Category: Shows

ARTIST LYNETTE TEN KROODEN IS INSPIRED BY THE MYSTERIES AND THE MIRACLES OF THE UNIVERSE

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Kristalwater 1 (Crystal Water)

The Association of Arts Pretoria is currently exhibiting works by renowned local artist Lynette ten Krooden under the collective title Mirari, which is the Latin for ‘to wonder at’; admire; miracle.Through French and later English, the word mirage also came into being. It perfectly captures the artist and her work, as she tells DIANE DE BEER:

Lynette is herself a work of art. Everything becomes her canvas.
The artist with her miracle rock shard.

If you spot glittering gold leaf somewhere on a table, chair or even the snacks at an arts event, it’s probably a sign that artist Lynette ten Krooden’s in the room.

“It’s her involvement with the Middle East many years ago that awakened it,” notes her close friend and fellow artist Margaret Gradwell-Truter, who divulges that the two of them are celebrating her first exhibition at the Association 40 years ago and now again. “As fellow artist, I (nervously) opened the exhibition at that time.”

It was wonderful to listen to her speech and to have her reveal so much about her friend, always with the emphasis on her art.

Ancient Travel Story.

About Lynette’s trademark gold leaf she says that at the time it wasn’t something that was widely used in the art world. She even recalls some of the local art academics being quite scathing about the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt because of his use of gold leaf. Today his work records some of the highest prices paid for art and especially his trademark gold leaf receives high praise. In similar vein, another gold leaf practitioner, Alexis Preller, was also not rated. Today he is revered, she says, as we can all attest to.

Not that Lynette paid much attention. If you hear her speak about her work and where her inspiration lies, it’s always the landscape. “She viewed the universe from space, or flew across the desert or travelled through it with the Bedouins, or she found herself in awe of age-old mountains, rocks and fossils. But she doesn’t repeat what she has seen, she gives her audience the experience of wonderment which she experiences – she does it through a rich tapestry of forms and marks richly woven to form a whole,” explained Margaret.

“Lynette has used gold leaf as an integral part of the landscape that inspires her.” And that especially was again visible in this current exhibition.

Pinnacle
Pinnacle in the Clouds.

Margaret embroiders: “She has unwaveringly used it as a medium for many years and has been able to master it, not as a decorative element but as a metaphor for the mirage, the mirari (miracle), that she has profoundly chased and captured, thereby enabling us, the spectator, to also wonder at the mirari.”

From her earliest days, she notes, Lynette was interested in the mysteries of the universe. The invisible – such as the effect of light on the earth – the glittering horizon, mist, sand, rocks and water. “This place that is a sanctuary for the wordless artist.”

Reenboogrots (Rainbow Rock)

And when Lynette talks unthinkingly about gold leaf, she tells how she is constantly picking up and gathering flecks of what might have fallen from something she is working on and using it again and again. And anyone who has ever picked up (or tried to handle) a sheath of gold leaf will know that it disintegrates in front of your eyes as if an invisible hand has reached out.

And still all these years later as her friend underlines, Lynette is filled with wonderment. “There’s a lifetime of art in my bones,” responds the artist. And even the fabric she wears reflects her love of what she creates.

Reisverhale – Storm on French Linen.

When she talks of her travels, she thinks of small children sitting on the sand and instinctively drawing, making pictures, capturing their world. That’s what she does. With her physical reality often a hindrance, she has found ways to work, to deal with what life gives her and to escape into the mysteries she is always exploring. “It never stops,” she says – and neither will she. “I lost my heart to the creative process. It’s good for my heart.”

Stand in front of one of her paintings and it immediately opens up a new world. Even if you’re just drawn by the colour, that in itself is a whole world that she embraces. For her, there’s a childlike excitement when she creates a new work. With this exhibition it was also returning to old ways and techniques that brought fresh meaning. As an artist she is intent on always moving forwards, somewhere new, challenging the world and everything around her.

And in the process, she passes on that depth of feeling to those of us looking on hoping to discover more . Her miracle becomes ours. For her it is simply a curiosity and wonder that started many years ago which has become the eternal play on her changing canvasses.

One cannot but be touched.

The exhibition runs until September 23.

http://www.artspta.co.za/

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Address: 173 Mackie St, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0181

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BONGI BENGU COLOURS THE WORLD BRIGHTLY WITH HER ART, HER LAUGHTER AND HER LIFE

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The artist Bongi Bengu is having a major exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum which runs from this Saturday (September 9) until November 5. She told DIANE DE BEER about her passion which is constantly evolving and reflecting her life, her dreams and hopes:

Pictures of Bongi Bengu taken at the Pretoria Farmer’s Market by Thomas Honiball.

When you first meet Bongi Bengu it is not a surprise to learn that she is an artist. She looks like an artwork herself.

She’s brightly dressed and the one characteristic most dramatic is her laughter. This is someone who loves life and her enthusiasm is contagious. She’s also not scared of showing herself.

But when you start talking about her art, her mood is reflective. “It’s a calling,” she says about this career which she has been passionate about for the past 26 years.

Her art is all about expressing herself but also healing, she says, something she hopes those who come to her exhibition will also experience. She infuses it into everything she does, her cooking, her clothes, dancing and music choices. “Art is like breathing.”

Titled The World / Umhlaba, the exhibition has been inspired by the tarot card called The World. “It means the end of a cycle and the beginning of another,” she explains. But she expands: “It could also mean that you’re in a powerful position to manifest your desires.”

The exhibition was first held at the Alliance Francaise, Pretoria where Pretoria Art Museum curator Mmutle Kgokong first saw it and felt that the space was too small for her work. “It looks cramped,” he said and invited her to show it at the museum.

Bongi feels it was meant to be. “We create our own world,” she says and that’s why this transformation from one exhibition to the next came quite naturally to this South African, who spent her youth in exile in Geneva Switzerland where she completed most of her schooling until the last few years, which she spent at Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland.

Bongi’s Golde Orb Mask

Her parents (her father Sibusiso Bengu was both an ambassador and Minister of Education) felt that she needed to experience some of her school years on the African continent. And this is also where she forged her future. While doing a research project for which she earned a distinction and which included interviewing established  artists, she discovered Helen Sebidi who was an inspiration and opened her eyes – and her heart – to the art world.

“That’s when I knew,” she says about her artistic beginnings. Becoming the world traveller that she is, she later enrolled and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at Mount Vernon College, Washington DC, and completed a Master’s degree in Fine Arts at The University of Cape Town. She has since participated in numerous international residencies and workshops.

For this current exhibition she wanted to reflect on the different stages of her work and she has tried to select pieces from all the different periods. She started with pastels and charcoals using mostly earthy colours.

Bongi’s Rebirth IV

Then she joined the Bag Factory Artist Studio where she did mostly collages initially and then turned to an organic period where she focussed on leaves and soil.

Only then came colour which now seem such a part of her life. She confesses that she sees herself as an artwork and when you look at her, it’s easy to see why. What a canvas she has been given to play with. It’s not only her work that turns heads.

Once she started planning this exhibition, she started a conversation with two curators, one at Washington DC’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Teresa Bush) where she had interned for a while and the other in Sweden (a South African lecturing there, Nkule Mabaso). “It was through dialogues with them about my work that I made selections,” she says. They will also be writing for her catalogue which will be available at the end of the two month exhibition.

Bongi’s Self portrait in the sand

When discussing her work, Bongi explains that she is inspired by her life and the experiences she has had. It all begins in her head, but once she starts working on paper or canvas, it’s usually something quite different that emerges.

Working mostly on your own can be quite a lonely existence, but Bongi enjoys her own company and finds her painting therapeutic. “This is how I work through problems,” she says. “I never feel alone.”

Bongi at work.

In her life as in her work, she describes herself as someone who doesn’t conform to society’s norms. “That’s not easy in my community, a single Black woman with no children!” But it’s her life and she marches to her own beat. Growing up and travelling around the world yet returning to South Africa, she functions easily wherever she finds herself.

As I watch her finding her feet at Silverton’s famous Farmer’s Market, it’s easy to believe her. She’s colourful, has a laugh that stops a crowd and a life that’s creative and of her own making.

Bongi’s Montana Birds (left) and Life of Domesticity (right)

She says she knows she was a man in her former life and that she wanted desperately to paint, but it wasn’t possible. “At that time, the women were the painters making huge murals. I knew I would come back as a woman so that I could fulfil my dream. And now I also know when women think that men have easier lives, it’s not always true!”

The exhibition will run until 5 November at the Pretoria Art Museum.

It will be opened officially by His Excellency HE Mr Antonis Mandritis, Ambassador of Cyprus and the work can be toasted courtesy of Durbanville Hills. Everyone is welcome.

WHILE SHIMMERING IN GLITTER AND GOLD NATANIËL WILL BE TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

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DIANE DE BEER talks to Nataniël about the few weeks ahead…

After an absence of several years from any Johannesburg theatre stage, Nataniël brings his award-winning show, Prima Donna, to the Teatro at Montecasino for five performances only from August 17 to 20 at 8pm, with a matinee included on the Saturday at 3pm.

And while this is a show which he has performed before, it is a new staging with new stories or old ones updated and even the old songs have new arrangements.

Over  the past few years Nataniël has written and staged more than 13 productions not seen in the Johannesburg area, and extraordinary moments from these shows as well as brand new material has been put together for five unforgettable gala concerts.

And, if you should wonder, naturally the costumes are all new, created by Floris Louw.That’s just who Nataniël is. But he’s nervous. This is a huge theatre, and even if it is similar to the seasons he used to stage annually at Emperors, he was familiar with the audience.

This time he doesn’t know because he hasn’t been in Joburg for some time. But those who know his work, won’t want to wait to buy tickets. His trademark stories will be in English and Afrikaans with songs in English.

(Book at SeatMe).      

In this tale as the title suggests, he is dealing with prima donnas. It’s a touch of fantasy, a dash of humour, some sadness, and as a reality check, a take on history, family, failures, hope  and modern society.

“We all know these drama queens, know how they operate and what they’re capable of. But we indulge them, their behaviour becomes worse and only death can release us,” he warns.

Charl du Plessis Trio will join him on stage for both shows with other musicians in tow. Pictured are Werner Spies (bass), Charl du Plessis (piano) and Peter Auret (drums).

He knows he also has that reputation, but his demands are about performance and what he knows he needs on stage. “I never fight, because I don’t like confrontation,” he says.

Never able to resist raising an eyebrow, he adds that he always believed one of the perks of success was being difficult!

“We hate them so we would rather do without them,” he says. But, in case you start taking all of this seriously, he says he chose the title because it looks good on the poster!

See what an interviewer has to contend with.

Vocalists Dihan Slabbert and Nicolaas Swart

But before you lose patience, he includes one of his elaborate and irresistible descriptions: “If Sarah Bernhardt, Maria Callas and Isadora Duncan had a child, it would resemble my costumes!”

And, he adds, a touch of Florence Foster Jenkins.

His music he describes as a combination of the dramatical and accessible. “I sing many of my own songs and familiar old songs.”

With him on stage is Charl du Plessis who now travels with his own Steinway piano (and that’s a whole other story) Luke van der Merwe (guitar), Marcel Dednam (keyboard), and Werner Spies (bass), as well as Dihan Slabbert, Wiehahn Francke and Nicolaas Swart on vocals.

Having a final word, Nataniël notes that the show is vocally driven. “That’s what a prima donna does!” He’s been waiting for this one for 12 years. “I’m ready for that farewell concert,” he says.

And the force with which he speaks is almost persuasive, but I know about his addiction – performance –  and he’s so good at that!

For those who are looking for something completely different, there’s a second concert of Afrikaans in Styl on September 9 presented at Sun Bet Arena in Times Square.

This time the artists included on the bill are Spoegwolf, Elvis Blue and Corlia.

“I’m the headgirl,” says Nataniël who will be staging the show. “It’s rare that artists are given a free hand to stage their own shows on this kind of platform,” he says, excited by the prospect.

Nataniël and Spoegwolf in a different kind of performance.

And if you’re not familiar with some of the performers, he explains it thus: Spoegwolf brings the war, Corlia brings the notes, Elvis, the smoothness and blues, and he brings the sequins.

The performers will almost exclusively be performing their own songs. “I love that. It’s rare that someone like Corlia who has such a huge voice is allowed to get away without singing Barcelona.”

Perhaps this time. It’s up to each one individually what they wish to perform.

He is also thrilled that this is a once-off. It won’t be filmed. If you’re not there, that’s it.

“The performers are all people who regularly perform in theatres.

“People must come and see. It will be new and not commercially driven. The artists will be adventurous with their performances and the staging will be daring.

“As artists (and audiences) we need to step out of our comfort zones when we go to shows. It’s a time for rebirth and venture.”

He always keeps in touch with what is happening in the rest of the world because it takes a time to reach our shores.

“We’re all ready to try new things!”

And why not.

“This time my brother won’t be hiding backstage. But we might have one or two surprises up our sleeve.”

Book NOW at www.webtickets.co.za

And talking about that, Nataniël also has a new Christmas book in shops in October.

The title is Help, Help, it is beautifully packaged with a special cover for the festive season, and once you’ve seen it, packed with unpublished Afrikaans and English short stories, your Christmas shopping will be done.

And still there’s more: Rome 62 will be staged at Atterbury Theatre later in the year, a new Mis will be performed at Aardklop Aubade in Pretoria and there’s the annual Christmas season also at the Atterbury Theatre.

And even then he’s not done. But we will wait for the final conclusion to his year.

In the meantime,  he’s busy on stage – performing.