Today’s story which follows here was written by my friend Nadia van Staden, using the 14 titles of the works which will be part of my solo Exhibition at .MContemporary from 21 July 2022! Nadia wrote this story without seeing images of my works beforehand.

Thanks for your story Nadia!

“Once upon a time, long, long ago, when the stars were brighter and the moon was rounder, there lived a family at the edge of a forest.  One particular eve, on the last day of the last month of the Year of the Needle, a family meeting had been called. It was time to make a decision, for there was one girl child whose behavior so confused the others, that by this time she had been completely alienated by her nuclear family. You see, they did not understand the fire in her hair and the lightning in her eyes. She was different. Different was not good. And so, before the year was over, a great joy was announced. The girl was to be sent to live with the good fairies. On the morning of her departure, the girl was not sad, nor scared nor angry. After all, she thought to herself, “What’s love got to do with it?” She picked up the family pet, an abandoned wolf cub nobody had taken a fancy to, not even its mother. And as she headed off into the forest, she put her lips to its ears and whispered, “What a pity you can’t choose your family my love…”

She had not been walking long, when she came upon a group of giants dancing and drinking around a fire. She watched them from the shadows a while. She had been taught to fear them, but she was spellbound by this joyous reunion before her eyes. Then as if on cue, they all stopped and looked in her direction. She carefully walked closer. “Thank you for coming,” said the wicked giants. One of them, a friendly giant with kind eyes brought her a cup of wine. He was less threatening, softer somehow than the others. And so they spent the night, this girl and her giants, having a merry old time, dancing and laughing and telling stories. She even considered not going to the fairies at all. “Perhaps this could be my artificial family,” she thought. These giants were nothing like she had been told. They were warm and inviting.

Suddenly the clouds shifted and the moon went dark. The friendly giant with the kind eyes took her by the arm and guided her away from the festivities. “What are you doing?” she asked, frustrated. “It is time,” he said. “Leave now or you will regret it. All is not as it seems here. Leave, or don’t. The choice is yours to make, I cannot tell you more.”  The friendly giant proudly walked into the forest. “Wait!” she shouted, “I don’t understand!” The giant stopped and, without turning around, he said, “Don’t you think it’s odd?” “What?!  What is so odd?” the girl said.” “Don’t you think it’s odd” the giant said, how much the guests enjoyed watching you?

Works of art: yours truly 😉

Words: Nadia van Staden

Photographs of my art: Kleinjan Groenewald