|
||||
 Nephophiles (Lovers of clouds)13 April 2025 Participating: Liekie Fouché Liekie Fouché spent her early childhood on a farm in the North-West province, where clouds were one of the first forms of the natural world she would be exposed to. Children growing up in this community of farmers, in a rather dry part of South Africa, are acutely aware of the positive effects of clouds and the rain in which they result, on the environment and on the survival of the farmers.
Her love of clouds is also an obvious consequence of her love of nature and the landscape on the small holding where she’s been living for the past 25 years.
From an artistic point of view, emotions and atmosphere can be expressed through dark, stormy clouds, landscapes shrouded in mysterious mists, clouds promising rain in a desert or light clouds letting through the sun and the stars.
In her work clouds form a natural background for beings and phenomena in the heavenly spheres. Flying objects and creatures are depicted against a backdrop of planets, moon and stars. Angels can be seen in the works “Dreamer”, depicting a heavenly being obscured by mist, with its head literally in the clouds and “Dusk” in which an almost unseen angel flies high in the clouds over a shadowy mountain landscape, like a fleeting thought.
Against the background of clouds, rabbits are flying round in pastel coloured robes, in works with titles like “Orbs” and “Traveling Light.” And while the cat in the work “Nephophile” is dressed in clouds, the dark silhouette of a rabbit in the work called “Cloud Watcher” observes the clouds from the contrasting shadowy mountains.
Clouds belong to the worlds in between heaven and earth, and due to its changing and illusive form it exists on the edge of non-existence, where it is a mystical presence, often overlooked at that very moment when it turns into an almost forgotten memory.
The artist is fascinated by the life cycle and different forms and stages of clouds, as expressed in an Afrikaans translation from the work of the Portuguese Mozambican writer Mia Couto: “Ons mees langdurige liefde is die reën, tussen die vlug van ‘n wolk en die gevangenis van’n waterpoel. (Rosa Caramella, Mia Couto.)
The clouds’ quality of giving life while perishing, gives it a mythical meaning, corresponding with myths of deities from the most ancient memories of mankind.
VENUE:TINA SKUKAN GALLERY Address: Plot 6, Koedoeberg Rd, Faerie Glen, Pretoria Cell: 083 235 3899 Email: rex@tinaskukangallery.co.za Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday: 10:00 - 17:00.
MORE EVENTS IN Pretoria
|
| |||
|
