The 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been interpreted by artists from 28 countries, writes Alex Sudheim
As a measure of the significance of the International Print Portfolio exhibition, the United Nations was eager for the show to grace the proceedings at the world body’s New York headquarters during its recent global convention on human rights.
Since both the convention and the Print Portfolio were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it seemed rather apt.
Yet the exhibition was already booked for christening in its place of birth, and so it is in the Durban Art Gallery that the eyes of the world fall for the first time upon this most remarkable demonstration of the power of print- making.
Conceived by the Durban-based collective Artists for Human Rights, the International Print Portfolio has corralled fine artists from around the world to visually interpret the 30 Articles of the UDHR. Each Portfolio – of which only 50 exist – contains 33 rare, original and hauntingly beautiful prints by artists from 28 countries such as Algeria, Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), Cuba, Puerto Rico, China, Tibet, South Africa and many more.
The collections are handbound, boxed, accompanied by an illuminating catalogue and put on sale at $3E000 apiece to raise money for further human rights causes.
With a price tag like that, the collection might seem somewhat dear. But, considering the quality and quantity of the work it contains, it really is a bargain. This is especially the case for buyers such as museums and collections, which in one fell swoop acquire a representative showcase of some of the best art the “developing” world has to offer.
Says Jan Jordaan, the project’s co- leader: “Institutes like the Museum of Modern Art in New York are very interested in this kind of work – it affords them the chance to kill many birds with one stone: they acquire significant works of art from a field in which they are under- represented, whilst raising the professional profiles of the artists, and of human rights generally.”
One buyer, Michigan State University, has already booked an American tour of its Portfolio for 2000. Similar tours are simultaneously on the cards for Iceland, Japan, France and Britain. This, according to Jordaan, is another attractive feature of print-making. “The great thing about this medium is that you can run editions, so exhibitions can run concurrently all over the world. Yet each work, though apparently the same, is utterly inimitable.”
While the cause is noble and the work in this exhibition powerful and evocative, the cynic may wonder what there really is to celebrate as far as human rights are concerned. The UDHR, signed in Switzerland in 1949, was both an expression of moral outrage at the atrocities committed in World War II and an avowal that these abuses of basic human rights would never again be tolerated.
Yet, since that day, the human rights of millions across the world continue to be affronted with impunity on a daily basis. Ought one then to be tempted by the sceptic’s Darwinian reasoning that the cruel and ruthless prosper at the expense of the innocent and defenceless?
“No way,” says Australia’s Bill Kelly, whose collaboration with Aboriginal countryman Benjamen Malcolm McKeown reflects UDHR Article 3, “Right to Life, Liberty and Personal Security”.
“Think about slavery,” he says. “One hundred and fifty years ago it was accepted almost universally, whereas now it’s ancient history. My father went into the American coalmines when he was 11 years old – that doesn’t happen anymore, and that’s not even ancient history. Raising the moral profile of the world is not an impossible task.”
But what about all the other instances around the world where certain countries’ human rights records seem to get worse by the day as autocratic regimes crack down on resistance? “Well, those states wouldn’t be getting more hardline if they didn’t know the stakes were being raised,” answers Kelly. “Just look at apartheid – the greatest state repression came during what transpired to be its death throes.”
Hmmm, good point. Maybe things can only get better. Ultimately, though, human rights issues are not about vapid hippy sentiment but life and death. While it’s easy to be cynical about the righteousness of the cause, this is a luxury reserved for those whose own fans the shit is not hitting.
Looking at the works represented in the International Print Portfolio, one is enjoined to imagine one’s own world minus the basic human rights one takes for granted, and one shudders to think. If you consider how hard you would fight to preserve your own right to freedom from torture, right to equality before the law, right to freedom of belief and religion or right to own property, consider Martin Luther King’s succinct pronouncement that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
The International Print Portfolio is on show in the Durban Art Gallery until January 20#