By mixing sunlight with imagination the students from the Ningizimu School for children with mental handicaps have created magic, finding treasure (Umcebo) in the rubbish and debris of daily life.
“When I first saw the works from the Umcebo exhibition in a smaller space in Durban, shoulder to shoulder, they glowed like jewels”, says Andrew Verster, who is conducting the Umcebo exhibition walkabouts at the 2005 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
“Some actually appeared to have light coming from them, not just reflecting light like the moon, but shining light like the sun” he says, pointing to the astounding tapestries of liquid colour that adorn the walls of the Standard Bank Gallery of the Albany Museum.
Verster likens the experience of encountering these tapestries for the first time to stepping into a Byzantine Church. Intrigued by this vision, he moved closer. “Only then did I see it was all cast off junk”, he laughs, “but I’ll never forget that magical moment of transformation when I stood at the door and saw a room completely blazing with light, totally inspiring in a happy, joyful way”.
Up close, the tapestries, are literally made of rubbish; old fanta cans, buttons, bits of fabric, and stones. And that’s precisely what makes them so extraordinary. They encapsulate the kind of double vision that characterises all great art, “you look at it”, explains Verster, “and things appear to be one thing then miraculously turn out to be totally different”.
The tapestries are produced by children with mental handicaps; “this encompasses the whole human race”, Verster explains, “nobody is perfect”. The children who attend Ningizimu school often come from backgrounds where Verster believes they do not receive enough food, enough warmth, enough stimulation, enough opportunity to express themselves or enough recreation. As a result, these children often harbour a build up of frustration.
“A child will come to school, shaking with terror and anxiety, and unable to talk even and they will be given some areas of work to do, on one of [the tapestries] for example, and they become so absorbed in that process that it is a very calm child after a few hours”.
Each tapestry is themed around ideas or images, from abstract ideas like “Dream”, to more concrete ideas like “Flowers”, “The Sun” and “HIV/Aids” The themes are explored sensitively and imaginatively by the students. The focal point of the HIV/Aids tapestry is a heavily fringed eye made out of mirror, another one, “Moon and Stars” details tiny, jewelled fish swimming through the cosmos.
In Verster’s opinion, the creative act is a process of empowerment, “we have choices made for us everyday”, he explains, “but through making choices between this colour and that, or this shape and that, you’re in a kind of god-like position, and that very act of making choices gives you power that may be lacking elsewhere in your life”. He believes the children come to know themselves through their art in a very unique way, and possess a “latent creativity”, which should be developed through art, dance, music and other forms of expression.
“Beauty has a tangible power” he says, “feel it working”.
The Umcebo exhibition is presented by the Embassy of France, the Alliance Francias, and the French Institute of South Africa.