Archive: Issue No. 53, January 2002

Land artist Strijdom van der Merwe is one of the prime movers behind the first Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, opening on January 17. Born in 1961, he has exhibited widely over the past 10 years and his work is in numerous private and public collections.

"Land art encompasses everything - wind, birds, smell, touch. And my work doesn't exist until I find it. In nature, the options are endless, and it's exciting working with materials never thought possible," says Van der Merwe. He works largely in the landscape in a mode made famous by artists like Andy Goldsworthy and Urs Twellman. While such comparisons might seem inappropriate so early in the discussion of another artist, they speak of the accessibility of his work to a general audience, and draw attention to the fact that, for the large part, Van der Merwe's work is known primarily via its documentation through photographs and textual descriptions. In some cases, acknowledging his training in the graphic arts, Van der Merwe produces silkscreens from these photographs.

His materials - sand, water, wood or leaves, for example - are determined by the chosen site, or the materials themselves might suggest a site. Van der Merwe is brave enough to intervene in the processes, colours and forms of nature which are more than capable of withstanding our scrutiny alone. Intervention, however, is perhaps too strong a term to describe the impermanent alterations the artist makes, since his work is always subject to change. He "observes the fragility of beauty, while not lamenting its passing", and "acknowledges the poignancy and pathos in its transience". This is not wholly a surrender to the inevitable processes of nature, but also "a reminder of the capacity, however feeble, of an individual to alter the universe by embracing the ceaseless changing of nature, actively contributing to it". The forms and structures Van der Merwe creates often produce tension in the precariousness of their construction. Small rocks are balanced atop sticks which protrude from a pond, their forms perfectly repeated in reflections below. His works are often untitled, simply accompanied by a description of what was done to achieve them.

Van der Merwe often invokes and imposes geometry and right angles on landscapes and materials. On a beach, pebbles are placed in a grid of nine square holes. The bleached colour and smooth form of these rocks and the encroaching flow of the sea lend the right angles and crisp edges a vulnerability - like the rocks, smoothed by the sea, human-made structures are also subject to erosion. Like the restless sea, they are also subject to change. In another work, blossoms from a flowering jacaranda tree in a parking lot are swept into concentric circles around its base. As hard and linear as this design is, it successfully evokes the idea of cycle and repetition and somehow lends the tree a vulnerability - perhaps as the bullseye in an asphalt target. Turning his attention to a long, pyramidal stack of hay, Van der Merwe places red cotton cloths in the centre of each cylindrical bale.

Van der Merwe has also created installations in galleries and public spaces, including a piece in the library at the University of the Free State entitled Only the Educated are Truly Free. This consisted of three large column-like structures, sparsely described by bird-like pieces of polypropylene, rising from opened books, up eight stories of interior space in the building. For the 1998 Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees Van der Merwe created Hangende Woorde. Situated on a bare plain outside town, a grid of tall columns supported vertical banners containing extracts from Afrikaans poems. Van der Merwe has also produced sand drawings and constructions of straw and sacks in art galleries. This way of moving from the landscape into the gallery places him squarely in the tradition of pioneering land artists such as Robert Smithson.

A full-time practicing artist, Van der Merwe recently returned from Gesves, Belgium, where he was invited to produce sculpture in a forest for a festival, La Fête de Mai. He is also co-curator, with Kevin Brand, of the first Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial which is to open on January 17 at the Spier Estate in Stellenbosch. Later in the month, a parallel exhibition opens in the Jan Marais Nature Reserve, also in Stellenbosch.

Van der Merwe has held at least one solo show a year since 1994. He was an invited artist at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in 1998 and 1999 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, mostly in the Western Cape, but also in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. He has also enjoyed many commissions over the last few years including one in France in 2000. In that year he also travelled to Korea where he was a South African representative at the Sculpture Symposium of the 50th Anniversary of the Korean War.

Van der Merwe obtained his Honours in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 1984, and held his first solo show at the university art gallery in 1994. In the same year he was invited to exhibit in Paris. He also received a bursary from the Dutch Government (Studie Stigting Fonds) to study printmaking at the Hooge School voor de Kunste, Utrecht, Holland. He began lecturing in the Graphic Design department at the University of Stellenbosch, moving in 1993 into teaching Computer Graphics.

In 1995, van der Merwe studied sculpture for six months at the Academy of Art, Architecture & Design in Prague. The following year he took up a six month residency at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, England.

After the Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial and its accompanying symposium on public art in March, Van der Merwe will be completing a commission at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg. He also has an upcoming one-person exhibition in Stellenbosch in May.

Education, Employment, Awards
1983	BA Fine Arts, University of Stellenbosch John van Reenen Bursary for the best Graphic Design student
1984	BA Hons in Fine Arts, University of Stellenbosch
1990	Bursary from the Dutch Government (Studie Stigting Fonds) to study printmaking at the Hooge School voor de Kunste, Utrecht, Holland
1992	Head Graphic Designer, Graphic Design Studio, University of Stellenbosch
1993	Part-time lecturer, Computer Graphics, University of Stellenbosch
1994	Chosen by Drew University, Madison, New York, to take part in the New York Semester on Contemporary Art
1995	Studied sculpture for six months at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Praha, the Czech Republic Judge for the Czech Republic entrance to the Santam International Children's Art Exhibition
1995/96	Artist-in-residence for six months at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, England Judge for the final entrance to the Santam International Childrens Art Exhibition
1997	Part-time lecturer, Computer Graphics, University of Stellenbosch Western Cape Regional Judge, Volkskas Atelier Award
1998/99	Part-time lecturer, Sculpture, University of Stellenbosch Designed a winning stand for House and Leisure at the Decorex SA exhibition in Cape Town
2000	Invited artist, representing South Africa at the Sculpture Symposium for the 50th anniversary of the Korean War in Pusan, Korea Invited commissioned sculpture for one month near Laussaube, France
2001	Invited to La Fête de Mai in Gesves, Belgium
Selected exhibitions
1992	Two person exhibition at South African Association of Arts (SAAA), Jean Welz Gallery, Worcester
1993	Two person exhibition at the SAAA, 35 Church Street, Cape Town Group exhibition at the Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch Two person exhibition at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
1994	Solo exhibition, US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch Invitation to exhibit at Gallerie du Temple, 31 Rue du Temple, Paris, France
1995	Group exhibition, SAAA, Bellville Group exhibition, VSUP, Namesti Jana Palacha 80, Praha, Czech Republic Solo exhibition, SAAA, 35 Church Street, Cape Town
1996	Solo exhibition at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, Kent, England Solo exhibition, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town Two person exhibition, SAAA, Bellville
1997	Invited artist at the Klein Karoo Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn Solo exhibition at the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town Group exhibition at the SAAA, Worcester Group exhibition at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch Solo exhibition at Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein Solo exhibition at the BCI Fine Art Gallery, Johannesburg Invited land art installation/documentation exhibition at Rooiberg Winery, Robertson
1998	Invited artist at the Klein Karoo Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn Group exhibition at the Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch Solo exhibition at the Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town Solo exhibition at the Gencor Gallery, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg Group exhibition at the ART Gallery in Paarl Group exhibition at the South African Association for Visual Arts in Worcester Invited group exhibition at the Helderberg Arts Festival
1999	Solo exhibition at the Cuyler Street Gallery, Port Elizabeth Invited artist at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn Solo exhibition at the Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch Group exhibition at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch Invited artist for the Spier Summer Festival Programme
2000	Solo exhibition at the Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town Group exhibition at the Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch Commissioned artist for one month near Lassaube, France Group exhibition at the Arts Association of Bellville
2001	Curated and participated in 'Dialogue' at the US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch Solo exhibition at the Open Window Gallery, Pretoria International Eskisehir Terra Cotta Symposium, Turkey