A giant tapestry stitched by 43 artists in the small Eastern Cape coastal village of Hamburg, and later admired by President Cyril Ramaphosa at a global climate summit, is going under the hammer.
The 5m by 2m artwork, Umlibo, will be auctioned by Strauss & Co on September 15, with a pre-sale estimate of R250,000 to R300,000.
Created by 41 women and two men from the internationally acclaimed Keiskamma Art Project, the colourful work tells the story of how climate change is already affecting life in their community.
Its name comes from the isiXhosa word for a pumpkin vine — something that spreads wherever conditions allow — reflecting the artists’ hope that their message will travel far beyond Hamburg.
It already has.
In 2023, Umlibo travelled to Dubai for COP28, the United Nations climate conference, where it caught Ramaphosa’s attention.
He said the hand-stitched work “contained everything any head of state needs to say about the climate issue”.
“It is the most amazing piece of work and to know that it was done in the deep rural areas of our country makes me very proud,” Ramaphosa said at the time.
Up close, Umlibo is filled with small scenes from everyday Eastern Cape life: a woman riding in a donkey cart, red cattle grazing near wind turbines, food gardens and a fisherman casting his net into an estuary.
Appliqué, beadwork and thick coloured cotton were used to build the images onto hessian, with some flowers, waves and other details raised from the surface.
Take a few steps back, however, and those individual scenes form a butterfly.
One wing represents the hardships associated with a warming climate, while the other depicts the possibility of a more sustainable future.
Many of the details are drawn directly from the lives of the people who stitched them.
Artist Nozeti Makhubalo once dived for abalone at night and has watched marine stocks become scarcer.
“I was desperate to make money. So I joined other local women who were poaching abalone … I joined to feed my kids and my husband.”
Kwandi Paliso battles moles, roaming livestock and increasingly unpredictable weather to keep her fenced vegetable garden productive.
Head seamstress Veronica Betani worries about whether her cracked home will withstand the stronger winds she fears will accompany a changing climate.
She says the strelitzia flower motif she embroiders onto cloth is the perfect expression of her life.
“Sometimes that flower looks like it has vanished, but it sleeps for a bit and comes back. I take that as a symbol of myself. There are ups and down in life and I have overcome challenges, but I come back.”
Umlibo was commissioned by WWF SA, with funding from the government of Flanders, as part of a marine project focused on sustainable livelihoods.
Proceeds from its sale will help support conservation work and benefit the community.
WWF SA senior marine specialist Craig Smith said the artists had placed their own homes and livelihoods at the centre of the work.
“The 43 artists stitched their own home and livelihoods into Umlibo, and showed a changing climate already reshaping them,” Smith said.
“What happens in a tiny village such as Hamburg is a warning for all of us. Nature is our home.
“Selling the work carries that message forward, and we would love it to go somewhere people can keep engaging with it for years to come.”
The Keiskamma Art Project has spent more than two decades creating monumental tapestries and artworks tackling some of the biggest issues to affect its community.
Its works, including The Keiskamma Altarpiece, The Keiskamma Guernica, The Creation Altarpiece and The Keiskamma Tapestry, have been exhibited in SA, Europe and North America, with several documenting the devastating impact of the HIV/Aids epidemic.
Now Umlibo, which began life in a remote Eastern Cape village before carrying its message to one of the world’s biggest climate gatherings, is looking for a new home.
Daily Dispatch
Daily Dispatch Correspondent
www.dailydispatch.co.za
