Empowering women to live the life they deserve!
This significant event in London’s 2023 arts calendar celebrates the extraordinary success of One to One in Africa
Dualities Exhibition weaves together the stories of South African women who are using their talent and leadership to transform their own lives and society at large. The story of One to One Africa’s Mentor Mothers, and their work to provide door-to-door maternal and child healthcare is displayed in parallel with the work of Undiscovered Canvas, who amplify the ever-growing talent of young, female, South African artists in a unique residency programme.
“Dualities shines an important light on our work,” explains One to One Africa’s Executive Director Gqibelo Dandala. “There in the last mile communities where close to 70% of people are living in severe poverty, our Mentor Mothers are beating UN targets to deliver an Aids-free generation.”
“It has a hugely catalysing effect when our successes are the subject of artworks, meetings and conversation in the centre of London. The exhibition is a celebration we can share with fellow South Africans, many of whom found out about our work for the first time in London.”
Undiscovered Canvas founder, Nomaza Nongqunga Coupez, is originally from the small last-mile village of Ngqeleni, where One to One Africa provides a service. She worked in clinical pathology during the height of the HIV pandemic, seeing infection rates rise out of control, there in the lab, and within her own family.
“Art is a voice. And art is a medium to address stigma, to shine a light on misrepresentation and achieve social justice. This is how the exhibition, Dualities, means mobility to me. It means empowering women to live the life they deserve,” says Nomaza Nongqunga Coupez.
Renowned artist Nene Mahlangu is honouring the charity’s Mentor Mothers in a special piece, to be exhibited along with exceptional work by fellow artists in the Undiscovered Canvas stable including Lulama Wolf, Nthabiseng Boledi Kekana and Lesego Seoketsa.
“Being from Johannesburg I had no real feeling for how cut off, how overlooked women in the Eastern Cape can be. The piece will respond to my admiration for the Mentor Mothers out there saving lives every day,” says Nene Mahlangu.
“The UN goal to eradicate Aids by 2030 can only be met with a focus on maternal healthcare in remote regions, led at the grassroots by women such as One to One Africa’s Mentor Mothers. It would be great to see this model widely adopted,” explains international film star and One to One Ambassador Naomie Harris. “90% of One to One’s Mentor Mothers are living with HIV. Walking many kilometres between homes, Mentor Mothers are not just delivering health care, they are ambassadors and role models for living positively with HIV. They have removed the profound stigma which was preventing discussion, diagnosis, and sustained use of antiretroviral therapy! These treasured members of local communities are an inspiration to us all.”
Exhibition Curator, Susan Ansley Johnson, “The exhibition deals with furthering opportunities for women, whether that’s the opportunity of life itself for a woman and her children, the opportunity of becoming a One to One Mentor Mother, to work as a pillar of the community, or to further her dreams of becoming an artist. All these women receive the agency to succeed, to take control. It really is a story of women’s empowerment.”
The exhibition runs from Monday the 20th of November 2023 to Saturday the 25th of November 2023 at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in Mayfair, London.
For more information, please visit https://www.onetooneafrica.org/dualities-exhibition-2023/
