THE HIGHEST COURT IN THE LAND THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF SOUTH AT CONSTITUTION HILL, WITH ITS MAGNIFICENT ART COLLECTION, IS A PLACE THAT SHOULD BE VISITED BY EVERYONE, SAYS KHEHLA CHEPAPE MAKGATO.

onstitution Hill, a former prison complex include sign language. The facade of the court anti- activist who had been brutally in , is today a museum and building is inscribed “Constitutional Court of murdered by Security Branch officers – I had theC seat of the Constitutional Court of South the Republic of ” in all 11 official a chance encounter and conversation with Africa, the highest court in the land. It is one languages. The visual aesthetics arrest your Justice Edwin Cameron. I made a suggestion of my favourite buildings in Johannesburg, for attention before you enter the building and to gift him with my original signed and dated a variety of reasons. get hooked by the interior decor. artwork, because he is a great inspiration My initial encounter with the building was When we visited this building as students, to many of us, the youth of this country. He more than a decade ago when I was a student it was not long after I had relocated to kindly appreciated my gesture and submitted at Artist Proof Studio, where I studied Johannesburg and you can understand how that instead he would propose that I gift my Printmaking Fine Art for three years. As part the cityscape fascinated me so much after artwork to the Constitutional Court, as that of the programme, lecturers took us on field being deprived of this modern architectural will mean a larger public consumption of my trips to art museums and galleries around structure because of the nature of rural cities. work. He facilitated the eight-month process Johannesburg. While looking at the artworks in the of acquisition that I can now be proud that my My first visit to Constitution HIll has collection – one of the most significant local longest dream has come true with my work remained with me all this time. We were public art collections in South Africa – I came Marikana Memoriais officially in the collection taken on a tour of the entire precinct: Number to understand that I was the only ambitious of this wonderful institution. Four, The Old Fort, Flame of Democracy, student in the group, as I told myself that my The Constitutional Court is one of my the Women’s Jail, Civic Centre and the work belonged in this collection alongside the favourite buildings in Johannesburg culturally, Constitutional Court. I was mesmerised by great artists whose works graced the walls. artistically and historically. It is one of the the art collection. It may have been seen as a fanciful dream heritage sites around the city and the history The collection comprises more than for a then first-year student to envisage his behind the Hill is profoundly inspirational 200 original artworks by artists, whom I later work as part of The Constitutional Court Art and equally emotional. The precinct housed learnt are big names on the local visual arts Collection. But from that day onwards I was profound history of injustice and oppression landscape: Dumile Feni, Gerard Sekoto, Judith determined to work tirelessly so that one day orchestrated along racial lines. Mason, William Kentridge, Sue Williamson, my work will indeed grace those walls. A few months after my work was added Noria Mabasa and so many more are there. During the memorial service for Judith to The Constitutional Court Art Collection, As you approach the court building, you Mason, one of the great South African a major achievement for a young artist, are hailed by Dumile Feni’s sculpture History visual artists – she is the artist who created I fortuitously found a space for my studio to the right of the entrance. The wooden a powerful a triptych known as The Blue Dress in the vicinity of the Constitution Hill in the doors are engraved in visual languages that in honour of Phila Portia Ndwandwe, an Transwerke Building.

Background: Island Frond Aruba wallpaper designed by Patricia Braune, at Robin Sprong

DID YOU KNOW? His philanthropic side, he says, The trait he most admires in others Visual artist, arts writer and keeps him grounded and pays his is selflessness. philanthro­pist Khehla Chepape rent on earth. An avid reader, Chepape has just Makgato has lived in Johannesburg Chepape says he is a summer person: finished The Blessed Girl by Angela for a decade. “It’s a culturally vibrant “Having your skin kissed by the African Makholwa and Under the Apricot Tree city that inspires me daily,” he says. sun is the best feeling.” by Niq Mhlongo. Next on is list is Some of the words his best friend This summer, he plans to spend his The Cleanser by Martin Koboekae. would use to describe him are, weekends in the platteland, doing Follow @khehlachepapemakgato on “a humanist, a disruptionist, loving, arts and literacy work­shops with Instagram and @KChepapeMakgato

ambitious and unstoppable”. young people in rural villages. on Twitter. MOKWENA TSHEPO PORTRAIT

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