Travelling in my truck on the trail for new material is torture enough, but the recent return trip from Pont Drift was to be a true test of an artist’s commitment to his cause. I went to Johannesburg to drop off some new works at the Gallery on the Square and then the next day to pick up some bones on a farm near Pont Drift, which is 100 kilometres west of Messina on the border of Botswana.
The birds, landscape and the places from Polokwane through Alldays and further up North were wonderful. The road is the Mapungubwe route, there are many game farms along the way and Ratho Farm itself has some 9 000 crocodiles, a restaurant for vultures and is visited by elephants.
My adventure, apart from all the usual discomforts in that it was long, hot, noisy and expensive, proceeded well but a few kilometres into my return I discovered that I had no brakes and was unable to stop. There was no cellular signal and no traffic to flag down, so the only option I had was to simply drive on and find help. Obviously I had to proceed carefully, using my gears and trying to pre-empt anything that might happen. Fortunately the roads there are flat and there was little traffic, but it was still a rather scary endeavour as it was only 150 kilometres on, in Mogwadi, that I managed to locate a mechanic.
Being desperate, I would have agreed to any price and the price I paid was indeed dear! The repair was quickly done and I opened my wallet with some apprehension, but the mechanic refused any money and insisted that the price was for me to have a beer with him. It was to be a deal with the devil…
Mogwadi is hot and one beer was easily, if surreptitiously, replaced by another. Food was issued in and hungrily eaten but as the food and the beers were his, his generosity began to mitigate against my early departure. When a visit to the shebeen was mooted I believed I could buy my way out, but it was not to be. We went to the shebeen in his car and the few chores he needed to do cut off my escape. En route to fetch his brother, the good man ran over and collected 4 guinea fowl “for breakfast”. When brother Ben was collected, we checked up on the man who had been spat in the eye by a rinkhals earlier that day. We measured a farmer’s gatepost for the fabrication of a gate. Then with the beers, dry wors that we had bought, a blaring car radio, the three of us had a party in middle of nowhere!
From this point the events begin to resemble a bad LSD trip. At one point he sailed past the “Stop! Go!” controls and attendants into the oncoming traffic at 140 km/h, missing the oncoming cars by driving on the newly laid wet tar. He laughed uproariously whilst I sunk into the seat with my sweaty fingers gripping the seat in fear. Later he was unable to manage a cigarette and cell phones while simultaneously driving, he ran the car off the verge into the bush several times.
Fortunately the cigarette and cell phone were too important to put down, so I was given the helm to steer us home!
By now it was late and I willingly agreed to spend the night. I declined any further offers of alcohol and collapsed into a heaven sent bed. However, the fates were still conspiring against me and I was woken at 1.30am in the morning by a thunderstorm. Then at 2.30am, the mechanic needed to go to Vereeniging and I was turned out of the house and sent on my way back to Durban. Even for this seasoned ex truck driver the journey home was a long and difficult one.
Journeys have often been depicted by artists, perhaps for their unpredictability, perhaps because they test the travelers, perhaps as metaphors for life and for other reasons. There are examples of travel works from the earliest civilisations, including the Greeks who depicted scenes from the Odyssey and all the way through history to modern South African Art. ‘The Passage of Time’ is a work I delivered to Gallery on the Square. It depicts figures of various ages in a boat on a journey through time. A second work is the ‘Journey to the Unknown’ which is at the Strydom Gallery in George. Whilst it is also a boat with figures in it, it is different and is about a family’s journey together.
I am privileged to be opening the Fibre Artist Exhibition at The Complete Picture in Lillies Quarter Centre in Hillcrest on the 2nd of April 2008. All will be welcomed. You can look at some Fibre Art Works or speak to Sue, the gallery owner, on 083 673 7975. I will be speaking about Cinderella and her ugly step sister.
I guess that will be a trip of a different kind.
