Die stomme aarde (The Mute/Poor Earth) consists of Henk Serfontein’s series of environmentally focused charcoal drawings in microscopic detail, through which he participates in conversations about the Green Movement.
A series of monumental drawings of uprooted plants, including the grysbekkie(grey mouth), volstruisnek (ostrich neck) and sterretjieboom (star-tree) *, break their primordial silence like ancestors with mouths of earth. These plant portraits in their grandeur and beauty are not only scientifically descriptive but start a dialogue with the ecologically conscious poetry of Wilma Stockenström. The works, like Stockenström’s poems, strive to display a receptiveness to the chronicling of codes within Die stomme aarde. The drawings hold a sensitivity to the messages concealed within plant, stone and earth.
In the second body of drawings titled Klipspraak(stone-talk)*, verses from the klipgedigte (stone poems)* by Stockenström are projected onto stone from Kruidfontein. These images on stone can be read as epitaphs, communicating a dolefulness about the state of nature in the context of the current climate crisis. Die stomme aarde fancifully breaks this silence, almost as if the stones themselves could talk. Stones herein become the translators relaying the spirit of the earth to receptive souls.
In this exhibition, Serfontein takes the viewer on a tracking discovery through the veld, analysing through careful observations our connection and proximity to the earth. Finally, the viewer is invited to take a step back, like a star gazer: To become aware of the mystical nature of the universe, and to gaze through the lens of poetry at the mysteries of our shared mortality.
* This is not the accurate English terminology, but a direct translation of the Afrikaans terms to illustrate the descriptive nature of the words in the vernacular.
Serfontein’s contributions consist of three components:
1. An exhibition of charcoal drawings in St. Jude’s Anglican Church Hall;
2. A performative drawing experience wherein the viewer witnesses the unfolding of movement in drawings with dancer Hannah Loewenthal; and
3. Monumental drawings made in collaboration with children from the Western Cape.
Wilma Stockenström's Met my wysvingertop is launched at the ATKV-Boeke-oase, at Exclusive Books, on 6 April at 10:30. Attendance is free.
