Across millennia and cultures, the four natural elements appear and re-appear in our most sacred prayers and rituals. They go beyond the form of the ceremonial rites designed by each culture to reach something deep within us. They are access points to the infinite. Creating a bridge between us and the world that embraces us, these elements evoke the general in the specific. Bronze, itself a child of all four elements, is the perfect medium for this series which begs to be touched and held as the viewer contemplates the divine through the tangible.
eye of the heart
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Title: 'Eye of the heart'
Bronze 16cm x 6cm Limited edition: /11 Price: R 6 800 |
Eye of the heart sees what we cannot see. It speaks to the place inside us where we connect to an all-knowing power.
The delicate ribbon of smoke curls upward. It dances as it travels, slowly widening into ever-thinner plumes. The flame just snuffed out is otherworldly. As I watch the smoke evaporates into nothingness. But the candle remains. It is dressed in succulent drips of wax - some halfway down, most pooled in the shallow dish. The air is thick with spirits summoned, but also with the memory of all the candle-lighters before me. I close my eyes and feel each of my companions. Their presence is as subtle as the quiet breath entering my body. Together, we sit. Together, we live.
I created this sculpture by first sculpting the bowl to act as the candle-holder. I then lit a candle in this bowl every day for a month. The resulting wax residue represents the sacrifice of several candles. They are the memory of the flame that accompanied my days in the studio.
The delicate ribbon of smoke curls upward. It dances as it travels, slowly widening into ever-thinner plumes. The flame just snuffed out is otherworldly. As I watch the smoke evaporates into nothingness. But the candle remains. It is dressed in succulent drips of wax - some halfway down, most pooled in the shallow dish. The air is thick with spirits summoned, but also with the memory of all the candle-lighters before me. I close my eyes and feel each of my companions. Their presence is as subtle as the quiet breath entering my body. Together, we sit. Together, we live.
I created this sculpture by first sculpting the bowl to act as the candle-holder. I then lit a candle in this bowl every day for a month. The resulting wax residue represents the sacrifice of several candles. They are the memory of the flame that accompanied my days in the studio.
sacred water
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Title: 'Sacred water'
Bronze and resin 16cm x 6cm Limited edition: /11 Price: R 6 200 |
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Water shapes our world and our realities within it. It carries life and death in its currents. We can be engulfed and destroyed in its volume, and we can be saved by a droplet. This same stuff that stretches from India to Chile can be gathered up in the palm of a hand or the hollow of a navel. This is what makes it a thing divine. It is a tangible expression of the infinite, a small piece of Spirit that we can manipulate and make our own. Dipping beneath waters dark and wild; bringing a glass transparent and sparkling to our lips; raising our faces skyward to the storm; sneaking searching fingers toward personal hidden springs - these are ways to know God. They are pathways towards everything that is. The sacred thrives in the mundane, resting just beyond our fingertips, just beyond the sensual. There lies what is holy.
breath of the mother
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Title: 'Breath of the Mother'
Bronze 23cm x 11cm Limited edition: /11 Price: R 9 600 |
Breath of the Mother references the thread that connects us to the first mother. When a woman is born, all of her eggs are contained within her ovaries. This means there is a direct genetic connection to our maternal line. Reverence for this ancestry is signaled by the blue and white cloth that represents this line in African religions. These colors are honored in the white swirls of spirit and tiny blue dots in this sculpture. When I pray to my ancestors, I place this cloth on the left side. The depth and reach of this history lends weight to my rituals. The beginning of all people was present with the first. This genetic and spiritual lineage can be sensed in the quietest, most private moments.
The flames lick upwards, tonguing the damp night air. Drumbeats reverberate through the darkness, into the earth, and through her bones. Her heels stamp upon the soil, again and again, as her body writhes and twists. She is a snake, a branch in the wind, the waves upon the shore. As she dances, the light mist coalesces into a form. The droplets draw together into wisps that swirl around her body. The ancestors have joined her. The pulse of life beats inside her. It reaches out with a shimmering thread, a spider vein that flows to her mother before her to her mother before her and on and on. The First held the beginning of All. She stamps and twirls and shouts into the night. Sweat trickles between her breasts and down her spine. The ghosts cluster around her. They, too, are dancing.
The flames lick upwards, tonguing the damp night air. Drumbeats reverberate through the darkness, into the earth, and through her bones. Her heels stamp upon the soil, again and again, as her body writhes and twists. She is a snake, a branch in the wind, the waves upon the shore. As she dances, the light mist coalesces into a form. The droplets draw together into wisps that swirl around her body. The ancestors have joined her. The pulse of life beats inside her. It reaches out with a shimmering thread, a spider vein that flows to her mother before her to her mother before her and on and on. The First held the beginning of All. She stamps and twirls and shouts into the night. Sweat trickles between her breasts and down her spine. The ghosts cluster around her. They, too, are dancing.
Dust to Dust
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Title: 'Dust to dust' Bronze and steel 18cm x 13cm x 7cm Limited edition: /11 Price: R 5 200 Dust to dust speaks of the poetry in death. Death is the grand leveler. It disregards gender, race, social class, wealth, weight, and fame. It is both the thief and the bringer of meaning. Its potency infiltrates all our lives. Death is closely linked with the earth element. It is our flesh and bones which surrender to death’s decay, and to the earth that our flesh and bones return.
This piece was created from a dried bouquet collected from the wild grassland outside my home. It is a plant called imphepho, which is a variety of African sage. It is the most widely-used medicinal herb in South Africa. From a spiritual perspective, it is important to harvest it intentionally and sustainably. |