Women from the Hamburg region of the Eastern Cape have taken the fabric of their daily lives and literally woven a tapestry of hope so rich and so magnificent that it dominates the quiet interior of the Grahamstown Cathedral.
The Kesikamma Altarpiece, which is in Grahamstown for the 2005 National Arts Festival, is a product of the Keiskamma Arts Project. The project was started by Carol Hofmeyer and a group of women from the Hamburg region of the Eastern Cape in 2000.
Hofmeyer believes that art brings people hope and that by creating something with their own hands, these women gain a sense of pride and self esteem. The work the women produced as part of the Arts Project began to sell and now each of the women involved earns a monthly salary in a region that has very little in the way of employment for the community.
The original Altarpiece was designed to bring hope to the sufferers of ergot poisoning in the 15 century. “The women in Hamburg see a parallel between this disease and HIV/Aids”, explains Jacqui Downs, one of the Artists involved in the project. Downs talks passionately about how the Keiskamma Altarpiece is a way to address the lack of employment in the Hamburg region of the Eastern Cape and give these women a voice to tell their stories.
The design of the Keiskamma Altarpiece began in December of 2004. The project was inspired by the Issenheim Altarpiece, by Matthias Grünewald, and mimics it in size and scale. The Altarpiece opens up to reveal three layers, each one a vision of hope and humanity infused with detail from the women’s daily lives. Each women’s name is embroidered somewhere on the Altarpiece, which is destined eventually for a humble interdenominational church in Hamburg.
Noseti Makwabalo has been involved in the Keiskamma Arts Project since it began 5 years ago. She’s from Hamburg and believes that working on the Altarpiece is “just something that comes from love, from your heart, just to help the others working as a team. The women feel so happy because it changes our lives in Hamburg, and because of the story of the Altarpiece talks to them, telling the story of their lives”.
Noqwanda Nokubalo has also been involved in the project for 5 years. She began doing embroidery and now helps manage the women in the project. “Organizing the women is difficult”, she explains, “but with tender care for these women, looking after them, we are very happy”. She emphasises that these women’s lives are often very hard, and that the project, as well as the regular skills training workshops really have changed these women’s lives economically and emotionally.
“The story in the Altarpiece is about HIV/Aids” says Nokubalo. “Spiritually it comes from Christ, on the cross but we’ve made it using the image of the widow”, she explains, adding that this image means a lot to the women in Hamburg because “the widows are the ones who are left behind and the Altarpiece shows the way we are feeling and living our lives”.
The tapestry, after being blessed in the Grahamstown Cathedral, will be exhibited in Canterbury hall for the duration of the National Arts Festival. It will then be displayed at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg and entered for the Brett Kebble Art awards.
The hand spun and dyed wool used for the tapestry comes from South Seas, near Port Alfred. The women also use thread, beads, wood, wire and Nguni hide to display their vision for the future of the plants, animals and people living along the Keiskamma River.
Last year, the Keiskamma artists’ 135m long Xhosa history tapestry (inspired by the Bayeux tapestry) caused a sensation at the Festival, which was selected for many competitions and exhibitions, such as the FNB Craft Vita Awards, and took a much-coveted prize in last year’s Brett Kebble Art Awards.–RU-NML