What happens to condoms that are past their sell-by date? Adriana Bertini,
a Brazilian designer, received a box and decided to incorporate them in her
new fashion collection. Her unique approach to fashion design came about while
she was volunteering for GAPA (Gruppo de Apoio a Preven de Aids) a Brazilian
HIV support and prevention group.
Adriana’s designs are intended to raise sexual health awareness through the visual arts. She hopes to exhibit her designs in London soon. You can purchase her designs via her website. The designs are priced at between $1000 - $5000 (not including p&p). If anyone’s interested in funding and staging the exhibition here in the UK, Adriana would love to hear from you. Visit: www.adrianabertini.com.br
 Katherine Hamnett and Naomi Campbell upstage London’s Fashion Week |
Outspoken fashion designer Katherine Hamnett has also featured condoms on the catwalk to raise Aids awareness at this year’s London fashion week. Hamnett, who has been involved in the cause since the 1980s has created a new set of in-yer-face slogan t-shirts and knickers. Supermodel and black icon Naomi Campbell strode out on the London Fashion Week catwalk in a Hamnett black vest with ‘Use a Condom’ flashed in diamante studs to the click of excited press cameras...the same logo adorned her butt. Campbell, who is seen as an icon for many young South Africans, was delighted to support the Aids awareness cause. “Travelling the world has made me more aware of political issues; in South Africa I saw the devastation that Aids has caused,” she said. Other models wore t-shirts with the slogans: “Save Africa. Make Trade Fair” and “Save Africa. Use a Condom.” Good to see Hamnett still believes in the power of the consumer to change the habits of big business: “The consumer is far more tender-hearted than industry,” said Hamnett after the event.
Biro is the story of generations of Ugandans who found themselves taking up
arms in the liberation struggle for their country. Post Idi Amin to the shock
of the new: Aids. This thought-provoking new play is premiered at London’s
Drill Hall and has been described as ‘shocking, funny and a touching
true story of survival’.
Biro is written and performed by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (pictured far left),
a first generation Ugandan-American. As an actor Mwine has worked extensively,
with credits in ER, CSI and Law and Order under his belt. His largest collection
of work on Uganda has been in the field of photography, and he has exhibited
at the United Nations, The Fowler Museum of Cultural History and the Rush Arts
Gallery to name a few.
The play charts the protagonist’s progress from a boy to a man through
the use of projected still images from the 1900s to the present, leading us
to a man who ‘in the face of adversity will do anything to survive’.
Ultimately Biro is a story of the new hope many Ugandans felt at their liberation,
and the subsequent toll the Aids crisis in Africa has had on this.
Mwine’s photos and a documentary film will also be showing at the Drill Hall.
Visit: www.drillhall.co.uk More info on Mwine at: www.bewareoftime.com
The Drill Hall, 9-30 November. By Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine. Saturdays 6.00pm and 8.30pm and Sundays 4.00pm. Tickets £10 (£7 concessions), £5 Sundays. Tel 020 7307 5060.
