NIROX Sculpture Park is 30ha of cultivated lawns, arbors, fields, waterways, and wetlands, on the banks of the Blaauwbankspruit River adjoining the Kkatlhamphi Private Nature Reserve — a 1000ha wilderness of hills, valleys, riverine forests, caves, and highveld grasslands, populated with diverse local game and birdlife.
The Park hosts more than 50 permanent and long-term installations by artists from across the globe; and at least one annual large scale curated exhibition of new and temporary installations and performances, in collaboration with NIROX’ wide circle of global partners and curatorial affiliations.
RECENT ADDITIONS
EXTERIOR II, 2023
Wood
156 x 94 x 62 cm
Exterior II (2023) was installed shortly after the opening of Serge Alain Nitegeka's exhibition Structural Response IV (2023–24) in NIROX's Covered Space. The artwork was produced while in residence, in the Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture's Workshop. Exposed to the elements, it will eventually begin to shows signs of weathering. To learn more about Nitegeka's practice, click on the button below.
SERGE ALAIN NITEGEKA
JONATHAN FREEMANTLE, 2024
Charred Poplar, Steel Rod
240 x 45 x 45 cm
A totem (from Ojibwe: ᑑᑌᒼ or ᑑᑌᒻ doodem) is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe. Carved from a single poplar tree that was felled at Nirox, this totem evokes the ancient concept of the ‘Eternal Flame’. I intended for this sculpture to resemble a figure twisting and reaching upwards; an antannae of sorts, simultaneously ready to transmit and receive. I see this totem as an embodiment of the lightening that strikes the hills of the Cradle of Humankind all summer long.
The surface of the sculpture is finished in the Yakisugi style, the traditional Japanese system practiced over many millennia of slightly charring the surface of the wood without combusting the whole piece to prevent insect attack, rot and weathering.
FIRE TOTEM - FOREVER BURNING
Sergiy Petlyuk, 2024
MetaL, Glass
The notion of ‘home’, Sergiy goes on to say, is profoundly important in shaping an individual’s worldview, particularly during formative years. It serves as a bastion of security, grounding one’s sense of identity within the family and wider society. The loss of home, whether tangible or metaphorical, catalyses irreversible changes in one’s life trajectory. This project is a tribute to those who grapple with the upheaval of losing their home and the struggle to regain it. It’s also a poignant tribute to the countless Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and torn from their homes and country in the turmoil of the Ukrainian-Russian war, as well as those innocents in other parts of the world — Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, amongst others — whose lives have been upended by war.
IN SEARCH OF A LOST HOME
LONG-TERM
PAST
