The Keiskamma Altarpiece: A Story of Love

There is a magnificent installation at Saint James Cathedral located at Wabash Avenue and Huron Street in Chicago: The Keiskamma Altarpiece from Hamburg, South Africa.

The Keiskamma Altarpiece, an incredible display of embroidery, bead work, wire sculpture and photography, spun from the powerful stories of the mothers and grandmothers who have immortalized their village's struggle with poverty, adversity and life and death as it's been ravaged by HIV/AIDS, stands as a testament to the limitless strength of love, hope and compassion that a community brought together can achieve. 

Dr. Carol Baker Hofmeyr began treating the South African people infected with HIV/AIDS in 2000. Traveling from home to home to provide and insure that her patients were taking their medicines, Dr. Hofmeyr financed much of the care her patients received from her own pockets in a community whose resources were few. Dr. Hofmeyr also began teaching the women of the village how to create small art projects as a means of economic development in the community, giving the impoverished people in Hamburg training in needlework so they could support themselves financially. They mastered the necessary skills quickly and Dr. Hofmeyr chose a much more ambitious project to help the women deal with their grief of loss in a truly unique communal fashion.

The result was the Keiskamma Altarpiece, a 22-foot wide, 14-foot high, three-layered masterwork inspired by the famous German Isenheim Altarpiece which was commissioned to celebrate the deliverance from a plague. 

                                         

"What the women of the Keiskamma needed," Dr. Hofmeyr decided, "was their own altarpiece-to commemorate their determination to prevail in the face of AIDS, the worst plague in modern history." 

Panel after panel of the Altarpiece tells a story-exposing one layer after another in the lives of the villagers of Hamburg, South Africa. One would imagine it's a sobering experience but it's something more. It's a story of love and creates a connection to a reality that we may never experience. We become small. And it's an incredible gift to be small-if only for a little while. 

While many of us escape the reality of our daily lives by going to the theater to watch and experience stories unfold, viewing the Keiskamma Altarpiece and learning its story is a one of a kind life experience that may never get to be told on stage. 

The Keiskamma Altarpiece is on display from Thursday, March 27th-May 11th, 2008. Admission is Free.

More information about the Keiskamma Altarpiece can be found on the Saint James Cathedral's website by clicking here:

Hours Open For Viewing:
Volunteer docents will be on hand to open the layers on the hour and half-hour.
Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays 12:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Thursdays 12:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Sundays 12:30 - 4:00 p.m.

CLOSED Mondays and Tuesdays, and Saturdays March 29th and May 3rd.

Special Events:
April 1st at 6:00 P.M.: "Introducing and Contextualizing the Keiskamma Altarpiece" with Eunice Mangwane and Noseti Makhubalo from Hamburg, South Africa relaying stories on how the altarpiece was done.