Fire! The word sometimes is warming and comforting, and sometimes it is terrifying, especially when it comes to the power fire has to destroy lives and livelihoods. In 2021 a fire ripped through a large area of land in the Xhariep District of the Free State of South Africa, destroying, amongst others, a merino wool farm owned by Christine Jacobs’ family. In response to this disaster the artist revisited the land and memories of childhood through drawing, photography and sculpture, exploring the landscape and the family’s relationship to it.
An exhibition of these works, Enfold, is currently on in Southern Guild, a gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. Using felted wool and stitch, the artist has created forms by using her body to shape contours to echo the hills and valleys of the land before dyeing the underside of the sculptures with natural dyes as a reference to the hues of the landscape. The sculptures are stitched with black wool; paths, borders, trails and roads that crisscross and delineate the farm’s boundaries.
To go alongside these pieces are charcoal drawings, the material reflecting the devastating fires, and an aerial photograph of the artist, lying in a hollow in the earth, surrounded by the landscape’s rich colour. You can see the photograph on the link above, as well as the pieces in the exhibition.
Thank you to our reader who visited the show and sent in the link to share.
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Hear more:
Scroll down this page to hear an interview with Christine Jacobs.
Photograph "Christine Jacobs Portrait" by Marius Joubert and Southern Guild.
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