WHEN Lufuno Muthubi-Mthethwa was growing up, her mother, who was a church deacon, used to run a soup kitchen out of her own pocket.
At some point, after she was informed by someone at Woolworths that when food has been on shelves for a while, they get rid of it before it expires, she started going to Eastgate and collecting food that they were removing from the shelves to donate to church members who couldn’t afford to buy food.
She was supported by two taxi owners who gave her free transportation to pick up this food and distribute it around Diepkloof.
Witnessing this was a catalyst, it inspired Muthubi-Mthethwa to found non-profit organisation FutureAzania.org as an evenue to make a change, no matter how small.
From tomorrow (March 19) until Sunday (March 21), Basile Art and Projects will be hosting a group art exhibition (and panel discussion), entitled “Game Changing Women”, in collaboration with FutureAzania.org. It will seek to shine the light on and celebrate unsung women heroes that are game changers in their disciplines.
“It’s very important for us to label them and to give some kind of credence and representation of those women in our everyday life,” said Muthubi-Mthethwa.
The all-black, all-female curated exhibition, was created by five renowned women artists who use different mediums to illuminate the rhetoric of women as the game-changers they are.
The exhibition will form part of the broader Human Rights Festivities at the historic venue as part of the Heritage Festival at Constitution Hill.
“Essentially, we are just wanting to celebrate normal women who are changing the world in their own way. No matter how small it is, we want to celebrate them," she explains.
“Because, when we find these kinds of exhibitions, (it’s) usually about talking about politicians or some famous artist or actors. We came together and we thought there aren’t a lot of female artists who are being profiled in the space.
“But to go a bit further; there aren’t a lot of female artists who are profiled and who are doing impactful work in terms of our societal issues. So we came up with Game Changing Women to highlight this.”
While the exhibition opening and dialogue are invite-only, members of the public are invited to attend the exhibition and walk about over the weekend where the artworks will be on sale with prices ranging from R1 500 to R30 000.
Parts of the proceeds will be going to the Philip Kushlick – Special Needs School in Diepkloof, Soweto, to create a sustainable art space.
For those who will miss out on the weekend activities, the exhibition will be housed at the Women’s Jail from March 22 to April 22.
Muthubi-Mthethwa explained that part of what inspired this exhibition is the belief that representation is important. "And not only representation as females, but as black females in our different industries.
"And black females who are normal. So for us, game changing isn’t this grandiose thing that you do that brings in millions, or that brings in notable change in the world – it’s women going about their lives.”
She went on to mention that visitors from March 22 to of April 22, can look forward to thought-provoking art pieces that are not only great to look at, but that make us question ourselves as a society, and whether we are doing enough to change the game in our own contexts.
"They need to expect a body of work that’s going to provoke them to really stand up and think about how far we have come in this democracy and (whether) we have really changed anything, particularly for black females.”