Enkosi

Travelogues from South Africa, dedicated to the people of Langa, Gugulethu en Khayelitsha (the townships around Cape Town) and impressed with lasting experiences and portraits, serene and worthy of the dusty township streets.

Travel and picture material fixed in the emulsion layers of Kodak Gold, a palimpsest of vivid, often flashy African colour pallets: South Africa on canvas.

Fragile portraits with a particular sense for colour balance, recognizable by the specific way in which all kinds of "objets trouvés" and text material are integrated: often objects bearing reminiscences of travels such as labels, pictures, flight tickets, packages and materials with a soul and a nostalgic past. Typical South African are the packages of popular consumption goods like Sunlight soap , Lion matches, Golden Royal Fruit and Pilchards Lucky Star, used as wallpaper by the township people in their small and humble shacks.

My technique combines thin scraps of paper (ranging from handmade paper to newspaper) in a layered structure, covered with different layers of acryl paint which forms an excellent basis for carving, ripping and revealing; the anatomy of invention: imagination packed and sent.

Portraits, afloat between audience and wall - a reality between illusion and reminiscence.