The artwork
In March 2012 Hannelie Coetzee constructed ‘Buigkrag’, a semi-permanent land art work, on a slanted piece of Highveld in the Nirox Sculpture Park.
It comments on our addiction to electricity through dry stacking stone formations that appear to be ‘bending the knee’ to the pylons on the horizon.
On a previous visit she found existing stones protruding from the earth that all lean towards the pylons. Through stacking additional stones on top (and also creating some formations from scratch) she will with very little harm to or interference in the environment, enlarge and shape the formations into slaves to electricity.
The technique of dry stacking, in other words finding the surface of the stone that fits the one below it and balancing it all, symbolizes the more balanced approach we should take towards interacting with the environment.
The documentation
There is something exhilarating about being out in nature, or in Joburg city centre for that matter, and finding an unexpected art work, a thing of beauty, in a stretch of grassland or on the side of a ramshackle building. An art work that will weather, sometimes degrade or sometimes continue to grow. In other words, an art work not kept in a sterile gallery environment, but that is left to the whims of nature (or other graffiti artists).
What is often as fascinating as the art work, is witnessing that art work being made – whether it is watching a graffiti artist painting a green ‘sea dragon’ in the storm drain close to the Arts on Main complex, or watching Hannelie Coetzee stacking stones in a sun bleached landscape.
We cannot all witness the creation of an art work, permanent or temporary, or be fortunate enough to see the sand mandala before it is swept up, or walk
Gallery and site specific work
There is a divide between public/street/land art and the kind of art that can be printed or painted, framed and sold in a gallery space.
Some street artists prefer a grungy, peeling wall in Joburg city centre as their canvas and even make anti-gallery protest art. When British street artist Banksy aligned himself with a gallery some called him a sell out, others thought it financially wise. Another issue that arose was how to sell his graffiti, normally painted on a permanent wall somewhere. (There are rumours of walls being taken down and auctioned off. Rumours, I stress.) Other artists make work that is site specific. Hannelie Coetzee’s ‘Oumagrootjie’ had to go up in Fordsburg as that is where her impoverished great grandmother cued for food after the devastating Anglo-Boer War.
Yes, one of the stone formations that form Coetzee’s ‘Buigkrag’ can be transported and repacked in a gallery space. The real beauty of ‘Buigkrag’ though, is specific to the site where Coetzee is building it. a) It needs to be built in the landscape, b) from stone collected from the nearby veldt and c) it does point to the pylons on the horizon after all, which is the focus of her commentary – that we are addicted to power.
It is possible though to link the landscape where she’s stacking stone and a gallery, the Nirox Project Space in this instance and, low and behold, even sell something. One can document her thought process, her daily progress and possible frustrations and curveballs with photography, text and even video.
The content can be sent out via social media to make the whole art work, the process and the end product, more accessible to a wider audience. Photographs can also be printed, editioned and sold through a gallery.
So, to view the process, follow me on Twitter, Facebook and my site. To buy the prints, either order online or visit us at the Nirox Project Space until April 1st.
Réney Warrington & Hannelie Coetzee