Invited to create an artwork on the theme “Pandora’s Box,” for donation to raise funds for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital, I researched the myth of Pandora’s box. In the original Greek, Pandora had a jar, however in the 16th century, the jar was described as a box.

Different versions of the story, from Hesiod to Homer, Erasmus and Nietzsche, explain that curious Pandora, wife of Epimetheus (who was the brother of Prometheus), opened a jar left in her husband’s care. The jar contained sickness, death, suffering and many other evils, which were let loose upon the world. Realising her mistake, Pandora hastened to close the jar, which had only one thing left in it: hope. Some scholars have interpreted hope being left in the jar as Zeus’ deliberate intervention to make sure of the hopelessness of human suffering (i.e. there is no hope in the world, because it is still in the jar). Less cynical scholars have suggested that hope was left behind in the jar as a solace to humanity, that despite their suffering hope is still possible.

In response to this tale, I decided to give the Children at the Red Cross Hospital a gift of hope. I went to see a Zulu healer, to ask for assistance. I explained that I wanted to give sick children the gift of hope. The healer worked with me for several weeks. I was given medicines to bathe in, as well as to drink. I followed the instructions carefully. At the end of the process, I collected the remnants of the used medicines into the little jars, presented in the artwork Isipho Setemba (Gift of Hope). The jars I used are visually reminiscent of the jars used for making home-made preserves, storing dried food, or keeping specimens in a museum. Conceptually, the jars I used relate to the jar Pandora opened