|
|
  TOURSNEWSROCKART JOURNALCONTROVERSIESFEATURESREADING ROCK ARTBOOKSSITE OF THE MONTHNORTH EAST CAPEPRIME ORIGINSCONTACT US 
| |
New book inspired by San heritage
A number of South African artists have been inspired by the heritage of San (Bushman) rock art. Walter Battiss is perhaps the best known one. Now Pippa Skotnes, Associate Professor of Fine Art at UCT, and artist, has developed that tradition in a new way. Her latest book Heaven's Things : A story of the /Xam, is a continuation of work inspired by the San, with which she has been involved for more than a decade. In 1991 she published Sound from the Thinking Strings, which was presented as an exhibition. These etchings and watercolours were inspired both by San rock art as well as the oral literature, myths, legends, folklore and histories of the /Xam San, collected by W.Bleek and Lucy Lloyd in the 1870's. This work also won her the Standard Bank Young Artist Award of 1993. Then followed Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of the Bushman, a book edited by Skotnes and which also formed the basis of a controversial exhibition. Now, in Heaven's Things, she uses the same inspiration to create a book of art and history. This is the first in a series of books that according to the series editor, Martin Hall, "will explore the ways in which words and images interact with one another." The book is created out of three sources of content. In one section Skotnes details the history of the creation of the Bleek/Lloyd archives from which she draws her inspiration. This archive, held at the University of Cape Town contains the recorded mythology, folklore and language of the /Xam San just prior to their final extinction in the late 1800's. This first section describes the extinction of the Southern San , the /Xam; how the /Xam informants arrived in Cape Town as prisoners, the importance for them that their stories and mythology were recorded for posterity and Skotnes' own response to these records. She writes, " When I first read the Bleek and Lloyd archive and held in my hands the notebooks touched by Lloyd and Bleek, ( the recorders ) //Kabbo and /Han#kasso, (the /Xam informants) its strangeness and depth, its messages, both revelatory and mysterious, and stories from the 19th century took my breath away." The second interspersed section contains texts from the Bleek records of myths and folklore of the sun, stars and moon. The third section which runs alongside the other two are extracts from a particular epic /Xam myth, the story of the Dawn's Heart, embedded within Skotnes' own paintings which are clearly inspired by the mythology as well as San rock art.
This is rich though ( 53 pages ) small book of history and mythology of the /Xam and brought to life by Skotnes' own contemporary art and image.
CONTACT BRETT HILTON-BARBER primeorigins.co.za is an iafrica.com Private Label site |
Skotnes, Pippa . 1999. Heaven's Things : a story of the /Xam. Cape Town: LLAREC Series.