Artist Statement
If I know a song of Africa … does Africa know a song of me? ~ Isak Dinesen
Neither a social nor political statement, this body of work is simply my song.
Ever since I was a little girl, I can remember loving Africa. A complicated love affair, fraught with guilt and some confusion, but always inspired by her raw earthy beauty, I’ve often questioned my place in it.
(In the words of Mirella Ricciardi : “The roots of my family tree sank deep in the African soil… it was here that the seeds of my family tree fell, blown by the icy winds of European winters and the urge that drives people into the unknown in search of the light missing in their lives. Our lives were bathed in that light.”)
And so it was for my family.
With the beautiful face of Chipo as my muse, a woman with whom I share the same birthplace, Zimbabwe, and the elusive animals of the African bush expressed in a way that feels authentic to me, their fragile and transient beauty in atmospheric climatic tension, I bring to this juncture myself, with all the influences that have shaped me, genetically and culturally, that run just beneath my own understanding of being born in Africa. In an intuitive process of assimilating photographs, digital manipulation and layering details and imagery that is both real and ideal, I often only find meaning once the work is complete. Sometimes simply accepting the art as an ellipsis, a superfluous wordless expression of a feeling that is ‘thicker than blood’, and who I am might not matter so much as singing my song.
“My fine art images are created to both influence and reflect a personal aesthetic, believing that the things we surround ourselves with and the spaces we inhabit and work in, should hold not only our material substance, but embody our interior life as well. It’s my hope that my work evokes an emotional resonance that inspires both a conscious and contemplative life.”
Opening Event
Thank you to eveyone who came out in support of this prestigious exhibition, and first solo exhibiton by Annie Kruyer. Well done Annie for an outstanding show.
Articles and Media
SA Décor & Design | Thicker Than Blood by Annie Kruyer | 04 MARCH 2020