Avian exhibition opens at Kirstenbosch

Constantia artist Sonja Swanepoel unveiled her art exhibition, titled Avian, at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens earlier this month.

Ms Swanepoel says her exhibition is based on birds, which she describes as the “messengers of nature."

The exhibition includes over a dozen shell-like and bone-like structures that are symbolic of the birds and Ms Swanepoel says it can be viewed from any angle.

Some of her works for this exhibition are made out of ceramic and composite marble. They were made at her studio in Constantia and took a few years to complete.

Ms Swanepoel spent most of her career as a landscape architect and only became a full-time artist in the past five years. “It is really daunting to make the change, it is totally something different to what I previously did,” she says.

This is an outdoor exhibition that is located near the upstairs entrance of the Botanical gardens. “When you are doing an outdoor exhibition, you need to think about the outdoor weather elements, your work needs to withstand rain, so you need to think about that, you can have fragile work in an outdoor environment and they need to be secured,” she says.

This Avian exhibition will be a long-term fixture at the Botanical Gardens for the next five years. “I am honoured to be given this opportunity to display my artwork in Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens,” she says.

Events and tourism manager at Kirstenboach, Sarah Struys, says they are excited to have Ms Swanepoel’s artwork on display in their garden. “It is always exciting to have art in Kirstenbosch and her exhibition based on birds is so relevant as there are so many birds that visit the gardens every day.”

Ms Struys says bird specialists sometimes count over 40 different species visiting the gardens daily.

Ms Swanepoel’s artwork can be seen at Gate 2, the top gate at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Entry fees to the garden must still be paid.