Ltd 2012 | Association of Arts Pretoria

Lately I have been experiencing a recurring awareness of an ‘African spring’ and I oscillate between a sense of relief at its justification, and also uncertainty at its rising and the changes it may bring. In 2010 I had a solo show in the Western Cape entitled ‘Fluid horizons’ in which I focussed on ocean horizons as metaphors for the reach, rather than the destination of a journey (or for that matter, of change). Water, and more particularly the ocean, are for me the quintessential metaphors of transformation and change. When at sea the horizon moves as one moves and one’s sense of place is thus rendered relative to the journey as a whole. Having experienced years of sailing and also various journeys at sea, I know well the proverbial push-and-pull of going to shore, or rather to remain adrift.

In this series of chalk pastels on paper, my first shifty impressions of the Cape when arriving by ship from Angola as a young child, are my shifting horizon. In a gloomy apocalyptic world menacing ‘things’ such as Great White sharks (themselves facing extinction), tsunamis or gliding stealth bombers become ironic threats to the fuzzy yet timeless tabular mountain in the distance. I have playfully entitled this small series “Rounding an imaginary cape”, aware that explorers of yore, as well as survivors of the future could never quite experience the Cape that I’ve created…