(Terry Anne
Stevenson)
The Phansi Museum ‘s Community Murals Legacy Project offers the
opportunity to learn more on the Art of History of Kwazulu-Natal going back
nearly 200 years.
All are welcome and entry is free.
A remarkable figure in the art world of KZN was Terry Anne Stevenson,
the friend and confidant of so many grassroots artists. Through their murals
her group, together with the people who often illegally occupied public spaces,
reclaimed these all over the province. Who can forget the Human Rights murals
on the Durban Prison wall? All three layers of them.
The Bat Center murals, the grand and giving Umkubulwana at Berea station
and the Market. No wall was safe in those early days of democracy. No school,
no railway station, no under- or overpass, or lonely wall could withstand a
Community Murals attack. Many individuals branched out and became remarkable
artists in their own right. Terry Anne through her relationship with the
African ART Centre, Rorke’s Drift and quite a number of informal and formal art
collectives became the conduit through which many township, rural and urban
artists entered the public space.
In her memory and all those who worked with her, the trustees decided to
embark on a legacy project that will be of long lasting value. It follows the
arts in KZN from the days, about 200 years ago when records were first kept.
“Of course, the whole concept of Art is a western one and as such it
likes to file each activity under a heading and definition. Life in the
indigenous societies was much simpler and wiser than that. Without a word for
art, individuals generally did them all. Only some of it can be photographed or
recorded. But we tried,” says a Phansi representative.
The first eight panels are up and will be on view until September 21.
They are a work in progress and in themselves a work of art with all the
liberties that this allows.
The Phansi Museum invites all artists and commentators to pay a visit
and help to make them meaningful, educational and inspirational. An invitation
will be sent to commentators to review the different stories. These together
with photographic records will result in a book worthy of the subject. The
exhibition itself will travel.
Resident artist for the project, the inimitable Peter Engblom, gave
birth to the collages in the Roberts House Cowshed adjoining the museum.
For more information contact admin@phansi.com
Phansi Museum is situated at 500 Esther Roberts Road, Glenwood, in Durban.
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