University of South Africa: Celebrating art students for showing boundless creativity

Two art students from Unisa won the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition in subsequent years. Andrea Walters was a merit award winner for the year 2022 and Andrea du Plessis became the 2021 overall winner.

The Sasol New Signatures Art Competition searches for new talent each year in South Africa. Themed “Art Beyond Imagination”, this competition seeks to provide emerging artists, audiences and the community at large with an opportunity to rethink and reimagine their world. It also celebrates the borderless of human consciousness, boundless skills, infinite vision and the unlimited inspirational power of art.

Dr Gwenneth Miller, the university’s Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art and Music, under the College of Human Sciences, lauded the students on their success for winning the art competition. “This is an honour and legacy for Unisa’s visual and digital art students, the department, and the university at large,” she said.


Andrea Walters

Walters, who enrolled for a Master’s degree in Visual Arts, said that she is excited to be nominated among talented artists. Two of her remarkable works were accredited with merit and formed part of her practical studies. She is in the process of completing her dissertation, which will be submitted at the end of this year. Walters walked away with a cash prize of R100 000 and had an opportunity to conduct a solo exhibition at the Pretoria Museum from 25 August to 2 October 2022 where Du Plessis, as last year’s winner, was also given the privilege to present. “The exhibition is currently on, and I wish people could go and witness the extraordinary work that speaks to justice for women and children,” said Walters. Her exhibition is entitled #OverMyDeadBody and commemorates women from different walks of life.

She focuses on gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in the country. Walters further said that her work is practice led and inspired by culture material. “Meaning,” she added, “what I use is directly related to the women I am speaking about. I do not use conventional media, but I am inspired by what is found in women’s places such as Sunlight green soap bars and white wax candles.” She further explained that she is interested in engaging school children and university students to advance the educational value of her artwork.

“I believe it is important for school children to be educated and informed about GBVF,” she said. “They need to reject the ongoing cross-cultural perception that says girls and women are inferior and that it is acceptable for a man to physically abuse a woman or kill her as a punishment. I urge these young women to get an education to adequately support themselves.”

She said her academic focus after completing the current qualification will be on sentences given to jailed women for murdering their partners. “I would like to do a PhD based on women who are incarcerated in Westville Prison, Durban for killing their abusers. I would like to engage in a practice-led art intervention once again with participation from these women. It seems to me that women get lengthier sentences.” She strongly feels that the justice system is unfair to women in general. “Let us not forget that Oscar Pistorius got five years jail sentence for killing Reeva Steenkamp,” she said.


In her work, Walters highlighted class inequalities among women who experienced abuse in their homes. “Imagine understanding the law and its processes in a language other than your home language,” she noted. Drawing from her personal experience, Walters said she can only imagine how difficult it is for rural women who do not have access to social services, transport or even cell phones to solicit help when abused. That is why her master’s exhibition included a broken mouth titled The Unknown Woman — she is for all these women who have absolutely no support and are killed and never receive justice.

Walters is a part-time artist, however, she works full-time as an art student coordinator at the university’s Durban Regional Centre. The competition nominated her among seven other artists from South Africa selected from 61 nominations.

Unisa art education is one among the highly recommended qualifications in the country. Antoinette MacMaster, who is also a student, got the Vuleka award earlier this year. Her work that won the competition was a digital artwork created in her third level studies at Unisa.

Another student, Emma Willemse, received a yearly prize for excellence in art contribution named 2022 “Die Erepenning vir Geesteswetenskappe en die Kunste”. The prize is awarded to one artist for her or his contribution to visual art in South Africa.

Some other previous Unisa alumni winners in the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition are:

Michele Deeks (2021) Merit
Pierre le Riche (2018) Merit
Nelmarie du Preez: (2015) First prize
Ingrid Bolton (2012) First prize
Zyma Amien (2016) First prize
Karin Pretorius (2013) Merit
The Unisa Art and Music Department offers a Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree, honours, master’s and PhD programme in Visual Multimedia Arts.

“We have a large group of higher degrees students studying art and many of our alumni reaching international success,” Dr Miller concluded.