Stitchers sew life's adversity into art

Cape Town - Big events like pandemics and natural disasters often affect small rural communities disproportionately.

And so when Covid-19 hit South Africa, the embroiderers and artists of the Keiskamma Art Project in the Eastern Cape hamlet of Hamburg found themselves locked down at home without a means of income.

But instead of sitting around or losing hope, each stitcher set to work on a piece of self-designed handwork that would eventually come together to become the project’s moving Covid-19 Resilience Tapestry, depicting the people of Hamburg’s dogged will to survive in the face of unspeakable calamity.

This remarkable hand-embroidered tapestry, and several other large-scale works from the project’s two decades plus history, are currently on display at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg as part of the Umaf’ Evuka, nje Ngenyanga/Dying and Rising, As the Moon Does retrospective exhibition.

The exhibition is about a rural community’s resurrection from the ashes of despair, and marks the first time all of the celebrated Keiskamma tapestries, now housed in collections around the world, have been displayed in one place.

These giant hand-stitched textile pieces, regarded as artworks in their own right, hold a special significance for Keiskamma Art Project founder Dr Carol Hofmeyr, who handed over the reins of the project to Michaela Howse in 2019, just before Covid-19 struck.

“Keiskamma artworks are truly works of unity rather than works of any individual artist or stitcher. The end result is always miraculous, and this exhibition speaks to the greatness of these works and their remarkable impact,” she said.

Musician Nomsa Mazwai, a long-standing champion and friend of Keiskamma, is among many who have paid tribute to this example of empowerment through the arts.

“The story of Keiskamma is a story of sisterhood, a story of family, a story of connection, a story of reality. It’s about human beings connecting with each other and moving forward together.

“This project has gone from strength to strength and has had an impact on so many lives, creating opportunities for the people living in Hamburg.”

Hofmeyr said she had no idea the project would mushroom into a local and global artistic phenomenon, one that has been praised for archiving the rural Eastern Cape’s collective memory and preserving its oral history, when she started it in 2000.

“It was just an instinctive response to try and create work for people and teach them to make something they could sell. I had a deep belief, and still do, in the power of being an artist to build self-esteem.”

A medical doctor-turned-artist, Hofmeyr knew how art could heal through creativity and self-expression.

As the non-profit grew in stature and employed more people, so too did the pressure to ensure the artists kept creating sellable work, knowing that they depend on the income to feed their families.

“It’s a very rural community with very high unemployment, and the people have been through so many traumas over the years, from the dispossession of land in the 1800s to the homeland system.

“These big events can have a devastating impact on a small rural community.” The last big event was Covid-19, when the project’s work all but ground to a halt because it was unable to produce the collaborative large-scale artworks that are its lifeblood.

Fortunately, the sisterhood of stitchers resolved that if they could not get together as a collective to create, they would at least keep busy by each stitching her own daily experiences into life, little realising this would eventually become a composite artwork.

Hofmeyr said it was “very, very moving” to see all these precious works – including the Covid-19 Resilience Tapestry – collected at Constitution Hill. Sponsorship from insurer Hollard made the huge feat of logistics – shipping these fragile embroidered masterpieces from all over the globe – possible.

“In a fragmented community, we’ve built bonds and the women are very close. They take pride not so much in outside recognition but in how they have come together as a group who support each other.”

Book a tour of the Keiskamma retrospective exhibition, on until 24 March 2023, through Webtickets or at the Constitution Hill visitors’ centre, via: https://www.constitutionhill. org.za/pages/opening-hours-and-admission.

Cape Times

*The Cape Times’ Big Friday Read is a series of feature articles focusing on the forgotten issues that often disappear in the blur of fast news cycles, and where we also feature the everyday heroes who go out of their way to change the lives of others in their communities.

To nominate a hero or raise a forgotten issue you would like is to feature in our Big Friday Read, email ctnews@inl.co.za