Through Positive Eyes, a collaboration with the Art and Global Health Centre at the University of California (Los Angeles) and photographer Gideon Mendel, will be staged on April 17 and 18 at the Careena Centre for Health, and April 19 at Maitisong. The project started in 2010, when the artist encouraged 17 HIV-positive activists in Gauteng to create photo essays about their lives as people living with HIV and AIDS. Impressed by their works, Mendel decided to display their photos in the spiral exhibition called The A.R.T. Show, as well as online.
In April 2012, 12 of the original 17 Through Positive Eyes activists participated in an 11-day intensive workshop with actors from Drama for Life and Themba Interactive. The goal of the workshop was to fuse the visual with live performances, to combat stigma and to strengthen the advocacy potential of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Through Positive Eyes participants shared their stories and the DFL and Themba Interactive actors - directed by DFL-director Warren Nebe and assistant-director Hamish Neill - transformed the stories into theatre. The unique set design for the show was created by Botswana designer Barati Montshiwa.
