TAYA winner grooms orphans and the disabled
Dumisani Ncube | Thursday April 6, 2017 15:01
The abstract artist won the TAYA overall winner after conceptualising the famous ‘World at night’, which was an abstract installation work comprising of a dress suspended in a mosquito net and other elements surrounding it.
The 29-year-old noted that he decided to groom the young orphans and disabled children after noticing that there is a gap that does not cater for them especially the disabled when it comes to art related studies.
“I also noticed that a lot of artists around, after winning awards, just disappear and leave without doing something meaningful for the community. I do not want to follow that same path,” Nkawana said.
With strong emphasis that the academic system does not cater for children in foundation entities when it comes to art studies he is working with a group of children aged between five to 15 years teaching them different forms of art such as drawing, painting and installation art. The project has been running for four weeks.
“This project is set to run up to August where we will exhibit the various works by the students. At the moment we are at the introductory level, teaching them how to draw and paint.”
Nkawana said his Cheshire Foundation art students are grasping the art techniques at a good pace.
The TAYA winner noted that art opens an individual’s mind and keeps it broad. He said children should be introduced to art at a young age so they grow up with a broad mind.
Nkawana started his art career during his teen years, went to university where he obtained a degree in marketing but has continued with his art profession.
Juggling between his professional artwork and mentoring the children, he goes to Cheshire Foundation twice a week and spends two hours with his students.
“The experience has been humbling apart from teaching them, I am also learning their circumstances and who they are,” Nkawana said.
Having used part of the P 35,000, which he won as the TAYA overall winner to buy art material for his students he noted that along the way he would be in need of financial assistance to purchase more resources for the project to complete without any challenges.
For an artist who has been hailed as being smart when it comes to abstract work, many were left wondering why he was awarded the overall winner for TAYA when he just assembled a mosquito net and a dress.
Describing the installation artwork he said, “the black dress depicts wickedness. The net is the protector because in our culture we treat the woman as a ‘glass’ that can easily break. The fan blows the woman represented by the dress and moves her around and this shows that the woman is always ‘shaken’ in her home”.