Land Art in Arderne's Garden, Claremont

I am part of a group of artists who meet  in a different place once every month to create site-specific temporary art installations with the materials we find around us. Here's what I created during the August gathering. Want to know more about the gatherings? Read more...

Siklus: ritme in dood en groei

This is the artwork that I created and finished for the Hiernamaals | Hereafter exhibition at Slee Gallery, Stellenbosch. It will be on exhibit from 1-10 March 2013, don't miss it! For more information about the exhibition, view this blog post, the Facebook event page or the Site_Specific website

Siklus: ritme in dood en groei

Artist's Statement/ Description: 
There exists a complex and intricate balance and rhythm in death and growth - the process of death, decay and rejuvenation. Decayed matter in nature gives sustenance and feeds new growth, in nature there is no 'waste'. In this artwork natural materials, objects, organisms are used in juxtaposition with man-made and discarded/found material - the latter perceived as 'waste' by the general public, but as a source or substrate for creation for artists like us. The bronze/golden thread that helps to tie and entwine it together, holding the depicted process together, aims to evoke the image of the proverbial heavenly golden streets, and a spider's web. These hinting at the beauty, perfection and holiness - sacredness - of natural processes of life, death, decay and regrowth. 

Medium: Natural & Found material assemblage 2013
Dimensions: 350 x 380 x 75mm'
Year: 2013

Found and Crafted

A random selection of Found Object & Recycled Art pieces and bits in my studio and home. Some of them are displayed as art, while others are still in the process of growing and becoming something.

Look Upon. Exhibited at "Walk This Earth Alone". Don't miss it!

 

Entangled

Entangled
Found object & rope installation: work in progress - anyone can add to it and/or change it
Arts Lounge, Grahamstown
July 2012

Sand(Spoor] at the Arts Lounge

Photos from the interactive part of my performance/interactive-installation: These were the contributions and creations of the audience, who were invited to express or create a representation, track, mark or spoor of their interpretation, thoughts or insights about the marks we leave on the land.

You can support this project by donating to the Treasure the Karoo Action Group on my GivenGain page: http://www.givengain.com/activist/70796/projects/2603

With love, by nature

Letters to thyself

Empty/used glue stick containers, 35mm developed film, pages from incomplete fictional book, thread, found paper clips.

Amped and happy to be busy

Silence sometimes means productivity in my world - not doing updates on my blogs, not doing anything on Facebook, not surfing the net for 'inspiration' and not reading endless blog posts about art = more time actually creating new work, participating in projects and basically being physically and actively creative in the "real" world.

Anyway, so I've been brushing up on some of my skills, working on the preparations and promotion of MOVING PLANET Cape Town, planning a new exhibition and continuation of my Scapes project, attended/participated in the Out the Box Festival and started making some recycled art pieces (photo's to be uploaded soon - watch this space!). I've also been cleaning out my head- and physical spaces, spending time with loved ones, and I attended a workshop in chalk pastel-making which forms part of Karen Suskin's latest art project.

This is just one of the things that we can do with plastic bags! Left is the basket of my electric bicycle, and right is part of the tree float's base that was built for Moving Planet.

Please help spread the word about MOVING PLANET, happening on Heritage Day - 24 September 2011. In Cape Town were meeting at 10h30 at the Train Station Forecourt and then parade, walk, skate, cycle, jump, run, dance and MOVE as a large procession through the city to raise awareness about carbon emissions and ways that we can help curb global warming. You'll find some visuals, printables and things to share with all the people you know here: ecojunki.blogspot.com/2011/09/9-days-left-to-moving-planet.html

Found and assembled

These little assemblage sculptures were made from natural and found objects around the the area closest to VANSA in Spin Street, Cape Town city bowl.



I made them during and as part of the In Focus Concept Development Workshop that Kai Losgott presented. This workshop will be presented again, and hosted by Vansa - keep an eye on www.vansa.co.za, as this workshop is worth attending!

Organic installation at HumanEarth: Conversation

My artist statement for the exhibition:

My art is heavily inspired by nature in some way or another, whether in response to environmental issues and land degradation, or as a tribute and representation of my appreciation for the balance, peace and beauty of the landscape. The artworks “Choking Tree”, “Our Legacy” and “Peinsend oor More” are all works done a year or more ago and can be seen as quite literal reflections on what is happening in our environment. A dead tree - drowned by polluted groundwater and air pollution from factories. A barren landscape with dead trees flanking it. A man worried about the future of our planet, our species, our children and the legacy we are leaving...

“Organic: death or life, or something inbetween” and “Fingers vs. branches” , more recent works, are leaning towards being 'abstract' in the sense that I don't do literal representations or renderings, but rather focus on form, shape and the way that it interacts with things around it, including the viewer – depending on when or which angle you view it from. Playing with organic shapes and the shapes of trees I am allowing the sculptures to almost shape themselves with me only being the facilitating force - very much in the way that dunes are shaped and moved in a desert by the wind. These installations allow for more personal reflection and subjective interpretation in contrast to the more representational works, landscape paintings and drawings.

Lately my focus has once again turned to land art, using naturally occurring materials in the landscape to create transient, temporary art pieces documented photographically, these latest installations being inspired by that time spent outdoors. The natural materials used in the installations were found, however, not only in the forests, beaches, and mountain trails around Cape Town, but also in urban areas where we can still walk among the trees and catch fleeting glimpses of sunlight through their leaves. I think one of the biggest challenges and goals that we have at the moment is to reconnect with nature, no matter who/where we are.

Found objects, carving and mixed media

Rock, bone and wire - each one decomposes or erodes at different stages and times to return back to earth.


Mixed media and charcoal drawings


Laser cut woodpiece, found piece of wood (found in Upington, many years ago) and a wire-bound piece of rock - the three pieces forming a mini-installation that aims at evoking a yearning to be in nature.


A plaster of paris carving on a wood foot piece