Garbed in mail studded with pine cone scales, a thorn dagger with a lucky bean embedded in its hilt on his hip, fern frond wings, a porcupine quill spear in his right hand and a mole skull on his head — Meadow Sprite is ready for action.
He’s the guardian of the galaxy, not separate from it but part of it, returned from Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, his destiny fulfilled.
The striking little figure forms part of Nelson Mandela University fine art masters student Erin Smith’s magical Through the Wall of the Cave: The Return exhibition at the Bird Street Gallery.
Smith, 26, has created a collection of “eco-artworks” inspired by the rock art of SA’s first people. She used materials she collected at a handful of bush sites in and around Gqeberha.
Her implements, which form part of the exhibition, are works of art themselves — brushes made of feathers, sticks and twine, bowls of paint made of ground earth and rock and lollipops of glue made of tree sap and beeswax.
To the left, as you go in, is a series of photographs of her delicate rock paintings of some of the creatures she encountered at “the Grysbok Site” next to the Nelson Mandela University Nature Reserve.
A tortoise leads them single-file across the wall, followed by a field mouse, a fiscal shrike, and the spoor of a grysbok that visited but never revealed itself.
There are also photographs of the wild-looking 3m high scarecrow figures, The Call 1 and The Call 2, which she erected on site with the aid of a ladder, wobbling in the wind, under the scrutiny of the shrike, which thereafter used them as a hunting perch.
Smith said one of her favourite pieces was Lungs Filled with Sky, which she created after a challenging day in the studio.
“I was lying on my back on this grassy rise at the Grysbok Site, all I could see was the sky, and all my problems melted away. I wanted to pay homage to that.”
She harvested enough grass to allow her to weave the form and features of a little boy lying on his back, his hands behind his head, as she had done, and he holds the peaceful centre of the exhibition.
Smith said she always been passionate about nature and one of her intentions was to confront the environmentally detrimental effects of traditional fine art, including through microplastics in paint and glue, and show that it could be done just as well without any store-bought materials.
“I also wanted to tackle the pervasive view of how humans are somehow separate from nature — and how this is contributing to our damaging relationship with the environment.
“And I wanted to explore Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey monomyth where, rather than seek to escape the cave, the hero ventures into it, in search of transformation.”
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Her exhibition also includes a miniature map of The Grysbok Site and totemic wayfinder signs, Garden Sprite with a paintbrush in her hand and a fibrous palm tree skirt, ghostly Woodland Sprite, and a red thread of coral tree lucky beans looping around the room, joining them all.
There is also an interesting video of the home-made bivouac where the artist used to nap in between her labours.
Smith said her shelter had collapsed in a gale and she had been forced to rebuild it, a little wiser.
“On my first attempt, everything was too rigid and consequently vulnerable to the force of he wind, so on my second attempt I suspended each stick, and it worked well.
“As I tried to capture in the video, the shelter moves and breathes in the wind.”
Through the Wall of the Cave: The Return, together with exhibitions by half a dozen other senior NMU art students, is open to the public at the Bird Street Gallery, 20 Bird Street, until April 4.
The Herald
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