(The “Kitchen Suit”)
The Phansi Museum
is committed to ensuring that visitors have access to high-quality museum
experiences and magnificent art and craft. Its vision is to be considered as a
robust museum firmly aligned with its community and its priorities.
Tomorrow (December 5),
Phansi Museum “goes Phezulu”, launching the first of many new exhibitions and
programmes aimed at engaging visitors and increasing community vitality.
“Much is considered
fabulous in South Africa, even if the origins are deeply rooted in some evil
human engineering and racism suffered by many. But, just think of music,
fashion, and all art in general, how the very craft of it inspired great
exploration” says Paul Mikula, architect and initiator of the Phansi Museum.
Len Rosenburg’s the
re-imagined kitchen suit 2015 exhibition takes a look at the ‘Kitchen Suit’ as
an iconic colonial and apartheid period garment and as another symbol of our
past, representing oppression, segregation and control.
According to
Rosenberg, Dirty Linen “airs” the shameful past of the former Durban City
Council, when it established a workers’ compound (Magazine Barracks, Railway
Barracks and Somtseu Road Hostel) and engineered a “dual town” which became the
“non- European” CBD (Grey Street and the Warwick Junction area). The “dirty
linen” theme is also explored by displaying the images on cloth to resemble
washing on a line. The opening will also include a showcase of the re-imagined
kitchen suits.
To compliment the
re-imagined kitchen suit exhibition, a fine selection of beaded apparel from
the permanent collection of the Phansi Museum, including waistcoats, headgear
and traditional attire dating back to the 1950’s and onwards and Phansi’s Rickshaw Man will be on display.
At the same time, Phansi
will launch its much-anticipated 2016 Art - Craft - Tradition calendar, a
project which started in 1994 and celebrates the unique culture of South
Africa. Each year, the Phansi Museum
distributes thousands of these calendars to schools, clinics and education
institutions in both urban and rural KZN.
The exhibition also
sees the launch of the second edition of the special Ukukhulisa, (coming of age) book which celebrates Phansi Museum and
21 years of the Art, Craft and Tradition calendars. The books and the calendars make perfect
Christmas Gifts.
For those looking
for something to do over the Christmas season, the Phansi Museum has a spectacularly
rich collection of over 5,000 artefacts and provides visitors of all ages with
a unique cultural experience and brings to life the ethnic diversity of
Southern African artisans and craft people. Another premier attraction of the
Museum is the extraordinary collection of 30 life-sized puppets clothed in the
ceremonial attire representing various ethnographic districts. Each puppet has
a very specific dress code; the colour, material and design of clothing and
jewellery indicating where the wearer is from, their age, gender and social
status.
Visiting the Phansi
Museum offers a fun and fascinating look at the cultural history that shaped
South Africa and the blend of backgrounds and ethnicities that make us so
unique.
Phansi Goes Phezulu runs from December 5 to 18 at 500 Esther
Roberts Road, Glenwood, Durban. For additional information contact Sharon
Crampton on 031 206 2889 or admin@phansi.com
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