VIDEO: Winterveldt artist uses wine to paint his sorrows away
"I wanted to make the story personal... show people that I too have been affected by alcohol."
A young Winterveldt artist has found a healthier way to use the alcohol that once broke his family, to reconstruct his troubled past.
Thabiso Thabethe, a visual artist, singer and instrumentalist, said alcohol destroyed his relationship with his father and turned once thriving communities into zombie towns.
Thabethe created the Bottle Art Collection to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.
For the collection, Thabathe invited locals battling with alcohol addiction to pose for him while he made portraits using wine as his paint.
Watch the video here:
Thabethe said his father battled the demons of alcohol abuse for many years.
He said he was lucky that he himself was not “driven to drink” has he had a good support structure during childhood.
“Even though my father was taken away by alcohol I had an art mentor, Tshepo Maponyane, who took me under his care and become my father.”
“Maponyane taught me a lot and was the only man I looked up to.”
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Residents told Record alcohol abuse in the township was a way of “healing and finding closure”.
Ntate Thupa Mosele (63), who witnessed the March 1986 slaughter of protesters by the Bophuthatswana police, said it was this kind of pain that people were numbing with alcohol.
On 26 March 1986, police opened fire on a crowd protesting against police brutality at City Rocks sports field in Winterveldt, then part of the Bophuthatswana bantustan ruled by Lucas Mangope.
According to SA History, about 11 people were killed.
“In the aftermath, police allegedly assaulted fleeing people, dragged them out of houses and subjected them to severe assault, both at the scene and at Ga-Rankuwa police station,” said SA History.
Mosele said an unknown number were injured or went missing following the massacre.
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“That man [Mangope] wounded a lot of souls; so did the apartheid government he was working with at the time.”
“After the horrible deaths, families were left to pick up the pieces.”
Mosele said families used alcohol to sooth their pain.
Thabethe said although this happened 31 years ago, people were still abusing alcohol today as a consequence.
He said the abuse of women, which was also prevalent in the area, could be blamed on the abuse of alcohol in the township.
“I wanted to make the story personal… show people that I too have been affected by alcohol,” said Thabethe.
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“My relatives and friends have been affected by alcohol, which also affects me, their children and those around them.”
He said he hoped the paintings would be seen by people, especially the youth, and they would change their ways.
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