The ant may be insignificant but he makes a fantastic structure by carrying grains of sand and wood one at a time (from your house to his).  We, like the ants, should participate in some small way to constructing a better world.  Perhaps it is self serving but I would like to live in and leave behind a kinder, happier and culturally richer domain.    

Much of my white ant soul has been with the African Art Centre, a development agency.  It was initially set up by the Race Relations Institute more than 50 years ago with the aim of promoting art and providing work, financial independence and dignity through art.  In the distant past I have exhibited and sold work through the Centre.  I have served on the board of directors for more than ten years and recently I was elected as Chairman of the Board. 

I am delighted and a little nervous.  At the time of my election I had the thought that the board had elected a Mr Bean.  This was because I am aware of my own failings, intimidated by the wealth of talent on the board and admire the dedicated and hard working staff.  However, I realise that what is required is a team effort as that will ensure the continuation of the good work already done.

The ant is not an image I have used often although they have appeared in some of the trees I have made.  Trees and the wild life therein are a symbol of community for me. My recent work Fight or Flight is an example.  When I was full of optimism for our rainbow nation my trees were filled with insects, animals and birds, happily coexisting.  However since then the fauna in the trees has diminished and they usually have a predator amongst them. In this bone work the threat is a leopard, an animal that I associate with stealth and cunning.  I have occasionally carved a lion, like the Iron Lion, a new work carved from lump of ironstone that I found in Howick. However, the lion is an image I associate with power and leadership and differs from the leopard.  

I have sculpted a few works in stone, stones like serpentine, limestone, sandstone and granite, but the ironstone is by far the hardest.  I started using this material because I liked the organic shapes which made them suitable for my mounts and even though the work was minimal, the stone required diamond tipped tools in order to dress them.  Now, having acquired those tools, I am presented with an opportunity to sculpt something a little different. 

I, like most artists, am regularly tithed. This has nothing to do with my religious beliefs.  The tithe or tax is collected by charities that regularly ask artists for donations.  I like to participate, even when it is more than I can afford.  In the past month I have donated works to Every One Counts and will be participating in the Wildlands Art for Conservation to be held at the Spier Estate in April, 2010.   These charitable events are a great way for collectors to do a good deed, acquire works cheaply and in some cases you may even be able to put the amount spent against your income tax.

I will not tell the wildlife people that as a small boy and a destructive little pest, I used to catch large, shiny, black safari ants, make them bite the hem of my shorts and break off their bodies.  The aim was to have a row of gleaming ant heads decorating my shorts.  

The ants have taken their revenge.  They have steadily been eating and undermining my home. Then some time ago, at three in the morning, my doorbell started ringing. At first I reasoned it was a mistake, but when it persisted I thought it might be the police.  Eventually, seething with anger, I roared up the drive to the gate only to find no one there.  It left me in a confused rage.  The following day the doorbell was rung again but this time I could see that no one was at the gate.  I unscrewed the intercom to investigate and as I opened it ants poured out to defend their nest.

The incident has made me think.  Our communities do not need the self-serving, parading and clowning of a Mr Bean that we see all too often. What it desperately needs are those people with the self sacrificing and workmanlike mindset of the ant that quietly gets on with the job.

Regards
Carl

2010   |  Fight or Flight   |   510mm x 550mm x 220mm

2010   |   Iron Lion   |   810mm x 710mm x 220mm

It is part of me, part of art and part of my work. 

I think that artists put their sensuality on display. I am sure many are unaware of doing so but it is unavoidable. It comes through the artists’ preferences and the choices which are sometimes not conscious decisions.  Things like the materials and colours they choose to work in, textures they make, the way they use line and so on.  It is something that is difficult to pin down but it is, when the artist is not trying too hard, easily spotted. 

A work I often think about is ‘Plum Cream’ by Penny Siopis, now in the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg.  It is a painting of a cake but it is a cake that feels to me to have the ingredients of labia and pudenda rather than flour and eggs.  Perhaps it should have been banned as obscene but I love it.  I much prefer this to her history paintings which I find are over intellectualised and pander to the academics.  ‘Plum Cream’ has that sensual content, the real soul of the woman, and that is something to get excited about.

At university I used to take an intense interest in the works put on the wall for the monthly critiques.  Not only because I could learn something about the composition of works but also because I could learn about the people who made them.  Coincidently, they were mostly women.  I like to think it was a balanced life as my social education was then at least as good as my academic efforts.

The making sculpture is often a sensual activity.  Perhaps this is more obvious in modelling wet clay than carving dry rock.  It is felt, fingered, and caressed into shape by the artists’ hands.  Painting, by contrast, is generally prodded onto canvas with some hairs on the end of a stick and viewed from a distance.  Admirers of sculpture often feel the work and it is a medium more easily appreciated by blind people.

Of course my own sensuality or frigidity is out there for all to see.  I try and embrace it as I think of it as worthwhile content.  Each of new works In a Tangle, and Reef Ranger (sold) display that part of me.  ‘In a Tangle’ has the warmth of the wood, the curvilinear lines, and the intimate subject.   ‘Reef Ranger’ is a satisfying subject that I have tackled several times.  Because of its amorphous form an octopus can be “bent” to take almost any shape and becomes a vehicle for expression of a sensual self.  I am not alone in my choice of this subject and am aware of Hokusai’s erotic octopus which some may read as lewd.  However, for me, it so explicitly expresses what many have felt; the desire to consume your lovers’ body.

Naturally I would like to think I am deeply sensual.  It is the kind of accolade that would suit my artists’ identity and add to my sense of being a good lover.  However, as I am not in the habit of fondling myself, I am in a poor position to judge.  Perhaps it would be best to ask my wife.  Then again don’t, as you might feel obliged to burst my bubble. 

I think, as a New Years’ resolution, I will heed those lines from my favourite film “give yourself over to absolute pleasure”.  That for me will be falling in love with and getting steamy with my bits of wood and bone.   

Regards
Carl

2010  |  Wood  |  1940 x 400 x 320

2010  |  Bone   |   315 x 270 x 120

I make sure that I do the important things like squirrel away any spare cash and I try my very best with everything else. Perhaps the least important things in my new sculptures, Ironstone Head, Jump and Hullabaloo, are the pins, hangers and the undersides of the bases on which the sculptures stand. In all my mounted works I use stainless steel pins to connect sculpture to the base and felt underneath them to prevent them from scratching the floor or desk. On my wall mounted works I always put in twice as many screws into the hangers as are necessary, the screws are solid brass and the hanging plates made of stainless steel. I know it is excessive and perhaps I am insecure but I do not want them fall down, scratch a surface or develop rust marks. I try hard to make sure that there will never be a problem.

Professor Robert Brooks once remarked that I was a bottom feeder. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about. I have come to understand that what he meant is the opposite of a high flyer, someone who likes to secure his foothold and not to leave anything to chance. However, I should know better as fate always has some say in the way things turn out.

This year we were robbed of a car, used our reserves to buy a new one and then the recession hit us with no sales for 3 months. This famine and feast cycle is not unusual for us. However, this time, without our savings I became very anxious.

To avoid destitution I imposed measures to mitigate the situation. The geyser was turned off until needed and we took shorter showers which were sometimes cold because we had forgotten to turn the geyser on. The groceries were pared down to the bare essentials. We always seemed to be eating cabbage and I missed the chops and chocolate. The dogs were put on diet and the kids supplemented their rations with the peanuts from their allocations of pet rat food.

I think it was Gary Player who said that “the harder I practice, the luckier I get” and that sums it up for me. There is an element of chance in anything you do. There are ups and there are downs but with hard work and careful planning I think one can weather the storms and improve the odds of success. My over reaction does have its advantages as we have pruned our expenses and implemented some good habits. Our stolen car was a bit of bad luck but, as fate would have it, there has been some good luck.

Happily, I have been nominated for a fellowship at Yale. I realise that it is still only a remote possibility because out of the 750 nominations, they will only choose a dozen or so. However a nomination to a fellowship at Yale is fortunate and exciting even if it remains but a nomination and if it succeeds, this lucky bottom feeder will be a high flyer.

Regards

Carl

2009  |  Ironstone Head  |  855mm x 300mm  x 130mm

2009  |  Jump  |   750mm x 390mm x 130mm

2009   |   Hullabaloo   |   485mm x 270mm x 100mm