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Memory Series
I tried to shut them away
Still they surface unexpectedly
Cringing my heart
…’’Memories are best forgotten”…
NO!
Acknowledge them
accept them
for what they are
The hand, big , rough, gentle hand of a long lost lover stroking my face
Soft sent that sucks me back to remembering a laugh, a joke
OUMA Grandma Oumie Clasie
My Ouma is in kaneel
Nostalgia
To forget is my worst fear now…
Tying them down as not to escape into oblivion
No, stay with me
Ashamed, alarmed, go going gone
Is it that I have done?
Tie it down
Tie it tight
Bind it down
do not escape from me
Ever
Stay! stay! stay!
Do not forsake me
That I may not forget who I am
Formed, forged…Tie it down
Bonding intertwined…
Pushed Squashed Forced
Do not forget me
Do not forsake me
But except me
Yes!!!
A undeniable part…
Lost little ones, loved even before they were born …
Sins of my forefathers…the ring slipping over my finger
Excluding
Recognizing
Accepting
By: Cairna Claassens
Carina Claassens was born and raised in South Africa, where she grew up on a wild life nature
reserve.From 2000 to 2002 she has studied
Fine and Applied Art at the Tswane University in Pretoria, with a main focus on Printmaking;
Photography; Ceramics; Drawing and Art Theory.
After finishing her studies she moved to Mozambique, Maputo when she was 21.
and has only recently moved to The Netherlands (April 2005).
Her main subject has to do with celebrating Female Forms in all its aspects,
with figurative artworks in ceramics, paintings, drawings and etchings.
Lately she has experimented with more with Mix Media, Urban design and Video installations.
Her main subject was woman, now it has moved and grown to the Memory Series,
where she documents her own memories.
So as not to forget them, she uses rope to tie them down…
to keep the memories from fluttering away into oblivion.
Obsessively tying down her fears, secrets, lots moments,
so that she may not forget: Who she is.
As I quote: “Yesterday made me”.
She gets her inspiration from events that happened with women in her circle
of friends and in her family.
Her artworks have been exhibited at several well-known institutions,
ranging from the Polokwane Art Museum and the
Johannesburg Civic Centre in South Africa, to the AISM in Maputo/ Art Centrum; Mozambique,
and Artquake in Hoofddorp, Jerry’s in Amsterdam and a Solo exhibition with WG-Kunst in Amsterdam.
Gallery GZ8M in Maassluis.
Ubuntu: a South African Contemporary Group Exhibition in ABC Treehouse Gallery, Amsterdam, July 2007.
Grote Kerk van Oosthuizen in September 2007. Florence Biennale, 2007.
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