Artists For Human Rights

On December 10, 1988, International Human Rights Day, a national art exhibition was held in South Africa, “to shine a light on the government’s human rights abuses and remind the country, that in 1948, National Party-led South Africa was one of only six countries that refused to sign the accord,” (Cleveland, 2008). A group of courageous arts practitioners, operating under the auspices of the Black Sash organization, came together on this, the 40^th anniversary of that UN Human Rights declaration, to use art to call attention to the continued abuses in South Africa. The exhibition involved more than 400 children and was prominently covered by the national press. The Black Shash organization was made up of mostly white South African woman, who by virtue of their race and therefore their standing gave them greater access to promote and conduct their art-making. The organizers recruited local visual artists to work with the children to make paintings that reflected their view of human rights.

This article focusing on South Africa, was one of a collection of examples of in Art and Upheaval, a book by William Cleveland, provides inspiring insights into how arts practitioners have been effective in challenging oppressive regimes or engaging divided communities in five different countries.

Another example of activist art-making in South Africa involved a portfolio exhibition of 29 prints, each depicting one of the bill of rights. These portraits reflected historical events that were a part of South Africa’s history. The artists were chosen through a national competition designed to represent the nine provinces of South Africa. The exhibition of these works at the Durban Art Gallery on December 10, 1996 was opened by Justice Albie Sachs of the Constitutional Court, a highly symbolic gesture representing the interest of the courts in this effort especially considering the injustices portrayed by the artists.

This article not only offer a compelling narrative of the organizers and artists who participated, it provides insight into the complex process of community art-making by describing in detail, the struggles involved in organizing, negotiating and implementing art-making on such a large scale. These examples of art-making left me for a reverence for the artists and the work itself, because of the seriousness of the subject matter involved and the utter evilness of the regimes responsible for past injustices.