) and new world Zhuang Ayama (2005).”
CAFD founder Nanda Soobben said he was ecstatic about the opportunity for his students to have their work and names on a limited edition wine series. He stressed the importance of using art to advance awareness, respect and compliance with human rights principles.
“If you look at a picture and it doesn’t say anything, then it’s just superficial. Art must be a window to a bigger world. Here it was used as an innovative tool in human rights work,” he said.
Although South Africa had made commendable progress with human rights, Soobben said the country still had a long way to go. “Issues like xenophobia, where people are persecuted for fleeing abuse and oppression, mean we still need more awareness of human rights.”
Third-year fine art student, Yaraan Ragunanan, whose work was among those selected for wine labels, said it was exciting to contribute to a good cause. His artwork interrogates the right to privacy in the digital era. “I chose this subject because my privacy on social media was violated by a relative who stalked me and told my parents things I said on Facebook.
“My e-mail and Instagram accounts were hacked and my profile ransomed. The cameras represent four of the biggest online social franchises and how they monitor everything we do, which is an indirect violation to our privacy, without us knowing about it.”
Aaliyah Amod’s work interrogated love as a glue binding family through ups and downs.
Fine art lecturer Tamlyn Martin said the project gave young people an opportunity to reflect on what human rights meant to them.
“Human rights have to be constantly reinvented by the youth. Twenty years ago, the right to privacy could have meant going into someone’s house uninvited. To this generation it may mean not spying on them online,” she said.
“Through this project, students are the custodians of the definition of human rights. It’s important that they interpret what it means to them in this day and age,” said Martin.
The launch will be at Lourensford wine cellar on March 30.