It seems to me that I live by Murphy’s Law which states that if any thing can go wrong, it will. It started long before I could possibly be responsible for any of it. The dynasty of disaster probably goes all the way back to Cain but as I know it, it starts with my grandfather and his heart attack. A few years later my father crashed his jet and killed himself when I was three months old, then a second father followed who died of lung cancer within a few years. He was succeeded by father number three who was divorced and later died and then this sequence is nicely rounded off by father number four who was also attacked by his heart.
In the recent past it seems that Murphy’s Law is being implemented by the government. Apart from all the public issues they took five years to issue a permit which enables me to collect drift wood for my driftwoord art from a small area on the beach. The drift wood was the mainstay of my income at the time and one might have thought their intention was to render me unproductive and bankrupt. As a necessary alternative I focused on bone carving which flourished until recently, when those responsible for applying Murphy’s Law wanted to send out the armed forces to arrest me and my gallery for not having a permit for the bones. Eventually it transpired that no permit was needed for those particular bones and permits of this nature are supposed to be issued by the very people who gave me the bones in the first place, namely KZN Wildlife.
Life takes some unexpected turns and since I have returned from Australia I have been unsettled. On the positive side the inspirational pot has been stirred and I now want to try a few new things and revisit some old ones. I am making some bronze works, have started a work in strelitzia leaves and I have an idea involving Perspex car lenses. The work I have completed is a bone sculpture about migration called ‘Directions’ and I am sure I will have a few more works on this subject.
It is impossible to go to Australia and not think about migration. We were primed by many of our friends who asked if we were going for an LSD. Whilst I knew that Australia has some problems with drugs I was still mystified. The South African meaning of LSD in this context is an acronym for Look, See and Decide. That was not our intention. However what we saw impressed us and put the option of emigrating into the mix of things. There has been turmoil ever since.
This work depicts a number of directionless rowers, milling around on a fish boat. Fish are a symbol of happiness for me and the boat an image of the passage of life. I suppose this sculpture is about the decisions I need make to settle and find contentment.
I have come to the conclusion that no one emigrates at my age except those that are desperate. Why one would leave the country you are familiar with and love? Why leave lifelong friends and family? (Although many of them are now in Australia). I also realise that most of my business contacts are here and if I were to emigrate I would have to begin again and it may be years before I gain any reputation as an artist. In addition, and no matter how dispirited I feel about the South African situation, it seems that the Australian authorities regard anyone of my age and situation as decrepit, unemployable and probably undesirable. Perhaps they are right but exceptions are made for the hefty price of $750 000 Aus. Murphy’s Law as a disrupting force is active in my life not only in the big things, but also in the small things and on a daily basis.
Collecting the Perspex was easy as my friend Mark Robert owns Marmic, a vast scrap yard filled with crashed cars. However, Perspex is glued with chloroform and chloroform was recently deemed by the government as having schedule six status. I now need a prescription or a permit and, looking as I usually do in my tatty clothes like a tramp or drug addict, did not help. Then, after I had managed to persuade someone to sell it to me, I discovered it did not work in the way I had hoped it would.
Similarly, I have bones which need degreasing and I hoped to expedite the process by boiling them. It appeared an easy task, all I needed was a 44 gallon drum under which I would light a fire. However, the neighbour complained of the smoke, and since we live in a smokeless zone I had to put it out or face the fire brigade. Resolute in my purpose, I bought a gas ring but the gas proved insufficiently hot to boil the water and having gone to all this trouble I then found out that the drum was too small for the big bones.
I spend a lot of time doing nothing or at least doing something futile and having to redo it. Perhaps I should stick to my knitting and those areas where I have already sorted out the problems, but that is not as exciting. A way around the difficulties is eventually found. I need to weld two drums together, I have replaced the gas ring with a diesel burner, the Perspex can be welded with a soldering iron, and eventually I had two pharmacists who where willing sell me some chloroform.
A lot of what I do and enjoy about sculpture is finding the solutions to the problems. I am fortunate in that I remain positive and persevere with my projects as the only certainty is that things change and that change is often not to my advantage. It is important to see the difficulties as a challenge and to tackle them creatively. After all, life is tragic, difficult and unfair but it is also a privilege and opportunity.
I think I will be happy here, there or anywhere.