Bearing Witness Embroidery Exhibition

Poster of the Bearing Witness exhibition, Los Angeles, 2014. Poster of the Bearing Witness exhibition, Los Angeles, 2014.

"Bearing Witness: Embroidery as history in post-apartheid South Africa," was an exhibition held at the Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (USA), between 7th September – 7th December 2014. The exhibition was organised by Gemma Rodrigues, Curator of African Arts, Fowler Museum.

The exhibition included works by artists from two community art groups, namely the Kaross Workers (founded in 1989) and the Mapula embroidery project (founded in 1991). Both groups use embroidery as a means of expressing views on the diverse issues that affect life in South Africa in c. 2000, shortly after the official abolition of apartheid.

The exhibition included over forty embroideries that were collected in South Africa by William Worger (UCLA) and Nancy Clark (Louisiana State University). The panels depicted a wide range of subjects, including questions about traditional gender roles; public health issues in general, and the scourge of HIV/AIDS in particular; Nelson Mandela’s 85th birthday, as well as local, national and global events that have affected life in South Africa.

Sources:

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 8 June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Sunday, 16 April 2017 16:41
Published in Exhibitions
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