daydream dragging feet...: Stumbled upon

Thursday 23 February 2012

Stumbled upon

I stumbled upon these in Stellenbosch recently – they’re part of 20 Stellenbosch, an exhibition of South African sculpture created over the last two decades. Most of the sculptures are outdoor so intended to be ‘stumbled upon’ at various locations around town. This is perhaps the best way to experience sculpture – unexpectedly sharing your own everyday environment, but arrestingly so.

This figure is one of a pair called ‘Grounded I and Grounded II’ by Angus Taylor and is constructed of rammed earth (including stones and plant matter) and steel. Taylor says that the raw materials suggest ‘an innate awareness of belonging to African soil’. I love how solid and larger than life both figures are, but somehow still vulnerable to the changing weather and to everyday wear and tear. I also liked how this figure seemed to be – a little impatiently – waiting to cross the road.

This one is called ‘Fallen Angel’ by Beezy Bailey. Bailey describes his works as ‘frozen dreams’ and this figure made me think of Rene Magritte’s bright but cloudy skies. Although it appears to be a woman, Bailey calls himself the ‘fallen angel’ – perhaps a reference to the stunt he pulled back in 1991. He believed that the galleries were excluding his work in favour of black artists so submitted two for an exhibition that year: one signed in his own name and the other signed as ‘Joyce Ntobe’. The first was rejected while the second still has a place in the SANG’s (South African National Gallery’s) permanent collection (even after Bailey revealed the truth and caused a bit of a media uproar).

And this one is ‘Fly Away Home’ by Jaques Dhont and is made of black wattle bark, sheepskin, metal and cow bone (although this last piece is now surprisingly missing!). It’s based on the legend of the flying African which was common among the Georgia Sea Island slaves who believed that some of the African slaves who were taken to the US flew back to Africa. These Africans could magically just spread their wings and fly away. Robert Earl Hayden, an American poet, wrote a poem called ‘O Daedalus, fly away home’ which connected this myth to the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Wings, Dhont says, represent ‘a means of survival and flight becomes a symbol of detachment and transcendence’.