HIGHWAY’S Giffy Duminy is the 26th artist showcasing his work on the Woza Moya Artists’ Wall, and his work is being featured for the month of November.
The concept behind the Woza Moya Artist’s Wall and Artist’s Cards is to create and showcase work for artists who have been hard hit by Covid. Each month, a different artist is paid to paint a 1.2m x 1.2m wall panel which is displayed on the wall outside Woza Moya, the Hillcrest AIDS Centre shop. Woza Moya assists the artist by marketing their work for the entire month their work is on display. A greeting card is made of the painted wall panel and sold in their shops so that artists can earn an ongoing passive income.
This has worked well with artists earning from R200 to R1 000 a month from the sale of the cards.
Also read: Off the wall: Durban artist brings splash of colour to murals
Woza Moya have done something different this month.
“As Giffy has painted a permanent mural on our coffee shop wall of a sunbird and the orange honeysuckle, a print of one for Giffy’s graffiti works will go on auction. If you love the artist’s work, please support them by buying a card – they are only R25, and card sales help artists earn a passive income. We now have over 26 beautiful cards to choose from. The prints will be available for R500 each.
“The Woza Moya Artists’ Wall would like to thank the 100% Foundation for coming on board for ongoing sponsorship and making this monthly event possible,” said Woza Moya’s Paula Thomson.
About the artist
Giffy is 26 years old and lives in the Upper Highway area. After finishing matric, he went straight into study a Bachelor of Commerce and got a Marketing degree. He did this because he didn’t know if art would be a viable option as a career. He learnt a valuable lesson from this – it taught him what he didn’t want to do which was to have an office job. He put enough effort into passing varsity, but most of his energy went into his art. This was mainly painting murals around the Upper Highway and Durban and its nooks and crannies. In his fourth and final year, he was more occupied with art commissions and painting walls than his studies. Marketing went against his moral code.
“So I decided to use my ability to paint walls and have directed that energy into ‘marketing’ and showing the general public the beauty of our very own indigenous natural environment. I use the street as my gallery. This has deeply inspired me to bring a natural aesthetic to harsh, developed spaces,” he said.
Duminy said he gets his inspiration from the aesthetics found in our very own gardens, and our natural habitat really sparks something in him.
“If we look at our gorgeous indigenous flowers and how so often they are the most pure and clean colours – to attract precious pollinators, such as birds, bugs and bees, in particular. The geometry found in flowers must also be a very strong aesthetic attraction for animals to spread the plants’ pollen or seeds. Their beauty allows their continuation,” said the artist.
Shop opening times:
Woza Moya is based at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, 26 Old Main Road, in Hillcrest, and is open from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00, and from 09:00 to 17:00 at Woza Moya Windermere Centre. On Saturdays, the HACT shop is open from 08:00 to 14:00, and from 09:00 to 14:00 at Windermere. Woza Moya is the economic empowerment project of the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust.
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