Die Karoo, sintuiglike verkenning en die terugkeer tot kunsskepping in die swye van Mario Salviati
The Karoo, sensory exploration, and a return to artistic creation in The Long Silence of Mario Salviati
Abstract
Die swye van Mario Salviati is 'n roman oor kuns en kunstenaarskap. Die Karoo, wat telkemale terugkeer in die prosa van Etienne van Heerden, is in hierdie roman besonder prominent, omdat die landskap so sterk geïntegreer word met die tema van kuns. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om vas te stel op watter wyses die primêre fokalisator, Ingi Friedländer, in interaksie tree met die Karoolandskap tydens 'n besoek aan die dorp Tallejare. Hoewel Ingi voeling verloor het met haar skeppende vermoëns weens die verpligtinge in kunsadministrasie wat die museum haar oplê, verraai haar estetiese ingesteldheid ten opsigte van die visuele elemente in die Karoo haar kunsagtergrond. Met verskerpte sintuie identifiseer en waardeer sy die verhoudings tussen en die effekte geskep deur die lyne, vorms en kleure van die natuur wat ook waardering uitlok ontlok in kunskomposisie. Die artikel fokus op hierdie visuele waarneming om aan te toon hoe dit betekenisvolle ooreenkomste toon met dié van die fotograaf wat, as eerste stap in die beplanning van 'n landskapfoto, selekteer en artistiek orden aan wat deur die lens waargeneem word. Beginsels uit die wêreld van kuns en (kuns)fotografie word in die bestudering van die roman betrek om Ingi se visuele omgang met die natuurlandskap van die Karoo te ondersoek en beter te begryp. Daar word aangevoer dat in die uitbeelding van haar natuurwaarneming - waarin die rol van die liggaam en sintuie prominent is - aansluiting gevind word by die estetiese natuurteorie van die Duitse filosoof Gernot Böhme. Ingi se waarneming van die landskap impliseer 'n ervaring van mede-aanwesigheid met, en liggaamlik-sintuiglike teenwoordigheid in, die natuur - die "ecological embodiment" wat as kernbeginsel in Böhme se teorie van natuurwaarneming geld - en die keuse om die natuur deur middel van die estetika te begryp. Hieruit realiseer vir Ingi bevryding om opnuut weer kuns te kan skep. ABSTRACT: The Karoo, sensory exploration, and a return to artistic creation in Die swye van Mario Salviati
Die swye van Mario Salviati by Etienne van Heerden (translated into, and published in, English as The Long Silence of Mario Salviati) is a novel about art and being an artist. The Karoo, which recurs in Van Heerden's prose works, is especially prominent in this novel because the landscape is so powerfully integrated with the art theme. Ingi Friedländer from the National Art Museum receives a commission to purchase a painting by the reclusive artist Jonty Jack Bergh, who lives at Tallejare in the Karoo. The purpose of this article is, first, to establish in what ways Ingi interacts with the Karoo landscape during her visit to Tallejare. Attention is given to how her background in art studies and her career experience in the art world impact on her visual exploration of the landscape. Although Ingi has lost touch with her creative abilities because of obligations in art administration in which the museum has trained her, her aesthetic preoccupation regarding visual elements in the Karoo reveals her artistic background. With sharpened senses she identifies and appreciates the proportion between, and the effects created by, the lines, forms and colours of nature which are also considered in appreciating the role of composition in art.
The article focuses on Ingi's visual perceptions in order to show meaningful similarities to those of the photographer who, as a first step in the planning of a landscape photograph, selects and arranges artistically what is perceived through the lens. This process of arranging is particularly meaningful with regard to the aesthetic appreciation of nature, as the unbounded and diverse character of the natural world entails a process of perceptual arrangement - through selection, emphasis and composition - which engenders in the perceiver appreciation of nature at the aesthetic level. Principles from the world of art and (art) photography are woven into the exploration of the novel in order to examine and better understand Ingi's visual relationship with the natural landscape of the Karoo.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/14652http://reference.sabinet.co.za.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/sa_epublication/litnet
http://reference.sabinet.co.za.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/document/EJC147718
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]