In the process of evaluating my life I found that my observations could be categorised loosely in four subsections.  With the Ephemera Series I address the fleeting happenings in our lives, the ephemeral. The Phobia Series depicts some of the fears I have but also articulates more general fears or feelings of unease. The Indulgent Object series is a collection of some of my favourite objects placed into new environments imbued with new associative significance. Finally there is the installation element of the Kraal.

The exhibition as a whole becomes a snapshot of my current state of mind. I have realised that I shall always be an outsider and that I am comfortable being it. I have come to the conclusion that it is sometimes the mere witnessing of the ephemera that makes our lives bearable, that it is possible to overcome phobias. Sometimes by merely acknowledging that our fears exist we render them harmless.

I have also learnt that although I am no longer object poor I shall continue to acquire more objects to pacify me because I deserve to be spoilt.

I might experience more rage than the average person. I might rant and rave more and I might have complex phobias but all in all I am quite content in my Kraal.

In the process of evaluating my life I found that my observations could be categorised loosely in four subsections.  With the Ephemera Series I address the fleeting happenings in our lives, the ephemeral. The Phobia Series depicts some of the fears I have but also articulates more general fears or feelings of unease. The Indulgent Object series is a collection of some of my favourite objects placed into new environments imbued with new associative significance. Finally there is the installation element of the Kraal.

The exhibition as a whole becomes a snapshot of my current state of mind. I have realised that I shall always be an outsider and that I am comfortable being it. I have come to the conclusion that it is sometimes the mere witnessing of the ephemera that makes our lives bearable, that it is possible to overcome phobias. Sometimes by merely acknowledging that our fears exist we render them harmless.

I have also learnt that although I am no longer object poor I shall continue to acquire more objects to pacify me because I deserve to be spoilt.

I might experience more rage than the average person. I might rant and rave more and I might have complex phobias but all in all I am quite content in my Kraal.

In the process of evaluating my life I found that my observations could be categorised loosely in four subsections.  With the Ephemera Series I address the fleeting happenings in our lives, the ephemeral. The Phobia Series depicts some of the fears I have but also articulates more general fears or feelings of unease. The Indulgent Object series is a collection of some of my favourite objects placed into new environments imbued with new associative significance. Finally there is the installation element of the Kraal.

The exhibition as a whole becomes a snapshot of my current state of mind. I have realised that I shall always be an outsider and that I am comfortable being it. I have come to the conclusion that it is sometimes the mere witnessing of the ephemera that makes our lives bearable, that it is possible to overcome phobias. Sometimes by merely acknowledging that our fears exist we render them harmless.

I have also learnt that although I am no longer object poor I shall continue to acquire more objects to pacify me because I deserve to be spoilt.

I might experience more rage than the average person. I might rant and rave more and I might have complex phobias but all in all I am quite content in my Kraal.

Look at me all puffed up with pride in front of my own painting that hangs in my dining room.

See how strangely effeminate I stand enviously in front of other artist’s painting in my lounge. All of them collected because I envy their technique or their subject matter. (Yes, it is an Andrew Mogridge peering balefully over my shoulder).

There I sit, practically incandescent with lust in my study next to an obscenely pink office chair.

Can you still remember how I seethed with rage over that critic for that show? And here they still hang in my passage after all these years.

Then the bathroom. I suppose the clock on the wall represents my conscience. Ticking away hour upon hour, lifetime upon lifetime while I lie in the bath or stand in front of the mirror staring lazily and appreciatively at my own face.

The bookshelf. Always we return to the greed for words. The greed for knowledge and understanding. Yet another tome, yet another encyclopaedia to cram into my overstuffed brain. More, more constantly, greedily more!

Finally the kitchen crammed with appliances to make more food. A steamer perched atop the cupboards next to the striped cookie tin, next to the espresso pot, next to the mixing bowl cum scale, next to the Soda Club maxi next to the Drappier Champagne. The irrefutable evidence responsible for the ever-increasing girth of the gourmand.

I am guilty on all accounts, seven times.

But still I keep my eyes closed in introspection. Reaching in for absolution, reaching back to the source echoing over decades and centuries. Trying to somehow get in touch with the Surrealists.

Die tema Vloeistof is so wyd dat ek as kunstenaar moet besluit waar ek my grense sal trek. Want in terme van aangehegte betekenisse is die woord vloeistof omvangryk. My werk het nog altyd op makroskopiese vlak gekyk na herinnering en verlies en in hierdie uitstalling werk ek weer met die twee konsepte as vertrekpunt. Ek stel belang in vloeistof in terme van water, bloed, strominge, reën, syfering, verdunning, vloei en vlugtigheid. Binne hierdie konsepte maak ek werk wat hopelik die kyker sal noop om deur middel van sy verwysingsraamwerke raakpunte te indentifiseer in sy eie lewe wat die werk sal ontsluit.

Die eerste organismes het uit die primordale slyk landwaarts gekruip en na millenia bote gebou om na ander kontinente te reis. So het mense – wat merendeels uit vloeistof bestaan- op die see (weereens vloeistof) gevaar en ander wêrelde gekoloniseer en sodoende het daar kultuurkontaminasies gebeur wat nuwe gebruike voortgebring het.

Niks in die wêreld kom tot stand sonder dat daar verliese is nie. Een kultuur moet iets inboet om ‘n ander kultuur te laat gedy.

Op ‘n sosiale vlak vestig ons nedersettings waar daar water is, soos die Olifantsrivier wat deur Vredendal loop. Op die rivierbanke plant ons wingerde en lê besproeiingskemas aan om gewasse te verbou. Die siklus van vloeistowwe is ‘n klein afskynsel van die ewigheid vasgevang in verdamping, wolkformasie, presipitasie, reën, absorpsie, groei, terugvloei en uiteindelike terugkeer na die see.

Vloeistof karteer nie net die natuurlike prosesse nie maar skep ook die verhoog vir ons herinneringe, ons liefdes, ons ekstases en vorm die neerslag van lewe.

Pedro Kruger vertolk die rol van Hannes terwyl Petro van den Heever die rol van ‘n aktrise genaamd Bertha vertolk.

Die stuk gaan oor twee ou lovers wat op ‘n vreemde wyse vasgevang word in die stoorkamer onder die verhoog en dit is hier waar ‘n veel groter drama hom begin afspeel – kan selfmoord op Valetynsdag so anders uitdraai?

Bloedsuiker is n veelvlakkige produksie en mens is nooit seker of jy moet lag of huil nie. Daar is ook ‘n verrassingselement in die stuk wat tesame met die subteks sorg vir ‘n boeiende teaterervaring.

Soos die skrywer Theo Kleynhans dit verwoord, “Ek het probeer om ‘n teks te maak wat aan die een kant deur die deursnit teaterganger as goeie vermaak gelees sal word maar vir die meer ingeligte kyker ‘n spieël sal ophou oor waar kunstenaars in die hedendaagse Suid Afrika hulself bevind. So word die karakters en alles wat met hulle gebeur metafore van die toestand van die kunste en die mense wat daarmee besig is.”

ek loop deur my donker huis
terwyl die kaap storm buite
en ek wonder of jy nou met jou eks baklei –
ek wonder of het jy al ooit baklei?

ek loop deur my donker huis
en ek oortuig myself dat die tyd saam met jou
‘n duur geskenk was –
‘n indiese somer

Kleynhans sê, “Dit slaan steeds my asem weg om haar op die verhoog te sien. Want al ken ek die karakters van binne en buite is die reikwydte van Petro se vermoë om vier vrouens in net meer as ‘n uur te vertolk verstommend. Sy is enige skrywer se fantasiefabriek! Om vir Janine Grobler as regisseur te hê maak die ervaring van my woorde op die verhoog soomloos.”

Janine Grobler is bekend in teaterkringe waar sy haarself reeds bewys het as aktrise en regisseur. Haar styl word gekenmerk deur fyn geskakeerde nuanse en niks wat die karakter doen op die verhoog is oorbodig nie. Sy kry dit ook reg in hierdie teks wat uit twee dele komedie bestaan en twee dele sterk drama om die oorhoofse balans te hou.

Drie Tannies en ‘n Tert vertel die stories van vier verskillende vroue. Die kleindorpse troubeplanner in Bruilof op Brakpan, die skemerkelk bestaan van ‘n middelklas huisvrou in Skottelgoed, die nimlike Charmaine in As seen on TV en die patos gepakte kleurlingvrou in Vanilla Choc Blues word almal vertolk deur Petro van den Heever. Sy verander van die een karakter na die ander sonder om die verhoog te verlaat en gee kleur aan die karakters met verskillende aksente, fyn kostuumveranderinge en ‘n minimalistiese stel. By die Klein Karoo Kunstefees het die cognoscenti na haar verwys as die nuwe Wilna Snyman omdat sy haar rolle van binne bewoon en sodoende oortuig met haar karakterisering.