Stitching history into art
Iconic Eastern Cape tapestries under one roof
A powerful exhibition encompassing iconic tapestries created by artists at Hamburg’s award-winning Keiskamma Art Project over 20 years opens on Saturday at Constitution Hill to mark Heritage Day.
Themes explored by the textile artworks sewn by Eastern Cape artists in the coastal hamlet include the preservation of the natural environment, archiving Eastern Cape culture and heritage and the sharing of the collective pain of marginalised communities.
The Keiskamma Art Project’s embroidered artworks — one of which hung in the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s prayer room — are found in several national and international collections.
It took three weeks to install the groundbreaking exhibition which features the famous 120 metre-long Keiskamma Tapestry which was plucked to safety from the fireravaged parliament buildings, the majestic Keiskamma Altarpiece as well as 13 other artworks which have been shipped from their homes from all over SA to be seen together for the first time.
It is also the first time the Women’s Charter Tapestries, completed in 2016, are being revealed to the public.
The retrospective is also the first time the public will be able to view the newly-completed Covid Resilience Tapestry, a personal and communal record of an extraordinary period in South African and global history.
“We were thrilled when Constitution Hill offered to provide the space for the exhibition, since it is a living museum and a significant historical site,” says co-curator Cathy Stanley, former marketing, product development and client commission liaison officer at the Keiskamma Arts Project (KAP).
“This exhibition is just the starting point, we would love for the exhibition to travel globally, putting KAP on the global art map.”
Stanley, herself an artist who manipulates coloured handmade paper pieces into images, is a long-time family friend of Keiskamma Arts Project founder Dr Carol Hofmeyr and worked for KAP for eight years.
To show so many tapestries under one roof, she and fellow curators Pippa Hetherington and Azu Nwagbogu arranged for pieces to be transported from lenders to Johannesburg. “We are grateful to them and to our sponsor for shipping and insurance, Hollard.
“Some of the pieces comprise many panels. On show is the Democracy Tapestry, The Keiskamma Tapestry, the first time ever seen in public — 12 Women’s Charter Tapestries, the huge Keiskamma Altarpiece, the Rose Altarpiece, The Marriage of Nolulama and Luthando Altarpiece, the Creation Altarpiece, artworks from KAP’s first Vuselela exhibition, the Keiskamma Guernica, the Covid Resilience Tapestry, A New Earth, Botanicals, the Intsikizi Tapestries, the Biko Tapestry, visuals of South African Trees in Time and Our Sacred Ocean Tapestry.”
The monumental exhibition is the brainchild of photographer Hetherington who, while studying for her masters in fine art abroad, was inspired by international galleries and artists to exhibit KAP’s major iconic pieces in one space. “She brought the idea back home and got me interested and keen to become involved as well. Pippa has certainly driven this enormous bus with passion enthusiasm and sheer dogged perseverance.”
Entitled Umaf’ evuka, nje ngenyanga (Dying and rising), as the moon does, the name for this exhibition is derived from a work on exhibit called A New Earth, by KAP founder Hofmeyr.
“It is based on Bruegel’s Rebel of the Fallen Angels where Lucifer and the rebel angels are thrown out of heaven by Archangel Michael.
“Breugel was influenced by exploration and the curiosities of that time — 1562 — that explorers were bringing back. Nowadays with global warming and the increased extinction of many species, we need to realise how vulnerable and fragile the natural world is. Carol inverted Breugel’s composition and it depicts a resurrection of all creation.”
One of the most esteemed pieces is the
Bayeux Tapestry-inspired Keiskamma Tapestry, not only because it is 120m long and depicts Xhosa history spanning 150 years, but also because it remarkably escaped being consumed by flames in the January blaze where it hung in parliament.
“We could so easily have lost this iconic artwork,” Stanley says. “It was thanks to levelheaded, clear thinking by arts administrator Robin Kirsten and his team from parliament, that it is safe and being exhibited and available for all to (respectfully) see. No touching!”
Describing the exhibition as a must-see, Stanley says: “It is so powerful, intense, moving and humbling. It will be the first time that all these iconic artworks can be viewed together, in one venue! It is a remarkable, poignant, ‘real feel’ of this resilient, fragile community. The scale of these monumental artworks compacted together, in this historically significant setting, is almost overwhelming. One needs to breathe and hear these voices singing, weeping, shouting, light candles and sit quietly in a dark room and share the burden. A true death and resurrection reflection of the title, dying and rising as the moon does.”
That the exhibition, which runs until March 24, is featuring 15 of KAP’s 18 tapestries is remarkable, but even those which cannot physically be there because they are site specific — the SA Trees in Time tapestry at the Murray & Roberts HQ in Bedfordview and Threads that Make up a Car at Mercedes-Benz HQ in East London, and the Sacred Ocean which is on show at Zero Gallery in Cape Town — will be featured in the form of slide shows and videos.
Since this year marks 25 years since democracy and the constitution came into effect, Constitutional Hill was an apt venue.
Keiskamma Art Project production manager Cebo Mvubu and Siya Maswana, one of KAP’s original artists and the lead artist of the Covid Resilience Tapestry travelled to Johannesburg to help install the larger works, having constructed and deconstructed the Altarpiece multiple times.
Hamburg artists were also consulted for guidance.
Building to-scale models, shipping precious art tapestries and hanging them professionally is not easy on the pocket, but the Keiskamma Arts Project has become recognised for the gem that it is by an impressive list of SA’s big business players who sponsor expenses so that the public can see the talent that emanates from the Eastern Cape.
As KAP’s first official sponsor, East London’s Johnny Goldberg, CEO of Global Business Solutions says: “The Keiskamma Project is one of a kind and an example of what we can do in SA, even in the most impoverished communities. One just needs to take a day to visit the Hamburg community and see what they have created over the years. These works of art are world class and we are privileged to hang them in our boardrooms or foyers.
“They symbolise what we fought for in SA, and we should put our full weight in celebrating these artworks with our country and in celebration of 25 years since the signing of our constitution.”
Further monetising the exhibition will be a series of limited edition tapestries called Our SA. “These were workshopped by KAP artists as to what democratic values would mark a new SA for the artists, resulting in human dignity, freedom and equality. A corporate sponsored set features logos of the business and will get issued with a tax certificate.”
For Keiskamma Trust director Zuko Gabela the retrospective is a project that links the Hamburg community in the Eastern Cape to the nation. “It connects past events to present successes and challenges; connecting the present to a potential prosperous future.”