'The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Print Portfolio' at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery
by Odirile Mokotedi
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights became manifest in a print portfolio in 1999, initiated to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the declaration itself. Thirty-three printmakers from thirty countries in the international arena each made a print illustrating an article of this declaration. There are 30 articles in the declaration, and there were three endsheets included in the portfolio's final make up. This portfolio has travelled all over the world, and this is its first showing in Johannesburg.
In my review, I offer a reading of one of the works in particular�the print produced by Vedant Nanackchand as a prism to read the whole show. At the time of producing this print, Nanackchand was one of the co-ordinators of the project as well as a lecturer in printmaking at the University of Durban-Westville.
All artworks in this portfolio are hand-pulled prints. The prints exhibited were of uniform size and uniformly framed with manufactured black wood. All the prints were designed to be monochromatic and were produced in black ink, but there was enormous diversity to the way in which each individual print was made and appeared.
In his woodcut entitled Let us Pray, Nanckchand illustrates Article 17 of the Declaration, which is 'the right to own property'. The image comprises a band of rural shacks across the lower portion of the plate, and a band of houses of an urban appearance across the upper portion. The centrepiece of this image contains an array of heads�three animals, two women and a man.
On one hand, the animals evoke the kind of dogs that one would keep to protect one's property, on the other, they look like fancy doorknockers, fashionable in the west, in the early part of the twentieth century. Either way, they serve to protect and close a homestead from outsiders. The women have cultural markings on their faces. Both in profile, they look out of the picture's confines, but the markings denote a sense of ownership and/or belonging. The male figure at the top of the image has long flowing hair which seems to become one with the knots of rope which characterise this part of the image.
'This print celebrates the inalienable rights of individuals, especially women, to enjoy the freedom to own property', Nanackchand commented in the catalogue for the exhibition. 'The print also questions social distinctions based on class. It reflects ambiguously on the element of criminality in society as well as the extreme measure to which this right to protection of property is exercised.'
Nanackchand continues: '� the graphic medium is a truly democratic means of expressing the spirit and values intrinsic to the philosophy of the UDHR as these transcend all barriers of race, culture and class'. In spite of a lack of contextual clarity in some of the works, the prints are all technically well handled.
The exercise as a whole is relevant to our new democracy and was interesting to visit. This initiative by the Artists for Human Rights Trust was endorsed by a number of international leaders including Dr Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN; Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Madame Danielle Mitterand of the France Libertée Foundation and Wole Soyinka, African Poet Laureate. South African dignitaries endorsing the project include Breyten Breytenbach, Nadine Gordimer, Helen Suzman, Justice Richard Goldstone and Justice Albie Sachs.
May 4 - June 22
University of Johannesburg Art Gallery
B5, Building H, Corner Kingsway and University Road, Auckland Park
Tel: (011) 489 2099
Fax: (011) 489 3178
Email: aed@rau.ac.za
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