Gorge on visual arts

Fashion will join Arts Alive for the first time this year, vying for attention with the Joburg Art Fair and the Shared History festival, among other arts treats.
SEPTEMBER will be a month for the senses, as the Arts Alive International Festival brings exhibitions, fashion and a taste of India to Johannesburg in a month-long extravaganza of visual arts.

Mandalas for MandelaSchool children will create mandalas for MandelaIn addition to a wealth of music, film, dance and workshops, the visual arts category of the festival will be rich in flavour and unforgettable art. A highlight will be the tribute to Nelson Mandela, Mandalas for Mandela.

“Mandala is the Sanskrit word for circle, representing wholeness, which can also symbolise health and healing,” reads the Arts Alive website. This year’s schools project for the festival is being executed by the Imbali Visual Literacy Project and is supported by Constitution Hill and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The Imbali project was established in 1988 to combat the lack of perceptual skills in children that resulted from little or no access to art. The project aims to aid social and personal development through arts and culture education training.

This year’s exhibition involves 28 schools, ranging from Orange Farm to Diepsloot. Groups of six to 10 learners from each school will create their own mandala around the theme of healing and will aim to incorporate the values and legacy of Mandela.

Constitution Hill will serve as the setting for the exhibition, which will run daily from 6 September to 25 September in the atrium and adjacent wing.

Fashion Week

Catch the letest winter fashion in this year's SA Fashion Week Winter Collection Catch the latest winter fashion at this year's SA Fashion WeekAnother highlight of the visual arts calendar will be a new addition to the Arts Alive line-up, the SA Fashion Week Winter Collection, which takes place from 23 to 25 September. “Fashion meets art in exciting installation-based performances in galleries and precinct spaces throughout the month,” says Arts Alive’s public relations company, JT Communications.

Shine Studios in Braamfontein will also be a host. “Be on the lookout for guerrilla lighting moments,” says JT Communications.

Artist Mbongeni Richman Buthelezi will stage a mid-career retrospective at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) that will last the duration of the festival and beyond: it runs from 4 September to 31 January 2012.

“A ‘painter’ in plastic, internationally acclaimed Buthelezi works with melted plastic to create his masterpieces and thus contributes to saving the environment by recycling.” He has exhibited his work all over the world, from the Museum of African Art in New York to the Goch Museum in Germany and at the Prague Biennale.

There is plenty more art to ogle: the Joburg Art Fair will be on at the Sandton Convention Centre from 22 to 25 September. “The art fair, now in its fourth year, has quickly established itself as the foremost and most exciting visual arts event on the Joburg calendar,” the Arts Alive website reads.

Shared History
Also coming under the spotlight will be the shared history between India and South Africa, as well as a sneak preview into “the Indian experience”. There are three separate events to tantalise the taste buds and senses.

The best of Indian gastronomy at the Indian Experience BengalExperience the best of Indian gastronomy at the Bengali cuisine festivalTraditional crafters and contemporary artists and designers from India and Africa will show their wares at the Craft and Design Centre in Sandton as part of a Shared History partnership. Running from 9 September to 23 September, the exhibition will showcase the works of the different types of artists. It will be curated by Anjana Somany from Arts Council India and produced by Teamwork Productions.

Other forms of art will come to the fore in the two remaining Shared History events, with food and lifestyle stealing the limelight. Alternative medicine and yoga form part of the Indian wellbeing experience, which people can learn more about on 10 September at Zoo Lake.

It is a day-long event with particular emphasis on Ayurvedic practices. Ayurveda is a system of traditional medicine and healing native to India; the word is Sanskrit and means the science of life. There will be lectures, food stalls, products and literature on offer, as well as workshops on yoga and guided meditation, which forms part of the Ayurvedic lifestyle.

Bengali cuisine is the final frontier of Shared History and the Indian experience; Le Canard in Sandton will be the place to tickle your taste buds for the duration of the festival. “The specialty of Bengali food lies in the perfect blend of sweet and spicy flavours, generally consisting of a variety of rice dishes and fresh water fish delicacies,” JT Communications says.

For more information on exhibitions, events and tickets, visit the Arts Alive website.