Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - June 26, 2005
Zingi Mkefa
The good news is that 20 years later we know a lot more about the disease. And the most important thing we know is that it's possible to live with Aids.
Unfortunately there is more bad news than good. Very few live long after being diagnosed.
And the worst news is that often it's not the disease that kills, it's fear. We are too afraid to be tested. We are too afraid to be near those who have HIV/Aids. We are too afraid to tell others that we have Aids. We are too afraid to even say the word.
So it was with great interest that I visited the Gordart Art Gallery in Melville this week to view an exhibition about death and Aids by new artist Lesley-Ann Myles.
Death Immortalises Life avoids the sexual associations of the disease and opts to focus on death * particularly that of a baby named Martha, who died just before her first birthday.
Martha, the daughter of one of Myles's farm workers, David, kept falling ill, much to the consternation of her parents.
Despite this, her parents refused to believe the child had Aids, and if the child was indeed HIV-positive, that she had contracted the virus from them.
Amid the denial, ignorance and poverty, Martha died without adequate care.
Myles has taken this experience and created a body of work consisting of photographs, photocopies, paintings and an installation.
The works seem to be a cathartic homage to the late Martha, complete with candles in a mound of sand shaped like a human form.
The melted candles reflect the idea of the body disintegrating into the earth, leaving behind a mere impression of what used to be alive.
Thankfully, Myles avoids the clich d use of the colour red which is so popular whenever artists are dealing with Aids in their work.
But the exhibition is far too simple and the images not varied enough. The redeeming quality, however, is its strong and clear statement about Aids.
*Death Immortalises Life is on until July 2. For more information, call (011) 726-8519.
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