FIBERWORKS - A CELEBRATION OF SOUTH AFRICAN
FIBER AND TEXTILE ARTISTS

Title: Windmill

Description: Layering, delving, seeking – this piece is about reaching out and reaching in; seeking to go further and finding new directions – new depths of understanding open as you explore.

My work is about exploring new techniques, new ways of using fabric, thread, wool, and using unusual things like the fibres of hand made paper, tea bags and plastics. I love colour above all, and have been experimenting with dyeing cotton and silk and threads so I can play. I enjoy combining different techniques, for example smocking and machine embroidery, and letting them speak for themselves. They take on a life of their own if you listen and often these techniques transform into something new and exciting.

‘The excitement of Living is in Design and Creating’ – a quote used by my father and one which my husband has made possible.

Title: Okavango Swamps

Description: "The quiet of the bush is so intense that it beats against your ear drums. Above, the shrill call of three fish eagles, wheeling across the vast blue skies … the quiet grunting of an irate giant eagle owl, awakened during the day, echoes across the broad dry river bed … a lone giraffe skittishly walks along a path to the thin ribbon of river …"
These are the words in my diary on the morning that London was bombed.

How do we protect ourselves and what is left of this world in order to leave a rich heritage for our children?

Title: Okavango Swamps II

Description: "In my work, I reflect my love for the people and places still left to us – for the bush and its biodiversity, the Okavango waters seeping mysteriously into the desert delta ….the buffalo, trying to escape the bush caravan - the lion, the hyena, the jackal, followed by the tourists!"

Title: Survival

Description: Ear shattering trumpeting as the elephant bulls challenge each other in the dry Sand River bed the other elephants freeze - a split second - before the leading matriarchs hastily march their herds into opposing directions.

Twenty eight trees - that is what an average elephant destroys per day (Kim Wolhuter film maker extraordinaire).

Who is to survive as the biodiversity of the National Parks is severely challenged?

Title: "For Whom the Bell tolls"

Description: The decision has been taken to cull elephants in the National Parks in South Africa. How sad! But how necessary - the destruction we have witnessed in the bio diversity just in the last year is astronomical. In our contained area of the Sabi Sand Wildtuin the elephant population has exploded from 750 to 1500 elephants - so many young ones.

Title: Shifting Sands

Description: While on holiday at Cape St Frances in the Eastern Cape in South Africa I photographed the sand as the waves of the Indian Ocean got washed away. Some days the sea was really wild and broke on the rocks - that inspired the embroidery.

Title: Drakensberg Dreams

Description: In the Drakensberg there are a huge variety of rock painted sites where painted figures cover the caves and rock shelters of the mountainous areas or river valleys. This rock art was created by indigenous people of southern africa called the Bushmen or San. They lived in small clans and survived as hunters and gatherers. It is widely believed that the 'Shaman', who claim supernatural powers, recorded - in a trancelike state - what they observed around them.

In this wall hanging, the colours and shapes of the art of the bushmen inspired the hand painted background.`The window onto the Drakensberg reflects what the bushmen would have seen from their cave.

Title: Living Force

Description: "In South Africa, many indigenous people believe in the "Living Force" - a threesome, who in local custom, work together - two to heal and to ward of evil, the other causing the anguish. To become an " Inyanga" or herbalist takes many years and you become acquinted with working with herbs and to heal. If called, the Inyanga becomes a "Sangoma" who protects the community and roots out the evil one - the "Abathakathi" who lurks in the back ground and brings poverty and ill health. A snake often accompanies the Abathakathi."

Title: Survivors

Description: Succulents have survived and flourished over the centuries, just as we survive in this beautiful country. The Karoo and the Richterveldt in South Africa are extraordinarily rich and beautiful in survivor type fauna and flora - a beautiful window on my world.

Title: Fez - Leather dye vats in Morocco

Description: This piece is based on photographs of the leather dye vats that exist in Fez, Morocco. I dye my own fabric, so am fascinated with the way other people do it.

Helga Beaumont
P.O.Box 749
Kloof
Durban
3610

Cell: 0845513883
Fax: 27(0)317643944
Phone: 27(0)317640854

Email: helga@adoptimise.com