Take Flight With Sonja Swanepoel

Unearth the ancient wisdom of birds with Sonja Swanepoel’s captivating AVIAN series, now showing at the idyllic Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town.

“How can iconographic sculpture as an ancient artform trigger a collective recollection that reconnects us to our place on the planet?” is the sentiment that underpins the sculptor and environmental architect’s perspective in every sense.

For this exhibition, Swanepoel examines the symbiotic nature of birds and humanity, inviting audiences to a mindful recalibration of the order of the earth.

“The initial inspiration came when a friend sent me a picture of pigeons on a busy road in downtown Johannesburg. I was intrigued by their beautiful forms as they fell from the sky,” says Swanepoel. And as birds migrate from place to place so did Swanepoel’s vision for her rendering of this idea: traversing the inner-city tumult to more tranquil scenery. “Kirstenbosch is one of the spaces I consider to be sacred. So, when Werner Voigt, the Garden Director of Kirstenbosch, invited me to exhibit, I couldn’t have dreamt of a better partnership,” she adds.

Birds have been essential custodians of the human cultures of the world as we know it in their roles as messengers, timekeepers, deities, muses and more, since the beginning of time. With these sculptures, Swanepoel persuades us to pause and ponder on how contemporary ways betray this synergy. The artist makes use of smooth, shell-like textures, a broken wing and the imagery of a bird gazing at its own reflection on the works titled Avis fracti and Avis culpat, particularly, to underscore the urgency of this fractured ecology where extinction prevails; challenging the viewer to investigate their complicity through introspection.

“The Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden already plays host to a wide variety of birds, regular birders counted 40 different species on one morning. Sonja Swanepoel’s AVIAN collection of sculptures fits beautifully in this environment where birds thrive,” says Sarah Struys, the Events and Tourism Manager at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.

Explore the complexity of Swanepoel’s conversation with nature as you stroll through one of the most iconic botanic gardens of the world. Also look out for her other exceptional works including Avis stratera, which was last seen at Everard Read Gallery (Johannesburg) and later selected as part of Jaguar’s Crown Collection in 2023. Another interesting piece is Avis fragilis which has recently found its new home at the South African Consulate in New York’s permanent collection.

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Author: Sasha Maripane from Twenty8Zero7 Communications on behalf of SANBI (Kirstenbosch).

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