Human Elephant Foundation Launch Exhibition, South Gallery, Cape Town
13 March 2009
The Human Elephant Foundation
The elephant is a metaphor for fragility and it embodies the challenge for human intelligence to engage the ailing ecological and social infrastructure we, humans, have brought about. The foundation applies creativity and imagination to develop dynamic ideas and solutions. It promotes the principle that weak and strong are closely related and we must maximize this interdependence.
Lux Themba by Andries Botha
This is the 11th elephant in the HUMAN ELEPHANT series. It was made for a Dutch family whose matriarch had died at an early age. Inside the elephant, Botha sculpted a “wooden heart” in which he placed, in the woman’s memory, love letters written to her by her husband and children. The elephant will journey to Europe as a meataphor,to create advocacy for breast cancer.
Umthombo Drawings
These drawings by Umthombo Street Children are created in conversation with Andries Botha.
Umthombo is a dynamic team made up of former street children and professionals. They plan to lead Durban into a new era of compassionate and therapeutic strategies, Umthombo aims to reduce the number of street children on the streets. They are a fully registered section 21 company, and non-profit organization.
Entire proceeds of sales donated by South Gallery and Andries Botha to Umthombo Trust.
Ardmore Elephant Procession
For the launch of the Human Elephant Foundation, artists at Ardmore Ceramics studios in KwaZulu-Natal created an elephant procession. A percentage of the sales of this exhibition will go to The Human Elephant Foundation.
Ardmore Positive
When Ardmore’s first artists died in 1998, Ardmore took a stand against HIV/AIDS through a series of educational works created by the artists who had personally experienced the tragedy. Portraits have been painted to honour the artists, many who have died, including Bonnie Ntshalintshali in 1999 and Wonderboy Nxumalo in 2008. We have brought to South a selection of the HIV/AIDS Collection housed in the Bonnie Ntshalintshali Ceramic Museum at Ardmore Caversham. One can see a steady progression from quiet diplomacy where Wonderboy Nxumalo uses primates instead of human beings, to later where Sifiso Mvelase, Andrew Sokhela, Petros Gumbi and others address the pandemic head on. For more images of the Ardmore HIV/AIDS works you can view online the Ardmore Positive exhibition held at the Tatham Gallery in Pietermaritzburg.
Human Element by Fee Halsted
Fee Halsted finds her passion in inspiring other creative spirits. “I have given the Ardmore family my heart, I have given my truth, my energy, my laughter, my frustration and my tears. I have mentored with old fashioned family values – love, communication, discipline and mutual forgiveness.” Fee has been likened by the Zulu artists to the Indlovukazi – the matriarch of the herd.
For more information on the gallery, please phone +27 21 465-5672. |
