The high prevalence of HIV infections and HIV-related deaths in South Africa, as compared to the whole world, has left many children orphaned and destitute in many of the country’s villages.
Dannhauser, a small rural town situated in KwaZulu-Natal, is home to more than 600 children who have been orphaned to HIV/AIDS.
The DUT Siyazama Project, formed by a group of KwaZulu-Natal women bead workers who create art pieces to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, recently established a project that seeks to tell the stories of these orphans. This project is a high glass tower sporting 632 tiny, colourfully-beaded dolls hanging loosely on it which represent these unknown orphans from Dannhauser.
This tower was exhibited at the recent 2012 Smithsonian Folklife Festival held in Washington DC. An annual art event, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is aimed at showcasing the various cultures found in Washington DC. The Siyazama Project was invited to showcase its Orphan Tower as part of Professor Richard Gere’s (from the University of California, Los Angeles) “Common Threads” campaign. Professor Gere and Durban Curator Carol Brown collaborated to put together the “A.R.T. Show”, a collection of works from artists around the world.
The Siyazama tower was the cynosure in the Common Threads tent. “Many visitors were drawn by the dolls and how adorable they were but visitors’ initial happy reactions were often jolted into shock, sadness or quiet contemplation once it became evident that the bright little dolls represented orphans,” said Linda Rethman, who represented the Siyazama Project at the festival alongside two bead workers.
“We, in South Africa, have become almost numb to the staggering statistics but for the visitors, it was shocking and disturbing,” she added.
The concept of the little orphan dolls originated from the Siyazama bead workers who created the dolls to symbolise the scores of orphaned children in Dannhauser. They called these “orphan dolls”. Together with Kate Wells, the Siyazama Project head who is also Associate Professor in the Visual Communication Design programme at DUT, Rethman brainstormed on how this concept could be implemented to communicate the after effects of HIV deaths in South African villages to the world. The Orphan Tower was thus established.
After the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the tower was taken to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. A second Tower is at the Michigan State University Museum, said Rethman and will be exhibited at two other American universities this year.
Professor Wells said the Siyazama Project is proud to have been represented by Linda Rethman as well as Lobolile Ximba and Beauty Ndlovu; one of the two Siyazama bead workers, at this most prestigious event in Washington earlier this year.
“Collectively (the three women) have added so much profound value to the work being done in the Project. For me personally, it is also a real joy to see the fruits of our creative brainstorming sessions now becoming a reality in the form of the Orphan Tower and receiving so much positive feedback and acknowledgment. All of us at DUT thank you (Rethman, Ximba and Ndlovu) most gratefully for this unique kindness and volunteerism. I am so looking forward to see what lies in store for the Orphan Tower in the next few months”, said Professor Wells.
Locally, the tower has been exhibited in Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The orphan tower is one of many Siyazama Project awareness campaigns. The Siyazama Project has been operating at DUT for the past decade. Their work, although appeasing to the eye, is created not for decorative purposes but rather as an instrument for the awareness of HIV.
– Naledi Hlefane
Caption: Linda Rethman getting the Orphan Tower ready for display at the recent Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC.
