A group of artists from the Keiskamma Art Project have spent a week visiting Kirstenbosch in preparation for the Kirstenbosch Botanical Art Biennale which opens on the 4th September 2010. This year the theme for the Kirstenbosch Biennale focuses on rare, endangered and narrow endemic species indigenous to southern Africa.

Kirstenbosch horticulturists took members from the Keiskamma Art Project around the Conservatory and Collections Nursery to show them our rare collections and threatened species in cultivation. Special guided tours were made to visit the Cycad collection, Strelitzias, Clivias, Useful Plants and rare Proteas in the garden. The Keiskamma Artists then selected plant material from which they practised drawing and they developed designs for their art work.

The artists also enjoyed an afternoon botanical session with Wendy Hitchcock. They learned that flowers are the sex organs of plants and were introduced to the name of the parts with large models of flowers. They really enjoyed the process of carefully pulling a single aloe flower apart, identifying the different parts. Wendy then set up the dissecting microscope and participants were amazed to see tiny flowers magnified under the microscope.

This was a wonderful opportunity to explain some of the simple wonders of our biodiversity to a group of people involved in art projects. With these simple botanical tools, these artists can now look more closely at plants in their local area and accurately represent them in their artwork.

Although the Biennale is an exhibition of botanical artwork, this year the event has been extended to include exhibits under the banner of ‘Biodiversity is Life’ which celebrates the International Year of Biodiversity. The Keiskamma Art Project will be exhibiting wall hangings featuring the biodiversity of the Eastern Cape and depicting the varieties of ecosystems ranging from estuaries and marshlands to the sparse vegetation of the dry areas.

The Keiskamma Art project began in the Eastern Cape village of Hamburg on the initiative of Carol Hofmeyr, medical doctor and fine artist and also Jan Chalmers from the UK and Jackie Jezewski from France. Hamburg was a village wracked by poverty, unemployment and HIV Aids and the Art Project has, in ten years, created a future for many of the villagers. The artists and craftsmen do embroidery work, ceramics, beading, textile design, printmaking and beading and their artworks have earned national and international acclaim. Perhaps the best known of their pieces is the Keiskamma tapestry inspired by the Bayeux tapestry in France, that now hangs in Parliament in Cape Town.