The heart of the township will be on show at the Festival this year. Vukile Teyise is one of two artists from Grahamstown's Egazini Outreach Project exhibiting at the festival. His artwork will mostly consist of black and white lino-prints, along with fabric art, hand craft and paintings.
The heart of the township will be on show at the Festival this year. Vukile Teyise is one of two artists from Grahamstown's Egazini Outreach Project exhibiting at the festival. His artwork will mostly consist of black and white lino-prints, along with fabric art, hand craft and paintings.
Visitors are allowed to walk through the artist's workshop at the Egazini site. “I’m inspired by how local artists here can come together,” said Teyise. “It has such a great impact on their lives and my artwork.” Vukile’s exhibition is one four programmes of the Egazini Outreach Project that will be featured at the Festival.
Several other Eastern Cape artists will also be featured in theatre productions and other arts and crafts exhibitions. The Extraordinary Khotso Sethuntsa is a theatre production on the fringe stage. Egazini Expressions, a programme in collaboration with the department of social development, will feature various forms of artwork from Egazini artists and projects, including the township-based Masikhule sewing project.
Bongani Diko, director of the Ikhaya Theatre Company, says the Egazini projects provide a positive representation of the local community. "We are in our 11th year and I hope we can continue to be a centre where local artists of the township can come and share their stories through art and culture,” Diko said.
The Egazini Project was founded in 2000 as a collaboration of historians and local artists. It relies on the funding from the profit of its paintings. The artist receives 85 percent of the takings from sales and the remaining 15 percent goes to the programme.
The solo exhibitions of Vukile Teyise and Linga Diko will be open from 9am to 5pm daily at Victoria Girls' High School throughout the Festival.
