House with a turquoise door - Tanzania (2022)
60 x 60cm
Oil on Board
Private Collection M Esterhuysen
60 x 60cm
Oil on Board
Private Collection M Esterhuysen
Artist statement:
It is customary in East Africa to place branches in the road when there is an obstruction ahead. Last year my husband and I undertook a seven month journey across seven African countries, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and Namibia.
Driving five to eight hours every day, the world passed by in partial images and signs. We saw thousands of doors behind which we would never go, and exchanged looks with hundreds of people who had no name known to us, but who are ‘mother’ or ‘brother’ to others. It was a practice in ‘seeing but not knowing’. I found myself in a world of surfaces, and yet my inner world felt deepened and enlarged. I sensed my story-seeking faculties knocking on these surfaces to be let in.
After returning home, I began a daily practice of painting a small gouache to reflect on the ambivalent feeling of brushing up against the surfaces of people and their places. Through oil paintings this process of layering became more visceral, each new surface bearing witness to the one behind it.
Many of the figures in these works have their backs towards the viewer. Likewise the works seemed to turn their backs on me. A friend remarked that they gave him ‘a sense of missing out’. This sense of ‘not fully seeing’ is what I want to underline with this exhibition. Yet, my hope is also that, as the ephemeral images I saw caused an interior deepening in me, these works might now lay framed glimpses before the viewer, like branches on the road pointing to a reality yet to be perceived.
It is customary in East Africa to place branches in the road when there is an obstruction ahead. Last year my husband and I undertook a seven month journey across seven African countries, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and Namibia.
Driving five to eight hours every day, the world passed by in partial images and signs. We saw thousands of doors behind which we would never go, and exchanged looks with hundreds of people who had no name known to us, but who are ‘mother’ or ‘brother’ to others. It was a practice in ‘seeing but not knowing’. I found myself in a world of surfaces, and yet my inner world felt deepened and enlarged. I sensed my story-seeking faculties knocking on these surfaces to be let in.
After returning home, I began a daily practice of painting a small gouache to reflect on the ambivalent feeling of brushing up against the surfaces of people and their places. Through oil paintings this process of layering became more visceral, each new surface bearing witness to the one behind it.
Many of the figures in these works have their backs towards the viewer. Likewise the works seemed to turn their backs on me. A friend remarked that they gave him ‘a sense of missing out’. This sense of ‘not fully seeing’ is what I want to underline with this exhibition. Yet, my hope is also that, as the ephemeral images I saw caused an interior deepening in me, these works might now lay framed glimpses before the viewer, like branches on the road pointing to a reality yet to be perceived.
Waiting for repairs - Tanzania (2022)
80 x 80 cm
Oil on Board
Private Collection M Stanes
80 x 80 cm
Oil on Board
Private Collection M Stanes
Abandoned mechanic – Mozambique (2022)
Oil on Canvas
100 x 100cm
Available
Oil on Canvas
100 x 100cm
Available
(Left) Lobby / Wagkamer (2020)
Oil on Board
60 x 60cm
Available
(right) The Road was Full of Branches (2022)
Print on Epson Enhanced Matt
composite of 100 gouache miniatures
Oil on Board
60 x 60cm
Available
(right) The Road was Full of Branches (2022)
Print on Epson Enhanced Matt
composite of 100 gouache miniatures
Waiting room - Kampala (2020)
Oil on board
60 x 60cm
Available
Oil on board
60 x 60cm
Available
The Road was Full of Branches - Composite I (2022)
Print on Epson Enhanced Matt
composite of 100 gouache miniatures
Print on Epson Enhanced Matt
composite of 100 gouache miniatures