Images of Swazi women living with HIV
Date
2009-07-01T11:12:00Z
Authors
Nodder, Deborah Ann
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Abstract
Abstract
Swaziland has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world and a society marked by gender
inequality. HIV positive women are therefore a marginalized and stigmatised group. This research
explores the therapeutic potential of art for a group of nine Swazi women living with HIV. It is a
qualitative exploratory study of a group’s experience and the artwork produced by them. The
images made within the art group were examined in order to discover what they communicate about
the women’s lives and what effect the image-making process has on the participants. An eclectic
approach was adopted with concepts from art therapy theory, especially psychoanalytic, analytic,
feminist and group art therapy, informing both the methodology and the analysis of the artwork
created. The art work reveals how the dominant ideologies concerning motherhood, HIV and
poverty inform the women’s identities. The image-making process was found to be therapeutic in
that it provided a useful way for these women to explore their identity, trauma and assess their
future goals. The social value of the group was clearly evident. The art group was presented as a
practical strategy which can be used to give marginalized woman a voice.
In my own practical work I explore the physical manifestation of AIDS deaths in the natural
environment through the genre of landscape painting. My paintings are a witness to my empirical
experience of the pandemic. A brief discussion of the concepts of the “uncanny”, “The Sublime”
and palimpsest in paintings by Paul Nash, Caspar David Fredrich, Paul Cezanne, William Kentridge
and Anselm Kiefer are used to establish a conceptual framework to understand my work.