Two landscape students of Blois in France are creating a new 1500 sqm large Dry Garden at Soekershof and this morning was dedicated to 11 students and 2 teachers of the Waldorf School in nearby McGregor. They made several rock paintings visualising their daily experience of life anno 2009. Maybe the Dry Garden will be ‘The Archeologic Hotspot” of the year 20010.
Herewith an impression and for more pictures click here.
Land Art Project in South Africa; The Cactus
One of the man made objects in the garden is the Pachycereus Plaatjies (’specie name’ after maker Marthinus Plaatjies). This wooden cactus is entirely made (ancient method) of restpieces wood without the use of nails and screws; just dewels and without the use of machinery; just hand tools. There is craftmenship within the ‘historically disadvantaged communities’ in South Africa but that is unfortunately not always recognised.
“Mama Africa is a unique Earth Sculpture made of the Land.
For me the significance of Mama Africa is homage to our roots and also that we are doing something so extraordinary; something to be proud of.
Mama Africa symbolizes a strong personality which does not back down to any challenge. That’s the reason why African women are so strong; you touch a woman, you touch a rock.
Creating Mama Africa was hard work.
Sweat caused by extreme hot weather. It took us a couple of weeks to shape this sculpture. It was even difficult during rain.
But it is worthwhile because the result is a Masterpiece and out here.
Hopefully Mama is going to make history”.
Gardener Xolile Ngqwarushe of Soekershof; Private Mazes & Botanical Gardens in South Africa; co-creator of Mama Africa
(Mama Africa is 3 metres high, 6 metres wide and 14 metres long)
There is, we think, no garden that stimulates associative minds as much as a succulent garden. The ’strange’ shapes of succulents inspired Afrikaners to give names to plants which sometimes sound rude (but they don’t mean it that way, it’s just a way of expressing themselves) such as ‘Ou Meid se Boude’ (old woman’s buttock), ‘hondeballen’ (dog 
balls), ‘katteballetjies’ (cat balls) ‘perdetande’ (horse teeth) and ‘baba boudjies’ (baby buttocks). Afrikaners are very associative people (most of our South African visitors are Afrikaner). They appreciate the 
natural sculptures and they are also the ones who associate plant shapes with more commomly known shapes. But ‘abstract (land) art’ is something they are troubled with (for them it’s not 
natural) but the earth sculpture ‘Mama Africa’ (see first contribution of this blog) they really love. Unless there is a story with it they don’t see the clue. We are generalising a bit 
now and of course there are many exceptions the other way around; English speaking South Africans who never had something to do with plant life suddenly starting to photograph plants and plant details for the simple reason that there is some association.
There are almost 2500 different ‘natural succulent sculptures’ in our garden. Many of them stimulate the human imagination. Not is single one is the same.
There are many shapes; even that of the human brain (also worthwhile are the brains of Klaas Voogds) but these are for people to discover themselves one day.
A leaking concrete water reservoir inspired us to ‘recycle’ it into a ’stone age cinema’ in which the pictures don’t move but visitors move along the pictures in order to get the picture.
The movie tells the tale of the legendary Klaas Voogds as being told by locals.
The true story however is different; Klaas Voogds (1670 – 1718) still has his mark on the contemporary history of South Africa with the emphasis on the Western Cape. Klaas Voogds can also be regarded as the South African James Bond of the eighteenth century.
The pictures were drawn by Dutch artists Bertus & Wilma in December 2001.
Three weeks ago we installed our ‘cruise missile’. It’s four metres high, weights 250 kilogram and stands on a heep of 1.5 metres high.
It’s our own design and made from rest pieces wood by local woodworker Marthinus Plaatjies; hence the ‘botanical’ title of this wooden cactus: Pachycereus plaatjies
One of these weeks we will ‘cultivate’ the heep and one of the the next submissions to this blog whill show you a complete different picture of the same object.
Classical five circuit labyrinth of golden barrels at entrance of Klaas Voogds Maze of Soekershof.
All barrels (Echinocactus grusonii) home grown.
And the labyrinth mother is still growing strong in one of the succulent gardens.
The barrels were sown in February 2001 and in the course of 2003 we made the labyrinth.
Somewhere in the Klaas Voogds Maze is a Fingerpointing Maze where visitors can try to finger their way to the walking stick of South African cactus pioneer Marthinus Malherbe. Legend has it that Marthinus’ ghost is sitting on the bench nearby waiting for his wife Molly who is seemingly still looking for him. With full moon we take him for a stroll in his gardens.
Sundial in Klaas Voogds Maze with 3 different times on the longest and shortest day.
Based on local folklore but, partly, still very true!
If a bunch of woman are stuck in the maze we always know where to get them.
The daily activities of many farmer wives consists of breakfast at nine, lunch at noon and coffee or tea with the other country women at four.
And they are always “so busy” …………….
This is where our idea for Land Art got some ground under its feet: the ‘Tree of growing creativity’.
The creation of the 2.5 metre high wire baobab tree at the entrance of Soekershof in the beginning of 2002 has an enormous spin-off for wire-artist Messina Mussindo (“You may call me Joey”).
The making of the second tree, exhibited in the
South African embassy in Berlin, gave the international career of Joey momentum with various creations displayed in musea and galleries in Europe and the USA. Work of Joey can also be found in several private collections around the globe. The wire branch on the veranda of guesthouse Mardouw between Swellendam and Ashton is one of the refined examples of Joey’s work.
Joey is not subsidised as many other (wire) artists originating from ‘less priviliged communities’. He is glad to stand on his own feet. Joey has his workshop and outlet at Soekershof . Above all Joey’s demonstration of his so called ‘one-wire-art’ shows his ability of innovation in wire-art.
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