It will cost us standing in the waters
Proteas don’t fear fire
dead fish still blink here
and I drink Buchu on an empty stomach
She told me the smaller shark seemed harmless
but it grinned at her and told her she won’t make it out alive
it grinned though and since proteas don’t fear fire she will continue to blink
We play hide and seek in the twilight
but the wooden doors have moving faces
and as you run through freshly cut grass
the shadows briefly stroke thin long arms down your sides
proteas don’t fear fire though
I think of all the types of proteas
and how they seem to sleep when planted by human hands
He said in order for a spring to live it must have an uitloop, anders loop dit weg
we dug that day and we stood knee-deep
I don’t know about springs, but I know about echoes
I know about voices and I know about warnings
He said the trees in the garden have gone deaf,
but we can prune them
I wonder why someone can be gone, but also not gone-gone
and stare at the living wearing flower patterned dresses with frayed white collars
I tried to see but I must be a bird,
because my eyes fly over fences and wires and signs,
that say that they shoot on sight and ‘oortreders sal vervolg word
I must be a bird
She said hie-jy jou moerskont kom huis toe!
She said there is dirt and then there is real dirt
She said sing and he said sing and they said sing
they all said sing-sing
I said my heels are red, because one day a man got off a boat
walked through a field and slapped his hand on the arch of a pondok
I forgot about the proteas but they must still burn and the fires are still coming
ARA ARA
Premonition
We are far away from home and the birds
are singing a warning song
Ara keep us warm as we semi-lucid sing this devotion song
Hollow Saint
Bent superstar
Devoted our lives
to your kingdom simulation
Bring the water
Bring us rain
Let this demon
angel
sing
Higher
On the other side of this side
on the other side I see you
Ascension
It is a new day
We will not rant
Comfort us
Touch us
We are believers
We dance in the moonlight desert
Our golden skins blessed with ultra-love
Rapture
I hear your voice and then the rain takes it away
again
Awakening
Ara is what Ara is
There are no goodbyes that matter
in my bones
in my bones
the waters continue
rise
far away from home
strangers
gods
contorting
transparent bodies
absorbing celestial satellites
Arrival
Tethered to the dawn
We ride out the last storm
What is left behind
to breathe in solitude
ARA ARA
Waking up mountains
Mountains fascinate me, because they exist beyond time. Which means they’ve ‚seen’ and ‚experienced’ most if not all of the history playing out around them. If they were sentient they would possess memories of all of human history.
With this work I am insinuating the process or dance that occur when one actively start ‚waking up mountains’ or explore the history within you and of your surroundings. The exploration of history is a universal process.
The work is about discovering, sharing and creating an archive. This specific mountain plays a central part in my history, but I want to give the viewer the opportunity to be charged with their own reflections on literal and figurative mountains in their respective lives.
Movement Mure
Dancing in a circle – trance dance meditation and pentecostal worship
In 1794 a slave ship sank close to the shore. Appropriating a space that holds sadness and trauma.
On heritage of Coloured people
of South Africa
In many smaller communities schools are still segregated. I went back to my alma mater to interview the grade 12 students.
I wanted to open a discussion about the general opinion about us and how we are being portrayed in the media.
The students shared their daily struggles in regards to every day issues, but also how they view themselves and how difficult it can be to move forward when it feels like you are fighting against a giant wave that’s pushing you down over and over again.
I created a poem out of the interviews as a sort of summary of what it means to be us.