An exhibition, launched this week at the Michaelis School of Fine Art casts a light on the preservation of the historic events around the gay and drag community of Cape Town.
Its rich tapestry and ever evolving art and culture are among the archived collections of Salon Kewpie – a collective whose work centres on the Kewpie Collection: an important archival resource documenting life under apartheid for the gays and girls of District Six, held at the GALA Queer Archive.
In another section, the famous Miss Gay Cape Town (now known as Miss Sovereign Western Cape) showcases all the years of its pageantry dating back to the first queen crowned in 2009, Enigma Von Hamburg.
The The “Sequins, Self, and Struggle” archive, held at UCT's Centre for Curating the Archive, researches, documents, and disseminates archives of the Spring Queen and Miss Gay Western Cape pageants performed by coloured communities in greater Cape Town. This exhibition draws on materials from the Miss Gay Western Cape collection in particular, connected across time to the Kewpie Collection by the resilient spirit of gay, queer and trans self-expression.
The exhibition is curated by Jade Nair (Michaelis Galleries) and Nina Milner (Salon Kewpie). The exhibition text was written by Nair and Dr Ruth Ramsden-Karelse.
With the help of Barry Reid, Director of Miss Sovereign Western Cape, the art collection was brought to life at the Michaelis Galleries, Michaelis School of Fine Art, on Thursday.
“The exhibition is important to preserve and showcase not only the history, but the legacy of our previous queens and participants. We have seen from Kewpie Project how important honouring and respecting those who have come before us and paved the way for us to be free and able to do what they as our elders were not allowed,” said Reid.
“It is wonderful to see that different projects, legacies, and archives are able to cross pollinate and enhance the history of our country so wonderfully.
I am so happy to see Miss Gay Western Cape deservedly have the recognition of being so impactful in our society.”
Nair said: “I am grateful for the diverse audience we have here. There are people across different demographics and age groups.
“I grew up on the Cape Flats and Kewpie is an important cultural figure for the coloured communities, so I have always loved and adored Kewpie. I have also worked on the Miss Gay Western Cape collection for a long time and so it's been important for me to platform these stories and communities.
“I want to bring forth the message of the importance of self-archiving, especially people telling their stories that are not archived by the mainstream institutions and also the importance of community and how strong that sense of community is in the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Nair said: “Salon Sequins exhibition, is a collaborative project with Nina of Salon Kewpie, with institutional support from the Centre for Curating the Archive, District 6 Museum, GALA and the University of Pretoria. This exhibition forms part of the HEAT Winter Arts Festival programme whose theme this year is ‘common ground’. I am constantly inspired by the ways in which LGBTQIA+ people find and foster community and family, often in defiance of prejudicial behaviour and legislature.
“The exhibition showcases the strong community spirit of Cape Town's LGBTQIA+ people though the materials of two important archives, the Kewpie Collection (GALA) and Sequins, Self and Struggle: Miss Gay Western Cape Collection (CCA) and the work of the Salon Kewpie collective. It is a moment to celebrate these communities and the self-archiving practices of people like Kewpie, without whom these collections would not exist.”
The exhibition will be on show every weekday from 10am–3pm until August 23 at the Michaelis Galleries, Michaelis School of Fine Art, 31 Orange Street, Gardens.