:: Swift People Dreaming ::

Shape    Soul    Ubiquity    Swift    Liminal    Out There    Vitality    Beyond    Evo Beauty

:: 2016 :: 25cm x 35cm :: Acrylics, Inks, Markers and UV Lacquer on Canvas ::

The 'swift people' are a unique feature of the Bushman rock art of the Klein Karoo and Langeberg regions of the Western Cape of South Africa. These half-human, half-swift therianthropic images are believed to depict shamans or spirits in magical flight through a supernatural realm, and researchers such as David Lewis-Williams and Jeremy Hollmann have produced a great deal of ethnographic evidence to support this claim. Remarkably, however, many of the art images do not merely sit passively upon the rock surfaces, but rather interact with cracks, inequality and holes in the rock surface as if these are acting as conduits to that supernatural realm, perceived as existing behind the rock face. This artwork celebrates this fascinating aspect of Southern African rock art, showing half-human, half-swift figures emerging from and flying into rips, tears and holes in the canvas surface.

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Shape Of A Mind

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Swift People

At Ezeljagspoort, Western Cape, South Africa, March 2016
A rock art site with swift people depicted on the walls

 

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