By Thabo Motlhabi
“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. Says Mr. Kgosi Khumalo as the founder of Backyard Art Gallery, at a recently organised Art and Crafts Market Exhibition in partnership local Artists in the West Rand Township of Kagiso 2.
Human Rights Day is celebrated around the country in honour of those who were killed at Sharpeville on this day in 1960. It’s a reminder that our human rights were hard earned, with the state obliged to take ongoing steps to respect, protect, promote and fulfil them.
This launch was to commemorate artists and their craft in the West Rand Township of Kagiso 2 to use the day as a platform to voice their rights and fight for the creative space to be recognised by the government.
This was a space for them to tell their stories, whether through crafts, music, poetry, dance, writings, painting, designs, you could see at the stalls been displayed to express their work in the new democracy. In the past Apartheid regime, black artists had difficulty in expressing themselves in their work to tell of their hardships, however, they would be careful not to be on the wrong side of the law or else. In our new democracy, black artists have the power to express themselves enough and have a platform to tell their stories from the past to the future without any fear.
This launch was another way to establish Kagiso avenue as the business street, recognising small and big businesses alike and encouraging Kagiso community members to support their own.
As the Founder of Backyard Art Gallery Mr. Kgosi Khumalo said,” I’m very pleased with the outcome of the event and how artists interact with each other and acknowledging each other’s work. This is just a one step for greater things to come”.
The Kagiso Avenue was painted and decorated with artistic decoration and faces were full of smiles.
As the founder of TKO fashion clothes Mr. Oliver Kgokong said, ” Most of expression of Art are being motivated by our own struggles as black people even now, we are facing isolated culture from being recognised as professionals. So, in the nutshell human rights will be recognised if a child with be encouraged to be an artist”.
At the end of the program, people kept on engaging with each other and buying products being sold on the day.
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“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. Says Mr. Kgosi Khumalo as the founder of Backyard Art Gallery
The post Observing Human Rights Day through Art exhibition – By Thabo Motlhabi appeared first on The Home Of Great South African News. Read More
