The Keiskamma Kuru Exhibit at the Kirstenbosch Biennale, is a topical collaborative display rising out of this centenary year’s theme of the medicinal and traditional use of plants of southern Africa.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens’ 2013 Biennale curator Nicki Westcott observes:
”Despite some of the compounds once derived from plants now being chemically generated, the exhibition highlights the increasing fragility of the supply of products deriving from the natural world. Medicinal plants feed a huge industry and the question of sustainability has become urgent as many plants near extinction in their natural habitat”.
The Keiskamma Art Project of Hamburg in South Africa’s Eastern Cape met the women of the Kuru Art Project of Ghanzi in Botswana, to share skills in embroidery and knowledge of plants.
The two groups of artists received training from Wendy Hitchcock, a Cape Town botanist and environmental educator. Her role was to check and identify names of plants scientifically and document the findings. She said botanical art produces an accurate portrait of a plant, which is more valuable as it highlights more details of the plant.
In the past, Hitchcock said that it was science when artists were used to draw plants, but now cameras are used to take pictures of plants. “Nevertheless it is cheaper to take a picture, but it is not better.”
She noticed that Kuru artists have knowledge of plants in their heads, while she has to carry books for reference purposes, adding that such vast knowledge should be preserved so that the western society could learn from them.
Founder and coordinator of Keiskamma Art project, Carol Hofmeyr said they have worked with the Kuru Art project artists for the past three years and have learnt a great deal from the Naro people, especially in their use of plants in their drawings and paintings.
The workshop was more than just an art activity but also a cultural exchange of the two groups. “We have realized that our people are not exposed to other tribes’ way of life, especially those outside their country.” She noted that the visit was an exploration for their artists to learn and appreciate other people’s way of life especially those outside South Africa.
Cathy Stanley coordinated and curated this work for the Biennale – an exhibition of southern African botanical art – alongside Wendy and Nombuyiselo Malumbezo and Ndileka Mapuma of Keiskamma, who taught embroidery.