Southern Guild is delighted to announce the opening of ‘Enfold’, a captivating solo exhibition by mixed-media artist Christine Jacobs.
Running from 26 October to 16 November, this exhibition unveils a mesmerising collection of felt sculptures and charcoal drawings that invites viewers on an intimate exploration of the artist’s deep connection to her family’s farm in the Free State.
The heart of ‘Enfold’ lies in the artist’s ancestral farm, located in Trompsburg, Xhariep District. The Jacobs family has worked on this land for six generations, nurturing the Merino fine wool-producing sheep that graze on it.
Jacobs, inspired by the profound relationship between the land, its inhabitants and her family, crafts her sculptural forms from wool sourced directly from the farm. The traditional process of felting, where sheep’s wool fibres are hand-matted into insulating, moisture-resistant fabric, breathes life into the sculptures.
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These low-slung, twisting shapes, reminiscent of the undulating terrain of Xhariep, are wrapped in a shell of pale felted wool. Their underbellies, dyed with natural hues, reflect the earth’s rich red tones.
Black wool, needle-felted into fine lines on the sculptures’ undersides, tells stories of demarcated boundaries, animal tracks and the human-made paths etched into the land.
What truly makes ‘Enfold’ exceptional is the artist’s personal and somatic engagement with her sculptures. Christine Jacobs grappled with, moulded and even entered these forms during their creation, imbuing each with her own bodily imprints.
The result is a collection of hollows, soft crevices and coves that encourage viewers to experience a sense of shelter and intimacy, echoing the profound connections between people, land and art.
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Accompanying the felt sculptures are large-scale charcoal drawings, symbolising the transformative power of charcoal in the face of adversity.
Jacobs explores line and gesture in these works, allowing impressions, marks and erasures to reveal the interplay between the constructed and organic, the visible and hidden. The drawings offer viewers a glimpse into imagined topographies, where river-like forms and textural terrains intertwine with the inked imprints of walls and roads.
In a new venture, the exhibition introduces Jacobs’ foray into photography. She carved a circular hollow into the earth, aligning it with the contours of her own body. Captured with a drone, the resulting images depict Jacobs nestled within the land, encapsulated by the vast, encompassing earth.
‘Enfold’ symbolises a significant development in Christine Jacobs’ artistic journey, delving deeper into materiality and the exploration of inner and outer worlds.
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Picture: Southern Guild / Facebook