Three art exhibitions have been hung at the Durban Exhibition centre: an Australian art exhibition to display the country's multiculturalism and two photographic displays by the Latin American photographer Ricardo Ramirez Arriola and South Africa's Alf Khumalo.

They have found a space among a plethora of interesting literature, posters and magazines all emblazoned with stylised images of what anti-racism can mean. A children art exhibition at the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stand features colourful crayon drawings with children's utopic visions.

One school sent in a collage of images from magazines in the shape of a tree - illustrating that we are all from the same root.

The conference image of a slightly altered 'yin' and 'yang' symbol is everywhere. The 'yin' and 'yang' has been airbrushed to include different shades of black and white. It is show through with what could be a spear (a symbol of the conference home in Africa) or a cupids arrow.

The NGO Forum used the same basis, but added to it a brightly coloured arrow, while the 'dalit' movement emblazoned its image over the conference symbol. ''End Caste discrimination,'' is inscribed in buttons worn by activists all around the conference precinct.

The symbols on show all make use of colour to symbolise diversity and contrast sharply with the photographers' black and white images that line a long corridor. Arriola's images of ordinary people across Latin America were designed to capture and give dignity to humanity in all its forms. No names or locations are attached to give the exhibition a universality that transcended race and place.

His urban and rural photographs were taken across the countries of Latin America. They ranged from a wistful picture of a young indigenous woman suckling her child to a macho photograph of a biker clad in leather and spikes. Each is captioned by a poem, or quote from famous philosophers, and figures from history and the arts.

The words of Elias Canetti resonated. He wrote that, ''It always seemed unwise to me to place a demand that forces us to practice one way of thinking, submit ourselves to the imperative of one faith and consider the world from one single angle.''

Alk Khumalo's exhibition took viewers on a journey from the past to the present in South Africa. The veteran photographer has worked as a photojournalist for almost 40 years. His earlier exhibits ranged from a photograph of Winnie Mandela and her young children, taken soon after her husband Nelson was imprisoned; to the visit of John F. Kennedy to South Africa in 1966 and of a common image of white police officers setting their dogs on black protestors.

He starts his exhibition in black and white, but ends in colour - a symbol of the country's journey from apartheid to sunnier times. Photographs of the inauguration of Nelson Mandela and of President Thabo Mbeki show smiling people, white doves and joyousness not captured in the early works.

Khumalo's exhibition unfortunately closed early after three of his photographs were stolen off his stand.

An Australian poster of a smiling, young Aboriginal woman with an orange bubble over her mouth stood out among the conference posters. Simple and effective, it formed part of an exhibition called ''We are Australian'' in the hall of exhibits.

Painted between May and October 1999, the exhibition was initially meant to respond to a growing far right element in Australian politics.

A portion of the exhibition was brought to Durban, where it displayed the multiculturalism captured through many different eyes and styles. One of the cleverest pieces was comprised of slats of wooden paling fence from artist Karen Genoff's childhood home (a common type in Australia), she got different nationals to inscribe messages in their languages.

It includes slats in Greeks, Chinese, Indonesian and Kaurna. ''Used here symbolically,'' explained Genoff, ''the taking down of the fence serves as a suitable conceptual vehicle for the removal of barriers.''(END)