The land will tell me… where to go…. what I will find … what the story will be… who will be able to access it … its shape, its feel, its life, its accessibility…its history…or hers… I find myself on the StilleWaters farm…5km from Richmond in the opposite direction to the one I eventually took. Beautiful. Underground springs, water, the envy of the town…a story about who owned the farm, who bought it, and how…now owned by a German family who are … “naturalized’ South Africans… local farmhands and manager, local sheep farming and farm lodging…interesting stories from the framers… but despite this lovely setting, I chose a harder route in the open veld on another side of Richmond.
BEHIND THE SCENES… While in Richmond, I have been kindly hosted by the MAPSA residency who has also supported this process by covering the costs of the bricks. MAPSA has had a long relationship with local entrepreneur/ brick maker, Trevour Synders of Werk, Vrek of Trek– a business which he had inherited from his dad. The specially designed brick was to be light, but strong and easily manipulable to enable the development of a dome structure over the 1m enclave. Thus far, 4000 bricks have been produced and fired typically in an eco-friendly way for Silence as a Room by Trevour, team members, Kankie Lombard and Dawit Booi… and Bismarck the donkey. The bricks have been fired in an outside kiln in the veld over a 2-week period, with a further week for cooling and are now ready for use.
A vision to encapsulate silence in an African soil by a ‘colour’ woman; that many of us were severed from…colonialism, apartheid, capitalism leaves us there…to find the site, to find my strength, to find my limits… Silence as a Room speaks into the land and listens back; holds its breath; finds its way; asks the questions…what is silence …here? Whose silence? What does it feel like? what colour is it? Is it empowered/repowered? What stories does it share in this space/ In this land? Perhaps this will be a place for many to experience their own silences…here. I must with hand, pick, shovel and spade dig into the earth filled with its own layers, its history, its life…teeming with small creatures and roots from somewhere…Awkward at first, missing a beat, but then…see more, a rhythm finds a way…
Silence stairwell in progress
levels… layers …listen to silence as it grows
PROCESS…I have chosen to engage directly with the land, using nothing more than a pick, shovel and spade, my hands and occasional help from local people such as the CPW team who arrived on the first day headed by supervisors Claudine and Thabisa. Foregoing machinery to dig the 1m enclave in the unrelenting earth was a deliberate decision drawing attention to our often patriarchal, capitalist desire to ‘speed up’ processes, often indiscriminately clearing sites without awareness…each swing of the pick, each lifting of the red earth became a conscious action. In this way, you cannot miss the displacement of creatures from their homes or rocks from their nestled comfort; and insects, reptiles, birds and things darting this way and that. You also cannot miss communing with the Earth…red, rich and laden with stories embedded in its ancient past. You cannot miss the intense heat from the sometimes scorching sun or when working late into the night the sparkle of a myriad stars so close you can reach out to touch them…
The Silence is therefore made all the more special. As I’ve said to the constant trickle of visitors to the site…
The Werk, Vrek of Trek brick yard based on a business Trevour Snyders grandfather, Johannes Cupido had begun a long time ago… elsewhere in the veld just outside of the town of Richmond. This video depicts the making of my bricks for Silence as a Room based on a design for the dome roof. I wanted simple small bricks with one or two holes to enable the grip, the plaster and the light to seep through…
Its an illustrious history, …Johannes Cupido, created Werk, Vrek of Trek – a local brickmaking company in the Richmond veld. Trevour Snyders, (current owner) remembers his grandfather and his father who taught him most of what he knows about making bricks. As Ashraf Jamal indicates in his latest book on contemporary artmaking, Strange Cargo, ” Long before MAPSA, there was a man who drew letters from the earth. His name was Johannes Cupido…Words, it seems, were always integral to place, as though the landscape was calling for another expression.” And it was this in mind that I designed a brick specifically for Silence as a Room. Trevour fashioned the template out of wood and produced 4000 of these red clay and ash bricks from the same earth that I had dug out on those long, hot, and hard days…Fired over a period of about two weeks in the veld, with a further week for cooling, these bricks were finally ready for use to build the domed roof during the icy winter months…
Creating and shaping the Silence as a Room structure – like a womb in the earth relates to an earlier work – Dreams as R-evolution (see here: https://coral4art.co.za/dreams-as-r-e… ) where the relationship between the feminine and land is unmistakable. Considering an ecofeminist view, she questions this relationship and our attitudes to both – land and the feminine. She has often said that “humanity isn’t quite human” because to be human has involved domination, control, greed – capital – everything other than the word ‘humanity’ describes: It acknowledges some while negating others; it sets up dichotomies of wants and needs, us and them, superiority and inferiority – for purposes of control and access to more…for the ‘purse’. In this video, she tries to maintain the vision – that of light permeating through tiny holes in the domed roof. Working closely with an experienced bricklayer – this became a challenge as “daai gate” (these holes) are /were a problem (to him), yet an integral part of the design. And so a battle to maintain the design often meant frustration and a desire to ‘do it alone’, which often became a necessity. The dome, however, was completed and the team were ultimately wonderful and committed to completing the work with her. Some came and left, and others stayed. The building team included 4 people and the artist – Roderick from Aligned Consulting in Joburg; Brian, the local bricklayer and his nephew, Darian; Bruce who is local and who has been involved in this artwork since the ‘first phase’ and th artist. She still has to return to fix these holes (daai gate) to allow the light, wind/air, and sound in… to the Silence…
