To get a perspective…the mushroom is 8 foot tall. The blue bench is almost 8 foot long
Monkeybiz, a Cape Town based NPO and The Haas Brothers have collaborated to produce an exciting exhibition now on at New York’s Cooper Hewitt that will change the face of traditional beading in Africa and mark the lives of many families in the townships of Cape Town with a sense of achievement and bringing about social change.
Titled Afreaks, it’s a collection of fantastical beaded creatures embracing androgyny, anti-form, the grotesque, the formless and the fantastic, which has taken over 18 months of intense work by 16 Cape Town beaders who now call themselves the ”Haas Sistas” alongside brothers Nikolai & Simon who are LA based.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Since year 2000 Monkeybiz has retained up to 450 beaders in and around Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Phillippi in Cape Town, South Africa. Most of the beaders are women who bead at home allowing them to look after children while becoming breadwinners for their families and supporting their communities.
The art of traditional-method beadwork has dwindled in modern times. Monkeybiz has taken the age-old style of flat beading and contemporized it, through colour, new designs and most importantly has encouraged elders to teach youngsters the techniques, to value cultural traditions and earn a living.
Each piece is designed and made by the beaders who are given artistic freedom with pattern and shape, allowing for each piece to be unique. Every beaded artwork is signed by the artist.
ABOUT THE CAUSE
The crowning achievement of Monkeybiz is that it recognises and develops the artistic ability of people who have never had the opportunity to express themselves through art. It may be a small dot on this planet but makes huge footprints on this earth.
The Non-Profit organization has three mantras:
• To empower women to become breadwinners and financially independent members of their communities
• To revive the tradition of African beadwork, taking the love and knowledge that is passed down,over the centuries, from mother to child and becoming a bridge from traditional bead works into contemporary artworks.
• To offer a platform for those who choose to take their artistic prowess to higher levels and become artists in their own right.
“No one likes to be poor. No one likes to depend on handouts, or the charity of others.
A project such as Monkeybiz addresses a very deep human need, in that it helps people to help themselves”
– Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of the Anglican Church of South Africa
