Alex Sudheim Never before in human history has a virus bonded so dramatically with creative initiative. Since the scourge of HIV/Aids raised its lethal head over a decade ago, its insidious reach has been fought every step of the way in song, dance, drama, film, art and literature. Providing physical meaning to the term “public art” is the new project of a Durban-based international art initiative, the Artists for Human Rights Trust. “The HIV/Aids Billboard Portfolio” is a seminal scheme of impressive dimensions, aiming to make contemporary art accessible to the South African public on a grassroots level and simultaneously strike a blow for the fight against HIV/Aids. Currently, three billboards are already located in the Durban communities of KwaMashu, Umlazi and Clermont, with plans afoot to mount an armada of billboards in urban and rural areas across the country. Artists for Human Rights aims to ultimately have around 300 billboards spread across South Africa. Major sponsorship has come from Primedia, Corpcom, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, the National Arts Council and Technikon Natal, with the first three incarnations having been sponsored by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. Each billboard bears a large-scale original artwork by a prominent South African or international artist who has been commissioned to promote the Aids 2000 message of “breaking the silence”. So far 27 South African artists, including David Koloane, Chris Diedericks, Yusuf Vahed, Gabisela Nkosi, Pascale Chandler, Tinus Boshoff, Judith Mason, Vukile Teyise, Sthembiso Sibisi, Wonderboy Nxumalo, Clive Pillay, Andries Botha, Sue Williamson and Trevor Makoba have committed themselves to the initiative. Eight artists from abroad, Joseph Madisia (Namibia), Yuvana Poonwattanawait (Thailand), Kanuge John Bosco (Uganda), Carmen Perrin (Bolivia), Daniel A Ohene-Adu (Ghana), Amira Wasfy (Egypt), Deryck Healey (United Kingdom) and Yusuf Arakkal (India) are also firmly on board, with many others such as China’s Qu Lei Lei, Zimbabwe’s Berry Bickle and South Africa’s Breyten Breytenbach expected to participate.
Another compelling dimension of the project is its integral involvement with the communities it seeks to address. An example is the involvement of the HIV/Aids Women’s Support Group at Durban’s King Edward VIII hospital, where women living with HIV/Aids were given sketch pads and drawing materials to express themselves and their struggle against the disease in visual form. These sketch pads were bought back from the women by the Artists for Human Rights Trust, with many of the drawings scheduled to appear on billboards. The billboards also serve as a focal point for community-based Aids-awareness campaigns. This has been the case in Umlazi, where educational workshops are conducted around the large, powerful images.
This is the ultimate triumph of this impressive excursion of art into public space: aside from adorning the countryside with potent pictures, the billboards also serve the purpose of putting into graphic perspective the complex abstractions and grim realities of HIV/Aids.