 |
| Dee Donaldson, "Yoke I, II, III" |
artSPACE durban invites artists - from hobbyist to professional
- to participate in their new exhibition, 11x11: Inanimate Objects. The
exhibition will take place as a lead up to “16 days of Activism for No Violence
Against Women and Children” which takes place from 25 November until 10
December.
By participating in the exhibition, artists will be supporting Diakonia Council of Church’s “Thursdays in
Black: towards a world without rape and violence” campaign. All commission
proceeds of artSPACE durban from this exhibition will be donated to Diakonia
for them to fund campaign buttons.
Thursdays in Black is a programme run by Diakonia Council of
Churches to encourage men and women to wear black every Thursday to raise
awareness around issues of gender justice, violence against women and
corrective rape.
The theme of the exhibition is “an inanimate object, a
modern twist on the still life”. The exhibition explores what is an inanimate
object. It considers that it is “an object that has no life-bearing parts -
like a teddy bear, a snow globe or a lamp for example. The exception being
plants for although plants are living organisms, they are considered inanimate
objects.
The connection with this exhibition and the beneficiary is
that often women are still considered inanimate objects – with no rights and no
voice. The horrendous shooting in Pakistan of teenage gender and
peace activist, Malala Yousafzai, by the Pakistani Taliban reminds us of how
crucial and topical this campaign is globally.
Text and photo by Illa Thompson of Publicity Matters
