Context (Production / use)
Nondumiso Hlwele describes her body map as 'if you hear the president saying something you think it's the truth. But here in South Africa the president is not always telling the truth. Jussis, it's bad.
After I started going to MSF, doctors without borders, I told both my parents I am HIV positive. My mother said, 'Why do all my children have to be like that?' A witchdoctor in Transkei had told her that all her children were going to be sick, but he never told her which disease they were going to have.
My brother told me about MSF when I got very sick, sick, sick. I had things- the brown marks on my painting - like ringworms in my skin- it looked like a brown map. My skin was very light before but it slowly started to get a grey colour, then it went darker and darker. It started to itch when I was eating the TB tablets, then my skin started to peel like a snake. I felt like going underground. People were going to ask me, 'What is wrong with you? Why are you so dark?' So I just stayed inside the house and caught an early taxi to the clinic and came back again. I thought to myself there's no future, I'm going to die. I have done nothing. No children. My family is still poor.
The only things I want to get rid of are these marks. I don't know where can I go to just be me. The ARVs have helped a lot but this skin is taking time to get better. By the second month I was well. It's amazing. When I had flu it would stay a long time, but now when I get flu, it goes away quickly.
On my picture I drew the virus- it's the small blue dot. The red circles are the ARVs eating the virus and the virus is going down. The white is my blood. The ARV's are strong. Look what I have written under my left hand.'
See http://www.memorybox.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=42 Accessed 27/1/2014
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Context (Field collection)
Customised print commissioned by MAA from Nondumiso Hlwele's original acrylic painting, 2003.

The Bambanani Women’s Group formed in 2002 to participate in the creation of memory books and boxes aimed to help people come to terms with their diagnosis, to disclose their HIV - status to their families and children and to begin the planning for the future. The group went on to work on the Longlife Project which created 'body maps', life-size outlines of the artists' bodies filled with colourful depictions of the effects of the HIV virus on their life

The Longlife Project recorded the life stories of the women who were participating in a Medésins Sans Frontières (MSF) pilot antiretroviral programme and raised awareness and campaigned for antiretroviral treatment to be made available in the South African public healthcare sector. The Longlife Project marked a shift from ‘preparing for death’ with the creation of memory boxes to ‘fighting for life’ as antiretroviral therapy was made available in public clinics and hospitals in late 2003.

The body maps published in the book Longlife: Positive HIV Stories together with interviews of people working on the project and limited edition fine art prints of the original body maps were exhibited locally and internationally at conferences, fundraising events and in art galleries.

After the Longlife Project the Bambanani Women’s group went on to be trained as field researchers and worked on surveys conducted by the Centre for Social Science Research at University of Cape Town. Some members of the group have continued to do Memory Book and Body Map workshops and presentations for organisations such as VSO, Tateni Home Based Care, Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières and medical students at the University of Cape Town.
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Jonathan Morgan & Bambanani Women's Group (2003).Longlife: Positive HIV Stories. Cape Town: DoubleStorey Press.
Event Date 2003
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Customised print commissioned by MAA from the original acrylic body map of Nondumiso Hlwele, 2003. 'Hlwele 8/45’ written on base in pencil.

Event Date 16/12/2009
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: On display in the MAA exhibition Assembling Bodies; Art, Science & Imagination, Andrews Gallery, March 7- end November 2010. with the following details. 'On my picture I drew the virus- it's the small blue dot. The white is my blood. The red circles are the ARVs eating the virus, and the virus is going down. The ARVs are strong- I was 25 when I found out [that I was HIV positive]. I'm not sure how I contracted the virus- I told both my parents that I am HIV positive. My mother said, 'why do all my children have to be like that?' (Nondumiso 2003).
Event Date 7/3/2010
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited: On display in the shop area, Clarke Gallery as part of the MAA redevelopment, from May 2012
Event Date 1/4/2012
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Nondumiso Hlwele and Thobani Ncapai visited MAA as part of the Unlimited Global Alchemy exhibition, held in the South Lecture room, 23 June- 18 August 2012, as part of the Cultural Olympics. Unlimited Global Alchemy is an artistic commission led by British visual artist Rachel Gadsden, in partnership with South African artist/activist Nondumiso Hlwele and the Bambanani Group (Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town, South Africa).
Unlimited Global Alchemy began life in Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town through a residency led by artist Rachel Gadsden (UK) in collaboration with the Bambanani artist-activist Group (SA). Over six exciting weeks a large number of drawings, sketchbooks and paintings were created, and a series of portraits directed by Gadsden were made with filmmakers Deborah May and Cliff Bestall.
Fuelled by the politics and myths surrounding chronic health issues – in particular HIV/AIDS – this startling body of work offers visceral and often poetic perspectives on what it means to experience disabling conditions and to fight openly for life in the face of social taboos

The results of Gadsden's unique association with the Bambanani now come to the UK, together with a further series of her artworks, a specially commissioned catalogue and a new performance created in response to the Cape Town collaboration.
Details taken from http://www.unlimitedglobalalchemy.com/about 27/1/2014

Event Date 23/8/2012
Author: Rachel Hand

Loan (Exhibition)
Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck University of London
London, 13/11/2015 to 22/1/2016, Positive Living: Art and AIDS in South Africa
Event Date 13/11/2015
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Digital print from a body map painting by Nondumiso Hlwele, 2003, of the outline of a body with writing around it, dark blue background. Printed on canvas, stretched and framed.
Event Date 30/4/2025
Author: Rachel Hand