This year for Reconciliation Day, an Online Art Exhibition “FAITH, HOPE, LOVE AND PEACE ” was curated.
With the Centenary of the National Women’s Memorial in 2013, current South African artists were approached to create artworks reinterpreting the Anglo-Boer War, also known as the South African War of 1899-1902.The hardship and suffering that accompanied the war were unimaginable. Yet the people who found themselves in the conflict situation found harmony with their circumstances in different ways, whether through their religious beliefs, peaceful attitudes, love for their fellow human beings or hope for the future.
Symbols are often used to convey an underlying message such as the cross that symbolises faith and doves that symbolise peace.
Hope is not ashamed and is often represented with an anchor or a cloud with a silver lining. Although the heart is a symbol of love, Emily Hobhouse is in this case represented as the “Angel of Love”. These symbols also appear in the modern works of art that have been specially selected to depict each of the concepts.
FAITH, HOPE, LOVE AND PEACE ONLINE EXHIBITION:
TITLE : They are not buried here, they are planted here to grow in the minds of the people
ARTIST: Anita Malan
MEDIUM: Paper ceramic
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: The trees symbolise the deterioration of the detainees in the concentration camps. The wire cells symbolise the camps. The fourth tree symbolises how the inmates who died in the camps are kept alive in the minds of those left behind.
TITLE : “Hoop” (Hope)
ARTIST: Nico van Rensburg
MEDIUM: Oil on super acrylic background, on canvas
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: From out the ashes of the past, two children walk hand-in-hand to the future. “Hope” has its roots in my grandmother’s concentration camp stories in the long cold winter evenings in front of the fireplace in our sandstone house in Ladybrand, my hometown.
TITLE: Pegasus
ARTIST: Annette Pretorius
MEDIUM: Bronze
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: The winged horse alludes to a creature from Greek mythology namely Pegasus. The “Winged Horse” is, for me, a hopeful image; it can rise above the devastation of war as in the case of the Anglo-Boer War. The mechanical character of the horse provides protection to itself and a rider.
TITLE: “ ʼn Nuwe Begin”(A New Beginning)
ARTIST: Nina van der Westhuizen
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: I was inspired by the narrative of a woman who returned to her devastated farm after the war. The only lemon tree left and still bearing fruit was the loveliest sight of her life. The tent camp on the left and the dark clouds behind her point to the war that is all over. The lemons and soft blue heavens on the right simbolize a better future – the new beginning.
TITLE: “Vryheid vir Vroue” (Freedom for Women)
ARTIST: Isabel le Roux
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: The South African woman is depicted in a war situation where she experiences the misery of captivity in a concentration camp, burnt down homesteads, death and poverty. She was also a helpless onlooker at the death of her children and those of others. As a central figure the woman is wrapped up in bandages which depict her painful hurts and the confinement of her personal living space. But all these are against the backdrop of faith as a firm anchor, symbolised by cross and prayer, which is her source of hope to achieve freedom – she glances upward and into the future.
The black woman was part of the same suffering and a longing for freedom. She was a servant and although her jug was empty she was part of the woman’s fate and her striving for freedom and a better future.
Freedom and peace are also symbolised by the birds in flight, even though they are not quite sure of what direction to take. The three birds also symbolise the triune Godhead who is omnipresent and whose grace is all-embracing like the sun and universe in complete and incomplete circles – all bound to the beautiful South African landscape.
TITEL: “Ons Weet Net van Duiwe” (We Only Know about Doves)
ARTIST: Nitsa Christopher
MEDIUM: Ceramic
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: Although the “usual” symbolism of a dove is about peace I have meant them to be symbols of the soul taking flight at death (there being more than one dove…..) The method of firing the clay directly in the fire and blackening it relates to the destruction not only by fire and gunfire and the fact that fire is a destructive element. At the same token it can also be transformative into new life…..in this case the transformative element being the release of souls in death from unspeakable suffering. So the technique is an integral part of the symbolism and the content of the work. And yes then the doves have multiple symbolism too – but my original thinking was the above.
Ons Weet Net Van Duiwe
ons weet net van duiwe wanneer
hulle gekoer glashelder in die stilte klink
maar waar hulle skuil as die donderweer woed
weet ons nie
tot een skoongewaste more ons skerwe
kuiken onder ‘n boom sien blink:
dan gee die dood onweer-
spreekbare bewys van die lewe
DANIEL HUGO
I draw on landscape as reference to content – textures, colours and process are an integral part of meaning. My intention was to use the doves as well as the process as metaphor for the destruction by fire of death and of suffering. Out of this darkness of burnt ashes and sorrow the tortured soul finds respite in dying.
TITLE: “Die vlug van die duiwe” (The flight of doves)
ARTIST: Marie Stander
MEDIUM: Charcoal and dry pastel on cotton paper
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: In the Anglo-Boer War Concentration Camps thousands of children died… Children were stripped of their carefree childhood because of famine, illness and the death of their loved ones and their own untimely death. As an artist, I wanted to portray the defenceless children who suffered this fate of being put into the camps, unjustly. The boy and the girl represent the children. The representations of the doves are double folded. The doves symbolises firstly freedom and secondly the Holy Ghost, because the outcome was undeniable.
TITLE: “Onse Vader” (Our Father)
ARTIST: Anri Lategan
MEDIUM: Charcoal on paper
DATE: 2013
Artist Statement: It does not matter if you shout it out, sing it aloud, think of it at the beginning or end of your PRAYER…I tell a story of WAR! The heart wrenching outcome…But also the story of our lives: FAITH, HOPE and LOVE, thank you OUR FATHER.
The altogether, all-inclusive HANDS symbolise GOD’S HANDS, which holds, cherish and comfort humanity even in their darkest hour of despair (let especially the children come to me, they who had nothing to do with the WAR!).
The many graves, the suffering, the hunger, YET there is a ray of LIGH AND HOPE…it overshadows the black all-consuming fire clouds and the scorched earth in the background.
The word Concentration Camp is written with barbed wire, the thorn in your flesh, the skeletons, and your soul becomes silent…
TITLE: The British Bible
ARTIST: Erna Ziegelmeier
MEDIUM: Ceramics and wood
DATE: 2013
Artist statement: My work symbolises the foundations on which the British built their nation. Colonists were threatened with death rather than with the wisdom of the Bible.
TITLE : “Die Engelse roos” (The English rose)
ARTIST: Stefan Rossouw
MEDIUM: Oil on board
DATE: 2013
Artist statement: Die Engelse roos (The English rose) is a portrait of the humanitarian Emily Hobhouse. The wilted roses and chrysanthemums on Hobhouse’s head represent the suffering of the women and children sent to the concentration camps. Like the crown on her head, Hobhouse carried the burden of turning against her homeland and enduring the everyday hardships of suffering people. The veil represents how Hobhouse, on the brink of getting married, broke off her engagement to work to improve the lives of those in poor living conditions. The veil also suggests how she “lifted the veil” on the atrocities committed in the concentration camps.
TITLE: “My kind se laaste roep” ( My child’s last words)
ARTIST: Ilse Fourie
MEDIUM: Metal filings with acid catalyst and acrylic paint
DATE: 2013
Artist statement: The surface on the 1400mm x 1400mm stretched canvas, was covered in a paint which has metal filings in it and through a method of oxidation the image was rusted on the background. Acrylic paint was applied in certain areas which is then partially absorbed by the rust and partially left unaffected. Through continuous rusting and paint application the final image is achieved.
