introduction

At the turn of the twenty-first century, encouraged by artist, medical doctor and humanitarian Carol Hofmeyr, a group of South African women began to stitch artworks to lift themselves out of poverty. This became known as Keiskamma Art Project, after the Keiskamma River, which flows into the Indian Ocean in a pristine estuary below their art studios in rural Hamburg, Eastern Cape.

Since their first exhibition Vuselela—an isiXhosa word meaning ‘restoration’—the collective has gone on to produce evocative collaborative tapestries that have gained international recognition. Stitching African, and especially Xhosa, cultural references into a wider historical and art-historical narrative, the artists make work at once visionary and revisionary. They unflinchingly revisit a traumatic history to address the legacy of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa, but also illuminate a way back to a place of spiritual wholeness and self-worth. The artworks are an expression of radical hope and shared humanity; an act of reclamation and reimagining.

Umaf’ evuka, nje ngenyanga / Dying and rising, as the moon does allows for an appreciation of the context, creative process and conceptual development of the Keiskamma artists’ work over the past two decades. Iconic, monumental pieces such as the 4.5 x 7.5 metre, multi-panelled Keiskamma Altarpiece; the life-size Keiskamma Guernica, an interpretation of Picasso’s famous 1937 Guernica painting; and the 120-metre long Keiskamma Tapestry that narrowly escaped destruction in a fire in the Houses of Parliament in January 2022, show more than prodigious artistic talent. They express, beyond this, the resilient spirit of a community that has endured years of poverty, political upheaval and the devastating impact of two pandemics.

Constitution Hill, a National Heritage Site in the process of being declared a World Heritage Site, is a fittingly historic space in which to honour the remarkable work of Keiskamma Art Project.