Ekukhoseleni Creactive Centre

2010-04-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

As the popular saying goes, “Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, but teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime”. Such are the principles upon which Ekukhoseleni Creative Centre was founded. To empower and engage people of UMlazi Township through skills development programmes in the various fields of art and art medium.

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The shelter for cre-activity
ART PROJECTS

ECC Studio’s Security

“At last we now can work on a secure space!! No more rain and hot sun”. Those words were coming from Ekukhoseleni participants. The excitement was written on their faces after James Gillespie’s High School visit to receive donation at the Centre.

The funds that were recently donated by James Gillespie’s High School have enabled ECC to make the studio/ Garage secure and water tight.

This means that the particiants do not need to waste time setting up the studio every time they want to continue with their projects.

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One Community- One World- One Voice

The Deloitte Street Child World Cup Arts Exhibition

The Deloitte Street Child World Cup art exhibition brings together the multiple art works that have been inspired by this unique and first ever street children world cup made possible by Deloitte, hosted by Umthombo street children with the help from Amos trust, Momentum arts, Caversham Centre and Ekukhoseleni Creactive Centre: Exhibited in the Ethekwini Municipality art gallery- the Durban Art gallery.

The DSCWC was for celebrating the potential of street children and place them centre stage in a new call for their rights to be realised. Nine countries competed in a football tournament which was played at the Durban University of Technology- the nine countries were Brazil, India, Nicaragua, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine, UK and Vietnam. To my surprise the Cup was taken by Indian team, beating Tanzania in the finals.

The crucial part of the tournament was the art program, where Ekukhoseleni artists and Momentum artists were working with the children to help tell their stories in a fresh and creative way. This was the crucial part as it forms a major report on the situation street children face in our world today.

All the art pieces form the exhibition and the messages that the children have created will be used to lobby governments in each country to enforce the rights of the child and prioritise street children, ensuring their voices continue to be heard across the world. Bees were used as metaphor for children during the event, a symbol which come upon when our director Mxolisi Sithole was working with some of Umthombo Street Children encouraging them to visually communicate their experience of life on the streets. He asked the children to paint pictures of how they perceived themselves and one of the girls said: ‘Street Children are like bees because we all aim for one goal to have a better and sweet life. We normal children like any other human being but people are scared of us. This is because some of us do bite when they get irritated, but it doesn’t mean we bad. Like bees we always stick together no matter how bad the situation is’ (Mbali, 2008).

The wire mesh bees were created by Ekukhoseleni artists together with Umthombo street children and the wood carved bees were being cut by Bongumusa Hlongwa, Mxolisi Sithole and were painted by UMthombo children reflating on their lives.

Continuing with the bee motif these giant hexagons form the Hive and also work as a metaphor for a soccer ball. Designed by Hilary Cox, Beverly Carpenter and cut by Ekukhoseleni artists. The hexagons have been decorated with paintings, collage, clay pieces, found materials and photos produced by street children with the help from local school children exploring with the themes of shelter, the right to health and education and protection from violence.

The official Deloitte street child world cup image was created by Mxolisi Sithole in collaboration with Cambridge based print maker Kip Gresham. It a tile cut of a photo of Umthombo captain on the goal posts. What makes this print special is both ex England captain Gary Lineker and Archbishop Desmond Tutu had shown their support by signing each of the eight limited edition prints, that increased their ability to raise money at auction.

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ECC Say: “Zulu beadwork Bees and Bracelets is what we do”.

Traditional Zulu beadwork is famous through out the world and has been made in Kwa-Zulu Natal for centuries. It is part of the Zulu culture - it is a craft to some, an art form to others and a method of communication to all. Traditional Zulu beadwork was used to express ideas, feelings, behaviour and relationships. Today that tradition continues as the participants and in this project has also produced bee key rings to help fund raise for the project.

Two organisations known as Ekukhoseleni and Isipho CreACTive Centre proposed Amos Trust and Momentum Arts to be commissioned to make 500 bee key rings and 500 bracelets with eight flags out of beads. Their proposal was successful and they were given the commission. They work very hard to complete their orders and it all went well as we saw participants smiling at the end of the day. They all decided to spend their money on buying painting material for their next workshop. They also said that their main trust for this year is to enter Nivea Art Award Competition with paintings that will come out of the next workshops.

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The Art of Mosaic with Ekukhoseleni students

Earlier this year four of our students were selected to attend a mosaic course with Stephanie Coulibaly at artSPACE. Stephanie is one of the America’s best mosaic artists and she volunteered to teach our students free of charge. They learnt the whole mosaic process from design conception to laying the tiles to grouting and finishing.

When I spoke to Stephanie after the course, she said: “I have had the opportunity to teach many talented students in my career but these guys were immediately enthusiastic about the medium from the moment they touched it. Their drawing and design skills were very good and their ability to bond with the medium was effortless”.

The earliest examples of this art form were created in the region of Mesopotamia around 2000 BC. Mosaic was later adopted by early Christians in Italy and throughout Europe but it was in the Byzantine Empire that mosaics flourished. Many of these mosaics can still be seen today. The art of mosaic can now be found throughout the world, there are wonderful examples of mosaics in South Africa.

Even in Durban you can see Jane du Rand’s mosaic design in Durban’s City Centre or Sheila Nichols’ art mosaics in various art galleries around the city. Mosaic literally means ‘a picture made with tiny little pieces’. So one can imagine patience pays with the creation of mosaics. It is a meditative, meticulous art form and therefore it can also be a therapeutic process. Indoor and outdoor mosaics endure through the ages both in their beauty and durability. This is part of their attractiveness, along with its luminous quality, especially when glass tiles are used.

Mosaics can be made with nearly anything: glass, ceramics, stones, shells, beads, mirrors and other objects. Its beauty lies in the artist’s choice of materials and design. Its durability lies in the adhesion of the chosen medium to the base and the grouting process that creates a nearly eternal bond. It has a variety of uses, both artistic and decorative. Mosaic, similar to any another type of media used to create art, takes many forms including sculpture. As a decorative medium it adorns general home décor and garden items such as flowers pots, foot stones, mirrors and picture frames. Versatile and full of variety… with mosaic the possibilities are endless.

The Mosaic Workshops is also opened to the public with classes held every Saturdays morning catering to various levels of expertise. Classes are held at artSPACE Durban,3 Millar Road (off of Umgeni road) For more information contact Stephanie Coulibaly at 082 729 5898 or by email: mosaicworkshop.dbn@gmail.com

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2009-11-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

T- Shirt making and Silkscreen printing.

Sponsored by Artists For Human Rights.

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The latter part of the twentieth century saw the birth of the relationship between t-shirt manufacture and silkscreen printing. Artists, advertisers, clothing manufacturers and campaigners used t-shirt logos and messages as a form of expression and branding.

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Ekukhoseleni CreACTive Centre™ realised that t-shirt making combined with silkscreen printing would fulfil two of their aims – facilitating creativity while also developing skills which would give the participants the potential to become financially independent.

Ekukhoseleni CreACTive Centre™ has gone about this in two ways. Firstly by teachingparticipants to make t-shirts with the ECC logo and secondly by giving participants the freedom to design and print their ownt-shirts that highlight issues in their communities and allow them to express their creativity. The participants of this project have gained various skills - from deciding on sizes, garment design, pattern making and machine sewing to logo design, silk screen printing (using the sun) and marketing strategies.

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Ekukhoseleni CreACTive Centre™ is in the process of negotiating and seeking contracts with other organisations and schools to produce t-shirts for special events and school uniforms. In this way ECC aims to fulfil its goal of moving its participants from financial dependency to financial contribution and to give the local community role models from whom they can learn what can be achieved through creativity.

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Monotype Silkscreen Printing

Monotype silk screening uses a single printing plate on which the artist uses various techniques from drawing, to painting, to stenciling in various mediums such as paint or ink. It is a technique that produces a unique one-off print. It is often confused with Mono-printing, which also produces a one-of-one print but is usually made by traditional printing processes, like lithography, etching and woodcut. When printing silkscreen monotypes the image does not reverse as it does in other printing techniques. Spontaneous painterly effects can be created by painting directly onto the silkscreen mesh with an acrylic colour.

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There are many advantages of using the monotype process: a stencil can easily be made on a screen; the artist is free to use creative strokes and expression without worrying about the edges as the image is neatly contained within the stencil; the usual screen printing rule – one stencil for one colour - does not apply and you can work with it on paper or fabric. Materials needed: 43 or 62 TW mesh (screen), system 3 acrylic paints, printing medium, brushes and paper.

The theme for the monotype screen printing workshop was ‘Tackling the issues associated with crime and violence in the community’. The objectives were for the participants to express their feelings on the high rate of crime and violence in their community, what they thought caused this and how it impacted on the youth. During this process they learned to question these issues in a pro-active manner. They were able to learn more about the factors that lead youth into crime and how to avoid this lifestyle by staying away from gangs and drugs and getting an education. Through the processes of creating a silkscreen monotype they learned about positive lifestyles and were able to reflect on their attitudes to crime and violence. Ultimately this project provided an opportunity for them to grow as human beings and improve as artists. This new positive way of thinking inspired and motivated participants to move from a position of merely attending workshops and learning about art to having a thirst for knowledge and a passion for social change in their community.

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Other future projects that ECC will embark on include:

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Ceramic Design

Music, Drama/ stage play and Dance

Painting

Sculptures

Stage plays for Sunday School

Silkscreen Printing

Potato Printing

Mosaic Making

Jewellery Design

Graphic Design

Leather Work

Craft Making

Film Making

and many other projects.

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Ekukhoseleni CreACTive Centre ™ would like to invite anyone who specializes in the above mentioned fields and other creative specialties to come and share their knowledge and skills with our community. ECC would also welcome any queries from individuals or organisations that would like to make a donation or sponsor a particular project.

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Contact details:

Contact number: 081 5387872
e.mail: mxolisithole@gmail.com or xmondli@yahoo.com

Post: Ekukhoseleni Creactive Centre, M44 Maphitha Road, UMlazi, DBN, S.A, 4066

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