A vitiligo art exhibition, dubbed: “So Many Petals To go” has opened in Accra to depict the life challenges experienced by people with vitiligo and galvanise more support to discourage any discrimination against them.
Vitiligo is a chronic autoimmune condition that causes patches of the skin to lose pigment or colour. This happens when melanocytes, being skin cells that make pigment, are attacked and destroyed, causing the skin to turn a milky-white colour.
Treatment may improve the appearance of the skin, but it does not correct the condition. At that point one must find the beauty inherent and accept it as it is.
The exhibition, therefore, selects acrylic paintings on the condition by Madam Victoria Abena Keta, an experienced painter, and a graphic designer.
It is being hosted by the Women Arts Museum Ghana, which began on August 17 and would end on October 1, 2023.
Madam Keta, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the programme was made possible through an exhibition grant of US$3,960 she received from the Women Arts Museum Ghana.
She highlighted the vitiligo issue because people with the condition were normally ridiculed, considered to be evil, had infectious disease, or were seen as being punished by God, she said.
“All these are people’s subjected thoughts that could be discarded through constant awareness creation,” she indicated.
Madam Keta said her works introduced the viewer “to the fact that life is inevitable; it flips you around and out; waiting to see what you can do with it.”
“If one can do something with it like how the Senegalese Italian young man, Khaby Lame, did after his lay off from work during the Covid-19 pandemic, it will be a blessing.”
She called on the Ghanaian society to support people with vitiligo and allow them to explore, live their lives and be the best they could.
Mr. Theophilus Yartey, the Chief Editor of the Daily Graphic, who opened the exhibition, expressed support for the initiative and commended the artist for addressing a critical social issue to achieve the desired attitudinal changes.
Madam Akwele Suma, the President, Women’s Arts Institute Africa, said supporting women artists to creatively express themselves was the core purpose of the Institute and expressed her commitment to ensuring a successful exhibition.
‘So Many Petals To Go’ is Madam Keta’s first virtual and her fourth solo exhibition.
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