Eight weeks of creativity boost art at Entabeni
The latest arts residency programme at Entabeni farm on Welbedacht Road, Knysna came to a close last week Thursday with an open studio session where art lovers could not only view the work of two resident artists created during their stay but were privy to an engaging spectacle of art in progress.
The Entabeni residencies, which fall under the auspices of the SA Foundation for Contemporary Art (Saffca), aim to bring together a wellestablished and an emerging artist under one roof, (often one from abroad, though not in this instance), according to Saffca cofounder, Frenchman Pierre Lombart.
The foundation was started by Lombart and his partner in 2014, and operates both locally and in France, creating exposure for both established and up-and-coming artists.
Entabeni owner Greg Barnes said he welcomed Lombart’s residency programme onto his farm at the beginning of 2017 as he wanted art to be part of the legacy he aims to create and leave behind on the farm. “I want to share the property and art with the people of Knysna,” he said.
Sharing expertise
The most recent resident artists, South Africans Helena Hugo and Keneilwe Mokoena, spent eight weeks on the farm, creating new artworks and sharing expertise.
Hugo, a full-time artist since 1996, is mostly known for her highly finished pastel portraits of South African labourers.
At Entabeni she tried something different by combining a farmworker’s clothing with debris she found from the June 2017 fires. “Clothing is a very personal item, even more so than a portrait,” she said to the small crowd gathered at the open studio session.
She also painted a crumpled-up farmworker’s shirt and transferred this image to canvas. “With these pieces I am investigating the universal human condition and the cycle of birth, life, death and resurrection.” Mokoena looks at art from a different angle, so to say. She incorporates geometry into her pieces, creating abstract mathematical-like artworks with dots and lines. “Geometry is a naturally occurring phenomena throughout nature and has fascinated artists and mathematicians for centuries. This body of work explores the use of space and form in order to make sense of how we often think of ourselves as the centre of a constant spatial reference,” she explained.
As part of the open studio, guests were able to experience how Mokoena turns maths into art, so to speak. * To find out more visit saffca.com