The Dance
I feel, especially living in South Africa, I see a rhythm, a connection, a beat that African cultures seem to listen to in their lives. There is strength and solidity in how they move (or dance) through life. In these prints I wanted to show the beautiful dance that people share with one another within their cultures, and inter-culturally.
Within the arrhythmic prints , I tried to represent my own feelings of "culturelessness". I am not a strong Afrikaans female, or a powerful African woman. Although we are not bound to our culture, I feel that there is a strong sense (call it a rhythm) in the different cultures of South Africa.
This is a personal perspective and experience, and I do not speak for all the white English girls of South Africa. I simply would like to express my personal struggle that I have had in my life of trying to understand my roots and what that means to me.
The unity prints named "Connect", I wanted to bring foreword the unity I have created in my personal self where I have had to find my own roots and sense of culture. I am a South African woman , yet I have had to make my own rhythm in a world where I have had a lack of them in my personal life. In that way, I feel that I - and anyone with a sense of loss of collective/individual identity - can synthesise a unity from this duality: by embracing the sense of cultural belonging that I can see throughout South Africa (the rhythmic beats); and the struggle to find a sense of culture that I belong to. With this structure (rhythm) and chaos (arrhythmia) I get to build my own unity and balance my senses of collective social identity and personal individual identity. Much like how, in music, we can combine many different rhythms that will in the end form a more interesting/complex, polyrhythmic dance, which is the unity in the piece of music.
I see my three different designs to be seen as a dance. One is the fluidity and strong beat I see amongst different cultures in South Africa. The second the stiff and arrhythmic beat that I have felt in my sense (or lack thereof) of connection to culture. The third unifies the arrhythmic and rhythmic culture in my life.
Within the arrhythmic prints , I tried to represent my own feelings of "culturelessness". I am not a strong Afrikaans female, or a powerful African woman. Although we are not bound to our culture, I feel that there is a strong sense (call it a rhythm) in the different cultures of South Africa.
This is a personal perspective and experience, and I do not speak for all the white English girls of South Africa. I simply would like to express my personal struggle that I have had in my life of trying to understand my roots and what that means to me.
The unity prints named "Connect", I wanted to bring foreword the unity I have created in my personal self where I have had to find my own roots and sense of culture. I am a South African woman , yet I have had to make my own rhythm in a world where I have had a lack of them in my personal life. In that way, I feel that I - and anyone with a sense of loss of collective/individual identity - can synthesise a unity from this duality: by embracing the sense of cultural belonging that I can see throughout South Africa (the rhythmic beats); and the struggle to find a sense of culture that I belong to. With this structure (rhythm) and chaos (arrhythmia) I get to build my own unity and balance my senses of collective social identity and personal individual identity. Much like how, in music, we can combine many different rhythms that will in the end form a more interesting/complex, polyrhythmic dance, which is the unity in the piece of music.
I see my three different designs to be seen as a dance. One is the fluidity and strong beat I see amongst different cultures in South Africa. The second the stiff and arrhythmic beat that I have felt in my sense (or lack thereof) of connection to culture. The third unifies the arrhythmic and rhythmic culture in my life.
