IJELE: ART EJOURNAL OF THE AFRICAN WORLD ISSN: 1525-447X Issue 5 (2002)

Sabine Marschall

Introduction

Public art, as opposed to ‘fine art’ destined for the gallery, has always had a special social responsibility towards the general public, whose living or working environment it is occupying. However, in the current post-apartheid South African context, both the ‘general public’ and the ‘social responsibility’ are differently defined than in previous decades, when an abstract outdoor sculpture, such as Eduardo Villa’s, would be set up to ‘beautify’ the city centre and “edify” - to use Frieda Harmson’s (1985:111) words - “the majority of the citizens for whom it was made.”[1] As opposed to the time of Harmson’s writing, when South African cities were still segregated and black Africans were not considered citizens, public art today, especially when funded with public sources, must take into account, and address itself to, the majority of the citizens in the true sense of the word.

In any society, one will invariably find many people who question the need for public art and who struggle to understand its meaning and the relevance of art in their lives. One can often observe strong resistance especially to abstract art or conceptual works. As Bourdieu’s research on the link between class structure and taste has established, the latter is most prevalent among members of the working class. Appreciation for art in the Western sense of the word as l’art pour l’art tends to develop with a particular kind of formal education, regular exposure to such art or a particular habitus – specific attitudes and activities promoted in particular social groups, which ultimately tend to reproduce the existing class-structure. In South Africa, the vast majority of the population belongs to the working class and has received little formal schooling or skills training (contributing to high unemployment). Many people, both black and white, have never been exposed to art making (in the Western sense of the word) or art appreciation either in school or within the family; they have never visited an art gallery or read an art book. But even among people of more privileged social standing, works of public art are often encountered with indifference at best and criticism or outrage at worst.

This article will discuss the print portfolio/ billboard project “Break the Silence”, a fine art project with a public art component aimed at HIV/Aids awareness. The portfolio is as a creative attempt at making art public and socially relevant, without relinquishing its claim to being ‘art’. I want to suggest that the crucial combination of art with education and public awareness lends these art works a useful function that can justify their existence among people unfamiliar with, or unsympathetic to, the concept of art as autonomous, art for art’s sake.

However, I intend to show that despite the general enthusiasm about the print portfolio/ billboard project, as reflected in press coverage,[2] popular feedback, and an international award for the organisers,[3] the concept of mounting fine art prints on corporate sponsored billboards that are placed along freeways, in urban centres and in townships, is not always unproblematic. In discussing some of the very different approaches artists have pursued in conveying the “Break the Silence” message and public responses to the works, I want to raise the question whether these billboards are indeed public art and how successful the project is in conveying the intended message. Last but not least, I want to emphasise the multi-dimensionality of this unique project.

“Break the Silence”

The “Break the Silence” project was initiated by the Durban based group, Artists for Human Rights in 1999. After several preliminary exhibitions during the period of production,[4] the complete exhibition of “Break the Silence” was launched simultaneously at the Durban Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery in Cape Town on 1 December (World Aids Day) 2001. The project consists of a portfolio (edition 25) of 31 prints produced by a diverse group of South African and international artists.[5] While the print portfolio will go on an extensive journey of exhibitions around the world,[6] all prints are intended to be enlarged onto billboards[7] placed in South African townships and along the country’s major freeways, thus theoretically transforming ‘gallery art’ into ‘public art’. Thus far nine prints have been enlarged and are (or have been) on view in the Durban and Johannesburg area.[8] The overarching theme, “Break the Silence”, is meant to address the stigma around HIV/Aids. The project was in part inspired by the killing of Aids activist, Gugu Dlamini, by her own community after revealing her HIV positive status in 1999. This incident highlighted the need not only to create HIV/Aids awareness and provide information about preventing infection, but also to address the often deadly stigma attached to those already infected with HIV or living with Aids.

A large variety of ‘fine art’, craft and ‘community art’ projects have been launched in the past few years throughout South Africa in the service of HIV/Aids awareness creation. Despite attempts at diversification of displays, exhibitions in art galleries still attract only a comparatively small sector of the general population, and often not those most at risk of infection. So-called ‘community art’, on the other hand, notably HIV/Aids murals, is often claimed to take art out of the elitist space of the gallery and into the streets for the appreciation of ordinary people. Much effort has been made in recent years to blur the boundaries between established categories of visual art genres - art and craft, ‘fine art’ and ‘community art’. However, these categories and certain entrenched attitudes towards them do de facto still prevail to a certain degree among the South African art establishment, in academia, and in the art interested sector of the public. Community murals, for instance, tend to be seen as an art genre inferior to ‘fine art’ exhibited through the gallery. The reasons for this, which I have explored in greater detail elsewhere (Marschall 2000), include the perceived ‘naïve’ style of such works, often the result of the participation of self-taught or informally trained painters or poor integration of team members with different styles and approaches. Murals are also criticized for their unchallenging nature. In their attempt at pleasing the community, muralists often utilise images intended for easy comprehension and immediate consumption, which sometimes tend to perpetuate existing stereotypes.[9]

In this context, the “Break the Silence” project is unique in that it bridges established categories between fine art, community art, advertisement and public art, thus potentially addressing very diverse audiences. The fact that participating artists were not given any specific guide-lines subjecting them to the pressures of conveying comprehensible messages, but rather granted complete artistic freedom of expression, warrants the portfolio’s status and credibility as ‘art’. It is precisely this status that attracts reputable artists to participate, national and international dignitaries to endorse the project, international museums and galleries to exhibit the portfolio and private, corporate or institutional buyers to acquire it. At the same time, by placing those very same prints on billboards in townships—without patronising ‘adjustments’ for the (often assumed) tastes and viewing practices of black communities—art is more literally taken out of the gallery and into the streets than in the case of murals and other community art projects. However, this practice is not unproblematic, firstly in terms of how ‘public art’ is commonly defined and secondly in view of the objectives of the project - to convey a specific message.

Art as Functional

Pierre Bourdieu (1993) – based on his research on the link between aesthetic preference and class affiliation - has defined a working class taste. He explains the well-known preference for representational art among the working classes with the centrality of functionality, i.e. the requirement “that every image shall fulfil a function, if only that of a sign.[10] This ‘functionalist’ representation of the work of art is based on the refusal of gratuitousness, the idolatry of work or the placing of value on what is ‘instructive’ (as opposed to what is ‘interesting’) and also on the impossibility of placing each individual work in the universe of representations, in the absence of strictly stylistic principles of classification.” (Bourdieu 1993:222). Among working class audiences in South Africa, there is a prevalent tendency to associate art with skill. An art work is often expected to exhibit, for instance, mastery of illusionistic drawing technique.

Interviews with a number of black artists throughout South Africa have revealed that the functionalist attitude towards art is shared by many black artists themselves.[11] Most of these artists are self-taught or informally trained, and tend to straddle the line between sharing the values of the communities from which they emerge, while at the same time having discovered the pleasures and creative possibilities provided by artistic freedom of expression. Many black South African artists who work in two-dimensional media (painting, drawing, water colour, print making, collage), especially those commonly labelled ‘community artists’, produce more or less realistically rendered scenes representing aspects of life within the black community. Interviews show that artists define the purpose of such works in a clearly functional manner: They are meant to record or document life in the community; to communicate messages to people; to educate; or to observe and critique social behaviour. Umlazi-based artist, Trevor Makhoba, for instance, considers his role in society as an important social commentator, teacher and public defender of morals (Makhoba 2000). It can be assumed that the expectation that art should serve a useful function in society applies even more emphatically when the work was expensive or intensive in its usage of resources and, most especially, when it has been financed with public funds.

Black Artists’ Works

It is interesting to note that all black South African artists participating in the print portfolio/ billboard project have approached their work in exactly these terms. Their prints are easily accessible, realistic renditions with a strong educative and/or moralising slant. Their message is often formulated in quite dramatic terms, such as in Vukile Teyise’s black and white linocut, which represents a gigantic skeleton sweeping through the streets, prominently displaying the sign ‘Aids kills’. In its path the skeleton encounters anonymous crowds of people, some of whom may be warned, others already doomed. In a similar vein, Nhlanhla Xaba’s image is focused on a funeral procession set in a gloomy landscape; Gabisele Nkosi’s print features a rural village surrounded by graveyards, in which a nurse, equipped with free condoms and paired off with a traditional elder, addresses the community’s chief.

All these prints actually focus on creating awareness of the disease and teaching people how to prevent it, rather than addressing issues around stigmatisation and discrimination. Clearly for these artists “Break the Silence” meant that the horrific reality of HIV/Aids must be exposed. Many black artists may be inspired by their personal experience of living in or interfacing with communities who may still not take the disease seriously enough and who are reluctant to engage in safe sex practices. It can be assumed that these artists still consider Aids awareness creation more important than addressing the stigma. They have thus made their work relevant for public display by interpreting the theme of the portfolio in the manner that they felt was most useful to the target communities and rendered the subject matter in a way they felt was most accessible, engaging and comprehensible to the intended audience.[12] Not only do they thereby justify the production of public art, but they personally, as artists, can be confident about having made a valuable contribution to their community.

Thus far, most works selected for enlargement and placement on billboards are those made by black South African artists.[13] If one draws a distinction between ‘public art’ and ‘art on public display’, it could be argued that these works are truly public art. Informal feedback about public responses to some of the billboards, for instance from Natal Technikon students commuting in taxis past billboards, and a formal questionnaire survey carried out by Gabisile Nkosi and Thulani Makhaya at the billboard featuring Nkosi’s work, show that most people were strongly attracted by this billboard and appeared to understand its message.[14] Sthembiso Sibisi’s work, representing a class room scene, which was mounted on a billboard at KwaMashu high school, was regularly used by teachers as an outdoor educational display for their classes (Jordaan 2002) Incidentally all of these works compare strongly with so-called community art, especially murals. In fact, Sibisi’s work is based on an image that he had developed a few years earlier for a mural at Umlazi Station.[15] While the latter, being ‘community art’, has attracted no attention whatsoever from the art establishment, the print with the same scene, through its incorporation in the portfolio, is now celebrated as art and since its placement on a billboard, as public art.

Work by Academically Trained Artists

In contrast to these black artists’ works, many white South African artists and international contributors have produced prints of a very different nature. Many of these works are more abstract in style or conceptual in nature, referring to the subject only in oblique or ambiguous terms. Even the figurative or realistically rendered works tend to avoid overtly literal references and didactic formats. Unlike the majority of their black counterparts, most white artists have received academic training in ‘fine art’ at a university or technikon. This experience not only provides training and encourages experimentation in a broad range of different artistic techniques and styles, but also exposes the candidate to art history and art appreciation, as well as various theoretical discourses around art aesthetics. Further amplified by the experience of overseas travel and other forms of inspiration often not attainable to black artists, academically trained white artists, as a result, tend to operate in a broader frame of reference on what art can be or how an artist can express him/herself.

Diane Victor’s composition, for instance, reminiscent of Paul Stopforth’s famous rendition of Steve Biko, represents the dead body of an anonymous young man, another victim senselessly killed by HIV/Aids. A closer look at this complex print reveals an embossed coffin around the corpse and an embossed “ethereal alter image, which counts the daily toll” (Victor 2000) in the upper left corner. A vicious dog, a bitch, somewhat reminiscent of David Koloane’s township beast in ‘The Moon and Dog’ (1996), seems to symbolize the killer disease. But the bitch is powerfully restrained through a muzzle, visually echoing the use of a condom, thus indicating that the disease can be controlled, or metaphorically, the beast can be tamed. Victor (2000), in her artist’s statement, offers a different interpretation, referring to the dog as information and truth, which is being muzzled and concealed, thereby providing an ideal breeding ground for misinformation and superstition. This is one of many examples that demonstrates how the ambiguity inherent in prints such as these allows for multiple readings and encourages personal interpretation and discovery.

International artists like Carmen Perrin from Bolivia (now in Switzerland) and Amira Wasfy from Egypt (now in Canada), have even chosen a completely abstract visual language resulting in images that appear rather indeterminate at first sight. Perhaps their personal experience of displacement, their interface with the international contemporary art scene and their lack of familiarity with the specific context and cultural sensibilities of South African communities, have contributed to their choice of visual language. While Wasfy relies on an expressive use of colour and line, meant to symbolize natural forms such as rocks and animal prints, but also the Aids virus (Wasfy 2000), Perrin has produced a most unusual print of scattered, barely visible ring patterns on white paper, each pierced by actual steel pins. The clusters of rings recall cells caught in the process of growth or disintegration, while the pins likewise connote contradictory notions of pain and destruction, but also of mending and healing. Enlarging this print to billboard size without loosing its sense of tactility will represent a considerable technical challenge, but this is certainly not the only problem with works of this kind. Like Wasfy’s, Perrin’s work is ambiguous and contradictory – it could even be called self- indulgent. One may ask in what sense these types of works satisfy the objectives of the project to create HIV/Aids awareness and combat the stigmatization of those living with the disease.

Value as Public Art Works

Works like these are essentially products of ‘fine art’ - autonomous and thriving on ambiguity. Their effectivity as a means of communication to audiences with little or no training in visual art appreciation, is likely to be problematic. When asked whether the portfolio prints are successful in getting the intended message across, Mduduzi Xakaza, the only black South African participant of the portfolio who holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art, reluctantly says yes, but “some prints are terribly abstract - people wouldn’t understand.” (Xakaza 2002). Hilde Hein (1996:1), in her philosophical inquiry into the question of public art, contends that “as a public phenomenon, art must entail the artist’s self-negation and deference to a collective community.” Art, Hein insists, does not become ‘public’ simply by exposing it and making it accessible to the world (ibid). “... the sheer presence of art out-of-doors or in a bus terminal or a hotel reception area does not automatically make that art public - no more than placing a tiger in a barnyard would make it a domestic animal.” (Hein 1996:4). Following this argument, it could be claimed, that many of the prints of the “Break the Silence” portfolio, even when enlarged and flighted onto billboards, will indeed never be ‘public art’, but at most, art on public display. Secondly, making a work of art physically accessible to large audiences per se does not make that work intellectually accessible or its educational message comprehensible.

This may be corroborated by the findings of another research project about audience reception conducted by 3rd year Technikon Natal students of Environmental Health. Portfolio prints were transferred onto posters and placed all over the campus grounds. People in various categories - students, staff and visitors of different age groups and racial backgrounds - were then questioned about their responses to the posters. The evaluation reports mention that many people did not understand the message or did not take the time to “try to interpret the message ‘hidden’ in the picture” (Govender et al undated). One of its conclusions is that “This campaign did not seem to be successful in achieving it’s (sic) goal, as people don’t seem to interpret or remember the messages on the poster. This campaign seemed to be more effective as an art display than an Aids awareness campaign.”

However, there is evidence to suggest that the science students conducting this survey were already biased against the project of using art for HIV/Aids awareness.[16] Overall, the survey was a useful student exercise, but of little value in objectively assessing audience reception. In fact, given that this project has attracted so much attention and received considerable funding, it would be highly recommended that a proper, comprehensive survey is professionally conducted at a large spread of billboard sites throughout the country and then scientifically evaluated.[17]

However, in the absence of proper research data and without ever having exposed any of the more abstract ‘fine art’ prints on billboards, the categorical statement that such works would not be understood by the public, is essentially based on patronising assumptions about the tastes and viewing practices of black communities. It is, after all, possible that these images, due to their very ‘difference’, may encourage people to stop and look, rather than merely glance in passing. These works do not intend to ram home a point and thus present a message that is threatened to drown in the aggressive flood of commercial billboard advertisements which has become the reality of the urban environment, especially in townships and along freeways. They want to be understood as art works, employing a visual language that aims at engaging people, perhaps by puzzling them; they appeal to the spectator to take a closer look, linger and reflect, discover and personally interpret its message.[18] Art in this sense can reclaim public space, which is increasingly being encroached upon by the commercial sphere, for important community messages and social functions. To quote Hein again, who somewhat qualifies her previous argument by saying, “Public art cannot promise public understanding, any more than private art assures private salvation, whatever that might be.” (Hein 1996:5).

Appropriating the Language of Advertisement

If the above-mentioned works, when flighted on billboards, attempt to cope with the competition of the commercial advertisement through their ‘difference’, at least one artist of the portfolio project has appropriated the visual language of advertisement itself. Daniel A.Ohene-Adu from Ghana, perhaps influenced by the strong local Ghanaian tradition of sign-writing, has made a poster-style print which aims to convey an unmistakable, easily comprehensible message. His image shows a schematically rendered couple surrounded by flames of both love and hell as the mixture of framing hearts and skulls seems to indicate. His commanding textual message ‘HIV/Aids is deadly - use a condom’ is backed up with the prominent depiction of the life-saving implement. In similarly unmistakable terms his artist’s statement, submitted in the form of a poem, speaks of HIV/Aids as a murderer eating away mankind and the necessity to use bold images and language to root it out completely (Ohene-Adu 2000).

Are works like these more successful as public art with an educational message? In our postmodern age, advertisement often operates by conveying a mood value, rather than by flashing the product it intends to sell (Sturken and Cartwright 2001). Many commercials on television, as well as billboard adverts tend to withhold the product almost completely, focussing instead on setting an emotionally charged scene that is supposed to engage the viewer and later to connect the product with the mood. This strategy, through its very obscurity, is also supposed to make the viewer curious and encourage him/her to stop, look, and think, trying to discover which product is advertised and what the connection might be between the visuals on display and the product. In a sense the “Break the Silence” prints on billboards—largely unintentionally—operate in a similar manner and may therefore very well be successful as ‘educational adverts,’ even if the message is not overtly stated.

But it is important to remember that “Break the Silence” is not about producing ‘educational adverts’ and while the project’s educational value is an important objective, it is by no means the only one. “Break the Silence” is essentially a fine art project with a public art component and an educational dimension, which aims “to make contemporary art accessible to the South African public on a grassroots level.” (Sudheim 2000). It thus creates new audiences among people who are not likely to ever visit a gallery. But equally important, in line with one of the objectives of Artists for Human Rights as an organisation,[19] “Break the Silence” is intended to empower the participating artists through exposure - both in the galleries and in the streets. As informal comments and official statements from participating artists have shown, the project has been tremendously successful on this score, especially for young or previously disadvantaged artists.[20] Lastly, the project has a strong potential to create advocacy. As in previous projects organised by Artists for Human Rights, participating artists invariably become conscientised towards the issue at stake. Some become community activists in the process or members of the community turn to them for help or advice.[21]

Conclusion

Whether “Break the Silence” is public art or not depends on how one defines that term, especially in the context of a redefined art world in present day South Africa, where the values and experiences of new audiences must be taken into account. As “Break the Silence” demonstrates, adding an educational dimension to a fine art project can lend the work a useful function and thereby make it acceptable and meaningful to such new audiences. However, the danger is that the educational function becomes the predominant or even the only criterium of judgement. What makes “Break the Silence” interesting and unique is precisely its multi-dimensionality. Any assessment of the project should take this multi-dimensionality into account.

References

Anonymous (2001). “Menzi Mcunu Gallery.”. Mail & Guardian, August 31- September 6.

Anonymous (2001a). “Artists top.” Leader. 31 August.

Anonymous (2001b). “Breaking the Silence.” Sunday Times, 2 December

Anonymous (2001c). “Billboards help break the Aids silence.” The Mercury, Sept.4

Anonymous (2001d). “Hive of artistic activity.” The Mercury, August 31.

Artists for Human Rights (2000). Artist’s agreement for “Break the Silence” print portfolio.

Bourdieu. P. 1993.The Field of Cultural Production. Polity Press: Blackwell Publishers.

Clarke (2001). “Aids: the big picture.” Sunday Tribune. 2 December.

Collins, D. (ed.). 2001. “Break the Silence!” The HIV/AIDS Billboard & Print Portfolio. Exhibition catalogue. Artists for Human Rights: Durban.

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Govender, G et al. Undated (2001). “Epidemiology III. Report: Aids Survey.” Student project fro J. Kistnasamy. Technikon Natal, Durban.

Harmson, F. (1985). Looking at South African Art. A guide to the Study and Appreciation of Art. J.L. van Schaik. Pretoria.

Hein, H. (1996). “Symposium: Public Art.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54:1. Winter, pp.1-7.

Jordaan, J. (Jan) (2002). Personal conversation. Durban.

Makhoba, T (Trevor) (2000). Personal conversation. Umlazi.

Marschall, S. (2000) “A Postcolonial Reading of Mural Art in South Africa.” Critical Arts: A Journal for Cultural and Media Studies, 14 (2), pp.121-146.

----------. (2002). Community Mural Art in South Africa. UNISA Press: Pretoria.

Nkosi, G (Gabisile) (2001). Personal statement. Durban.

Ohene-Adu, D. (2000). Artist’s statement. “Break the Silence” print portfolio.

Sibisi, S. (Stembiso) (2001). Personal communication. Durban.

Sturken, M and Cartwright, L. 2001. Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Sudheim, A. (2000). “Reality hits the road.” Mail & Guardian. Sept.8-14.

Sudheim, A. (2001). “Art pick of the Week.” Mail & Guardian. November 30 -December 6.

Sudheim, A. (2002). “Art pick of the Week.” Mail & Guardian. January 18-24.

Victor, D. (2000). Artist’s statement. “Break the Silence” print portfolio.

Vogel, S. (1994). Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art. Centre for African Art: New York and Prestel: Munich.

Wasfy, A. (2000). Artist’s statement. “Break the Silence” print portfolio.

Xakaza, M. (Mduduzi) (2002). Personal communication. Pietermaritzburg.

Notes

Citation Format:

Sabine Marschall. “Education Through Public Art: The "Break the Silence" Print Portfolio/Billboard Project,” IJELE: Art eJournal of the African World: Issue 5, 2002.

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