Events – 2008
Bethesda textile displayed at Decorex 2008, Johannesburg
The Centre has produced an amazing new wall-hanging called The First /Xam Man. It was shown for the first time at the Decorex show in Johannesburg, and was featured on SABC’s Top Billing on 7th August. It was admired at Decorex by the South African Evita, (Pieter Dirk Uys).
The First /Xam Man
The First /Xam Man is eight and a half metres long, and tells a story which is perhaps the first account of the abuse of power in the history of mankind. San cave paintings and culture go back ten thousand years.
The Story: A hunter finds a young lion, and brings it home, pretending to his wife that it is a dog his brother gave him, to help him in his hunting. But its eyes are yellow, its ears are not pointy. His wife knows he is lying, and arms her children with fire-sticks. The young lion grows, and on the second hunt with its master, kills and eats him. The story ends with the wife and children having to move, as their home is now known to the lions, and too dangerous to live in.
Contemporary meaning: The story is startlingly contemporary in its message. In Nieu Bethesda, for “lion” we easily substitute “alcohol” or “aids”. In the wider world, nuclear armaments or greed, or global warming could be the “lion” that the hunter brings into his home.
History of the Story: This story was first recorded by the linguists Lucy Lloyd and Willem Bleek in 1873, told to them by a /Xam Shaman, whom they had secured from the Breakwater Prison in Cape Town where he was serving a sentence for sheep stealing. Lloyd and Bleek learned the /Xam language, (now extinct), and translated //Kabbo’s stories into English.
The Quilt:
The quilt is a diptych, each piece measuring 4.3 metres by 1.5. It was made by eighteen textile artists and three printmakers at the Bethesda Arts Centre, during the course of three months. Volunteer artist Siobhan Twomey spent two weeks at the centre in May 2008, running a life-drawing workshop for the whole group. This prepared them for doing the detailed drawings, (with some technical help from Tarot Couzyn), and then working the panels in textiles, using an appliqué technique.
The First /Xam Man is a vibrant piece, and would be an excellent talking point for any museum, public, or private space. It is for sale, (price R100.000). Further details from Jeni Couzyn
Bethesda Arts Centre reported in The Guardian Online
Also on show at the Decorex exhibition, were bags, and prints made by Centre participants. These high quality works of art caught the eye of the fashion editor of The Guardian newspaper and were displayed on their website, "Guardian Online".
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