"Portraits of Positive Living"
2005-12-01 until 2006-01-10
Iziko Museums at the Castle of Good
Cape Town, , ZA South Africa

To raise awareness with regard to the right of HIV positive people to anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment and to draw attention to the lives of those on ARV treatment, a photographic exhibition opens on World Aids Day, 1 December 2005, at Iziko Good Hope Gallery, Castle of Good Hope. The exhibition consists of 60 portraits of people on ARV treatment, interspersed with photographs of their homes and the community in which they live. The photographer, David Chancellor, spent two months in Khayelitsha, Langa and Nyanga, where he worked closely with staff, volunteers and clients of the South African Red Cross Society's Community Home Based Care programme (CHBC), capturing the positive effects ARVs have had on the lives of people living with HIV.

The Cape Town artist, Kevin Brand, has helped with the design installations of the exhibition.

Linked to the exhibition are two workshops that will explore prejudice and stigma and the role of the individual in changing patterns of behavior and also clarify the ARV treatment programme. The workshops will be facilitated by the Red Cross's CHBC coordinators and facilitators from SHIKAYA, an organisation that promotes the work of educators in developing South African society, based on human rights, democracy, diversity and peace. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will also participate as a facilitator.

Ms Mandisa Kalako-Williams, President of the South African Red Cross Society, has said that access to treatment is a human right and that she hopes the exhibition will make a contribution to highlighting the positive effects of ARVs on people's lives. She has described the show as a celebration of those lives.

The exhibition is the result of collaboration between the South African Red Cross Society, the British Red Cross and Iziko Museums.

IMAGE
David Chancellor
Mother and Daughter: Tambo Village 24/03/05
Image from Living (+) Positive.
Photograph Copyright David Chancellor.

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