Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - May 9, 2009
Teneshia Naidoo
Not Alone - An International Project of Make Art/Stop Aids features work from artists in Brazil, the US, South Africa and India.
South African artist Brenton Maart's artwork, Factory Crossword Version 4, features photographs of nude gay men in a sex club in Johannesburg.
Maart explained that his work was not controversial but merely showed "avenues of love and intimacy, with the adults in a place which people consider to be filled with sleaze".
"It is controversial when a street kid dies at the age of six," Maart said. "But these are avenues of the exploration of love and with the adults' full consent, so I don't think that is controversial at all."
The artwork, according to the artist, shows companionship and warmth between the men.
Carol Brown, one of the curators of the exhibition, which has been visited by pupils from a number of high schools, said the Aids epidemic has had a different impact on each country and the project aimed to be a collaborative effort between artists, medical officers and public-health experts.
Brown said the artwork at the centre of debate were close-up pictures of corpses in a morgue in Khayelitsha of people who had succumbed to Aids.
The photographs, by Pieter Hugo, were taken while the corpses were in their caskets prior to their funerals. Brown said some people were offended by the images of death, while others thought it put a face to Aids.
Phoenix Technical School principal Satha Naidoo, whose pupils have viewed the exhibition, said the school was looking for preventative ways to curb the spread of the epidemic.
"This is a high school and children are more mature. They will look at the exhibition as something that is trying to prevent the spread of Aids." He added that it was important for pupils to "get the message no matter how controversial it is."
A series of traditional Indian art scrolls, entitled Patta Chitra, also created a stir in villages in India. It was brought to South Africa by curator Nandita Palchoudhuri.
Palchoudhuri, a member of the India Foundation for the Arts, said scrolls were traditionally used to inform illiterate people about deities because they could sing about the pictures depicted on the scrolls. They are now used to create Aids awareness.
Palchoudhuri, from Kolkata, said Aids was a huge problem in India and people infected were often ostracised from their communities. "If you know you have HIV, it is even worse than not knowing because the stigma will kill you much faster than the disease. You are isolated completely and cut off from all social sustenance."
She said sex in India was "veiled" and that condom usage was a male decision. Through the scrolls they now try to educate people about the disease and lessen the stigma.
Singing artist Gurupada Chitrakar said he felt a "great sense of achievement" about informing the community about the disease.
Cultural researcher and anthropologist Raj Govender said the images depicted the creativity of the artists. "All people need to be exposed to the harmful effects of some of these social evils and if an artist has done so in a creative manner, there is freedom of expression.
"But if some people uncomfortable, then they should not view it."
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