It's art for the sake of good

Art has a job. Sure, it might be silly or provocative, grim or revelatory, terrible or beautiful, deep as the Mariana Trench or flimsy as a false eyelash - but it's a reflection of who we are.

I try to use fiction as a way of getting at all those things at the heart of us and to rugby tackle the big social issues we're tired of talking about. The things that make us change the channel because they make us feel soul-sick and exhausted, like chemical weapons devastation or mining massacres or just your every day another-woman-gets-raped-and/or-murdered news story.

My novel, The Shining Girls, is the story of a time-travelling serial killer - and the survivor who turns the hunt around. But fundamentally, it's a book about violence against women, how we talk about it, how we deprive victims of their voices. They become objects - bloody puzzles to be solved, the sum of their wounds rather than their lives. I wanted to write against that tradition and the way we've seen it play out recently, horribly, in the news, from Reeva Steenkamp to Anene Booysens.

But sometimes words aren't enough.

With all my books, I've put together some kind of art-charity initiative: with Moxyland, we set up a women's collective, The Montagu Sew & Sews, to make the stuffed toy monster from the cover, and we raised R12000 for them. When Zoo City came out, I approached six Cape Town artists to customise vinyl art toy Bares in some way inspired by the book, and auctioned them to raise R18000 for The Suitcase Project that works with refugee children in Hillbrow.

With the international success of The Shining Girls, I wanted to do something really special. I approached my friend Jacki Lang, who has curated pop-up art shows in Cape Town and London.

We approached a wish-list of amazing South African artists to ask them to create original, affordable work on a page ripped from the novel. They could do whatever they liked as long as it was sensitive to our beneficiary - an organisation that has been fearless and formidable; Rape Crisis.

Last year, Rape Crisis faced closure. Thanks to private supporters and staff working free for months, it stayed open.

Though based in Cape Town, its support line receives calls from rape survivors from all over the country. It was the obvious, perfect partner for the show.

I've been blown away by everyone's willingness to contribute, particularly the artists - including Brett Murray, Faith47, Sindiso Nyoni, Conrad Botes, Joey Hi-Fi, DALEast, Gabby Raff and Kim Stern, among 60 others, who created surprising, beautiful, original pieces, donated for a good cause. We hope to raise at least R50000. It's an amazing reflection of the talent and generosity in this country, and who we are when we reach out to make a difference.

• Beukes's third novel, 'The Shining Girls' is available at Exclusive Books, R161. The exhibition, 'The Shining Girls Charity Art Show for Rape Crisis', opens at 5.30pm today at the Cape Town School of Photography, 4th Floor, 62 Roeland Street, and runs until September 13