‘We all need to come together’: Art helps raise funds for a good cause

Goodman Gallery has collaborated with its artists on a fundraiser in which they’re selling a series of woven blankets and directing the profits to support Witkoppen Health and Welfare Clinic’s response to the effects of the virus on deprived communities in Johannesburg.

“We all need to come together and uphold a sense of community now more than ever,” said Goodman Gallery’s Robin Scher when asked about the intention behind the project, adding that the artists voluntarily put themselves up to the task, at no charge. Keeping to the tone of each of their approaches, this conversation with Goodman Gallery also offers an opportunity to own a different and more affordable reproduction by artists Ghada Amer & Reza Farkhondeh, Broomberg & Chanarin, Nolan Oswald Dennis and Samson Kambalu’s respective works. The textiles provide practical entry points to many of the artists’ pieces, which can be rare.

Nolan Oswald Dennis
Radical(empathy), 2019 100% cotton blanket Work: 180 x 130 cm Edition of 50 (Photographer: Anthea Pokroy)

Samson Kambalu
Hand Written, 2019 100% cotton blankets Work: 160 x 160 cm Edition of 50 (Photographer: Anthea Pokroy)

For instance, Nolan Oswald Dennis’s contribution titled Radical(empathy) is a less esoteric rendering of his interest in how metaphysical factors and colonialism can affect the human condition. Samson Kambalu Hand Written is spawned from his most recent body of work where he presented digital subversions of African flags he used to collect from inside Dandy chewing gum wrappers as a child in Malawi. In that exhibition, he looked at how colonialism is the bedrock of African identity.

Reza Farkhondeh & Ghada Amer
House of Lust, 2019 100% cotton blanket Work: 145 x 170 cm Edition of 50 (Photographer: Anthea Pokroy)

Ghada Amer is perhaps the only one of the artists who has worked in a similar medium before, and this may arguably be a natural continuation in her practice. In this collaboration with Reza Farkhondeh, their offering is an image sourced from pornography that has been softened with embroidery, and with it, they continue to explore the experience of femininity through thread.

Bandage the Knife Not the Wound by Broomberg & Chanarin is named after their 2018 exhibition questioning the disposability of photographic images as well as reflecting on their precarious sense of place and belonging in South Africa.

Each artwork printed on the textiles adds an intimate detail to the gallery’s gesture to their charity partner.

As it stands, Witkoppen Health and Welfare Clinic has created a Covid-19 Screening Unit where it screens and tests potential cases and gives them the appropriate referrals.

“Every patient is screened for Covid-19 using the four-symptom screening tool following the National Institute of Communicable Diseases guidelines as they enter the clinic. This has created long queues of between 300 to 400 patients outside our facility on the pavement,” says Dr Jean Bassett, the executive director at the clinic. They can admit only 100 patients on the premises at a time due to the social distancing specifications and the screening process that take additional time.

“We are also doing HIV testing as it is imperative that people know their status, and if positive, (are) started on treatment the same day. Our focus is also on 2.5 million HIV-positive South Africans who are not on treatment or take their medication erratically who need urgent medical care as antiretroviral treatment will boost their immune systems.”

The clinic is said to be starting door-to-door screenings at informal settlements in the area this week, where they will also educate the communities on Covid-19 as well as evaluating for other critical issues such as food security, availability of chronic medication such as antiretroviral treatment, and diabetic, asthmatic and hypertensive medication.

For Goodman Gallery, it is important to make a difference with an impactful contribution.

“Having served as a vital non-discriminatory space for artists during the apartheid years, Goodman Gallery will seek to draw inspiration from this profound legacy in this time of crisis,” says gallery director Liza Essers.

Witkoppen Health and Welfare Clinic was established to ease the lack of quality healthcare facilities in an area, serving 1.3 million people across informal settlements in Johannesburg. The increasing rate of Covid-19 infections poses a unique set of threats to people in those communities and a specialised response should be a priority.

On the question of what it will take for the clinic to have the capacity to continue providing care, Bassett stresses the need for funding:

“Witkoppen needs financial support for our Covid-19 programmes as all the expenses we’ve incurred to date were not budgeted. In addition, supplies of personal protective equipment are very limited for our frontline medical personnel; prices have skyrocketed and at times cost 150 times more than the price we would normally pay. For example, a box of 50 surgical masks that was R14.50 is now in excess of R1,200.”

Each of the blankets on sale for this fundraising campaign is an edition of 50 and is available until 30 April 2020 through Goodman Gallery for £500 (about R10,100). All enquiries should be directed to Kitsi Sebati. DM/ ML/ MC