NELSON Mandela Bay has lost a very dear friend, legendary artist and brother, Mpumelelo Melane, who died last Thursday. May his soul rest in peace.
Mpume played a significant role as an artist activist (under the banner of Imvaba) during the struggle years and his artworks are in international collections all over the world. He also attended the London Zabalaza anti-apartheid struggle festival in the UK in 1989.
Some of his works can be viewed at the Boardwalk – the "golf players".
Sadly our city's local government still does not invest in buying our artists' works, nor does it offer a lucrative market for artists to produce and survive. Many of our artists end up either leaving the city or taking up other jobs. Our local employers, especially government, seem to believe visual artists should cease from being artists, once they work for them.
None of our government offices and boardrooms have our city's artworks and when it comes to national and local government events, only performing artists and musicians get invited to contribute. Visual artists continue to be completely out in the cold during such occasions.
Sad I think, as if the city would have invited our visual artists to make backdrops and other creative works, these would have become the art collections of our city and perhaps they could have managed to bring some presence in dreary and sombre government buildings and spaces!
We are very grateful, however, to the Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency and their investing in visual public art.
Mpume did his final year (third year) in fine arts at NMMU but could not complete it after he went to France to stay as an artist for a week at an artist residency. Our university warned him that if he went they would not allow him to complete his studies as it was towards the end of the year. The artist residency award from France to us Imvaba artists after our city taxi rank mural (Aids the new Struggle) won the best mural award on HIV in South Africa. Only one artist could enjoy the prize and we felt Mpume was the best candidate.
It really troubled Mpume deeply he could not complete his studies and he sadly began drinking more and more and died in poverty. But he was not a "drunken" kind of person.
Annette du Plessis, marketing officer, Red Location Museum