I AM WIRE WOMAN....!

.....UMFANEKISO WOMAMA OQINQWE NGOCINGO.....EK IS DRAADVROU!

Hi, Molo, Hallo! My 'birth mothers' were Sue Kramer (above) and Lovell Friedman (below. They designed me in 2016 and I was built by a team of wonderful wire workers at Street Wires.

But I was conceived by a whole group of women to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Women's March on August 9 1956 when 20,000 women walked to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the Pass Laws and demand peace, justice and freedom. Here are just some them welcoming me to Artscape.

Because there are only two other statues of women in Cape Town (eish!), I was created to represent ALL women in the Mother City, past, living and those yet to be born. So it was important that I should look good and be well dressed.

I was 'launched' so to speak, at Artscape's annual Women's Humanity Arts Festival. My new family at Woman Zone had been given many metres of shweshwe fabric by Da Gama Textiles to decorate the truck that would be leading their Women's Humanity Walk - they had quite a bit left over, so they were able to give me a shawl and a doek.....

....but my real 'clothes' were going to be labels written by the women of Cape Town with the names of their women heros, role models, loved family members or just friends.

Marlene le Roux, my 'godmother' and CEO of Artscape was one of the first to write a name and attach it to my skirt....

After that a rush of women (and a few men) came to add their name labels, at the launch, throughout the Festival and beyond.

Here I am with my proud birth mothers and godmother. Thank you lovely ladies for bringing me into being, and to all the 'doulas' who helped.

After that I was brought up and proudly displayed in the Artscape foyer, my labelled. layered skirt, fluttering in the wind.

Of course, being a woman, it wasn't long before I needed a new outfit.

And just in time for summer, I was transformed into Mother Earth by Annie Bisset!

Then, yup, you guessed, once my 'dressers' saw that I responded well to new outfits, they gave me another one - and here I am a few months later as Woman of Words! Covered in proof pages from books supplied by Modjaji, publisher of women's titles.

....and then, true as Bob, Annie's at it again........

So here I am as a very smart lady from the Bo-Kaap - and please note my fancy silver slippers from Artscape's wardrobe department!

And no, this is not my dancing partner, this is me being moved to the stairwell on the way to the Chandelier Foyer!

Next came Christmas and here I am as Joy, to the world.

And though I say it myself, I looked rather good at night as well!

But then my team got busy again! This time Willemien de Villiers joined Annie....and I went seriously colourful....

...turned into the kaleidoscopic Khayelitsha yoyo queen, using yoyos made by The Everywoman Project (but that's another Woman Zone story).

But you know what they say about change - compulsive and inevitable.....and here I am as Mama Afrique.....

....and visitors from home and abroad just love to have their picture taken with me. Sadly I can't do selfies.

Until, reduced down to my undergarments, I took a short break.....

....while my dressers Annie and Nancy took a visit to Artscape's incredible wardrobe department overseen by Fritz Feinauer. And look what they found.....

So here I am transforming back in time, into no less an historical figure than.....

Krotoa herself! Otherwise known by her colonial employers, the van Riebeeck Family, as Eva.

And just in case you dont know my story as Krotoa.....here it is, in an extract from a book called 'Like Family' by Ena Jansen. This certainly wont be my last incarnation as one of the many women of Cape Town, so if you have any ideas on who else I could be, or you would like to help with future outfits, do get in touch on info@womanzonect.co.za. Much love, WIRE WOMAN xx