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A gift of a different kind.
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| Subject: |
Teddy bears
(Design and construction) Teddy bears (Achievements and awards) |
| Author: | Frank, Liz |
| Pub Date: | 10/01/2008 |
| Publication: | Name: Sister Namibia Publisher: Sister Namibia Audience: Academic; General Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Social sciences; Women's issues/gender studies Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2008 Sister Namibia ISSN: 1026-9126 |
| Issue: | Date: Oct, 2008 Source Volume: 20 Source Issue: 4 |
| Persons: | Named Person: Swartz, Felicia; Swartz, Felicia; Swartz, Felicia |
| Geographic: | Geographic Scope: Namibia Geographic Code: 6NAMI Namibia |
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| Accession Number: | 191779749 |
| Full Text: |
The mixed media installation Gift of a different kind - Teddy Bears
impressed the judges of the Bank Windhoek Triennale held at the National
Art Gallery of Namibia in September and brought Felicia Swartz the
second prize in this category. Felicia hails from Keetmanshoop in the South and is currently a fourth-year art student at the University of Namibia, studying Art for Advertising and Two-dimensional Studies. She explains her choice of used tea bags and empty chips packets as materials for the 52 teddy bears she produced for the installation/This work is about poverty, something I know too well from my childhood. When you're hungry a warm cup of tea can take away that gnawing feeling for a while. And for poor students at university, a packet of Nik Naks is sometimes all they can afford for lunch." 'Poverty is hunger' reads the message on the small plastic tag dangling from one of the teddy bears. '800 million people go to bed hungry every day', reads another, and this theme is echoed by the tags on the other 50 bears. Their bodies are tightly bound with string, representing the constraints in life faced by poor people. 'Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom,' explains another tag. At the same time the teddies represent the comfort and joy felt by children hugging their favourite toy. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Felicia is proud of her achievement and ready to develop this work further, based on the many inspiring comments she received from the judges and her fellow artists. She wants to see more Black women go beyond beading and stitching and develop new forms of self-expression through art. "Delve into yourself--explore what is there, and you will find you are part of a community with problems that need to be addressed." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We look forward to more work from this socially aware young artist, who in true feminist spirit is making the personal political. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
| Gale Copyright: | Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. |
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