Meander along a guided art exhibit

ALTHOUGH I am not much of an art person – a lot of it goes clean over my head even if I think some of it is pretty – I have recently discovered that if you have someone who does know all the clever things it makes it all a lot easier.

Sexy Deborah is such a person and she invited me to the opening of Phillemon Hlungwani’s exhibition at Grande Provence Heritage Wine Estate a couple of Sundays ago, where we were lucky enough to meet and chat with the artist.

His works are quite magnificent but it was wonderful to hear from the man himself what most of it meant and to have hidden secrets pointed out and learn what drives him to create.

Then last week I went to the fourth annual Summer of Sculpture exhibition, Bronze, Steel and Stone, in the gardens of the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, curated by Everard Read Cape Town. It’s free for anyone who wants to go along and by arrangement you can book a guide to accompany you, which is also free.

In this instance I was with Emma van der Merwe from Everard Read and I could happily have listened to her all afternoon as she described the “monumental” statues and sculptures and talked about the artists. It reminded me of winemakers and sommeliers who talk about their passion without being pretentious and judgy. It was informative and easy to understand, which is what I want.

The 19 works of art are carefully placed throughout the garden for your pleasure and contemplation. As little as I know, I do love Dylan Lewis’s sculptures and there is one there. I’m always entranced by and adore Anton Smit’s Faith figures – which I see whenever I go to Delaire Graff Estate – with their thrownback heads and outstretched arms which evoke such a feeling in me which I don’t know how to describe, but it pleases me. There is one of these at the bottom of the garden.

I particularly liked Brendhan Dickerson’s piece called Tempest, which is an incredible combination of art and engineering in which a bird is perched on a gently undulating pendulum that works on kinetic energy so it swings and revolves in the wind. The quirky Howler by Jop Kunneke in the pool area is rather fun and you cannot fail to be moved by Deborah Bell’s Return Of The Gods: The Ancient Ones – a collection of five huge figures and an epic work which took four years to complete.

If you prefer to wing it on your own, maps with information about each artist and their works are

AWE: Faith by Anton Smit.