Category: cape agulhas

The Carrier

Posted on

This is a post about a rather unsettling piece of artwork I saw on the internet today.

But first, since we’re talking about carriers (the title is the name of the artwork), let me just document the demise of a couple of birds that I know about in Agulhas over the last two days. Both from avian influenza, one a Cape Gannet (species listed as Vulnerable) and one an African penguin (species listed as Critically Endangered). Two deaths is bad, but it’s not a lot to go on scientifically. However, AI (the virus not the annoying computer thing all over Facebook) is rife in South Africa at the moment. Are these discoveries just unfortunate chance or is this a sign of a bigger problem on the way?

Watch this space, I guess.

But then the artwork thing. And this is not AI in any sense of the acronym.

A hyper-realistic sculpture from Australian (but born in Sierra Leone) artist Patricia Piccinini. It’s… yeah. It’s this:

Created in 2012 as part of her Curious Affection exhibition, it’s a bit odd and a bit disturbing, but then so is a lot of her other work. I’m really not sure what to read into this, so I went and found someone that (thought they) did:

It seems the carrier and woman are connected in some way, physically but also emotionally, therein lies the conflict. Perched up high, she looks comfortable and content to rely on his assistance, yet what is their relationship, why is he carrying her, is it an equal partnership, or is he just performing a service? We can wonder if the carrier is the next step in post-human technology, his life seems perfectly engineered to the task he performs, and it is feasible that he is happily self-employed.

It’s a lot to take from an odd ape carrying a woman in a frock, but it’s far more than I was able to get from it. So fair enough.

But this isn’t an unusual piece from Piccinini. Her work regularly drags DNA across species boundaries:

Her Madonnas are not clothed for piety but brazen and naked, half-ape, bristling with hair. Babies in swaddling have adult faces and snouts. Nature’s expected laws of delineation – defining scales from skin, bones from feathers, sacs from follicles – are collapsed, all rules rewritten.

Thank goodness she wasn’t set loose on anything for Canberra’s centenary celebrations in 2013. She’d probably have come up with a giant 100ft hot air balloon called the SkyWhale with eight pendulous breasts and a friendly face. Ha.

I’m sorry… she did what? It had… ten… ten pendulous breasts. Oh, OK then.

Of course it did.

What’s uncanny about Piccinini’s work is not that an artist’s mind can conjure such creatures. It’s that the finesse of their detail make every variegated body that she crafts seem suddenly possible.

Amazing skill, but actually I don’t want them to “seem suddenly possible”.
Really not my thing. Properly odd and yes, deeply unsettling.

Sleep well this evening, won’t you?

A good weekend

Posted on

We headed down to Agulhas in the dark on Friday. That meant that we managed to get a whole Friday afternoon of activities in Cape Town and still wake up down at the Southern Tip on Saturday morning.

And actually, I have no issue with driving down the R316 at any time of the day or night. Always fun.

And it was a fun family weekend with some superb weather.

Walking on the beach, braai’ing and games night yesterday.

And then, after a lovely lie in, 8½kms  barefoot along Struisbaai beach with some considerable pace and speed. And yes, some blisters on my toes, but I’ll probably survive.

Home in time for a bit of footy on the TV and off to bed before the new week kicks off horribly early tomorrow.

Plot twist

Posted on

Look at this beautiful plot for sale in Suiderstrand, Cape Agulhas. Doesn’t it look idyllic?

And doesn’t sales agent Richard Pratt (stop it!) make it sound idyllic?

Situated within the Agulhas National Park, this vacant stand in Suiderstrand presents a rare opportunity to construct your coastal retreat. The land is level—ideal for straightforward construction. Lush fynbos to the rear boundary, offering a serene backdrop of indigenous flora and the soothing sound of the ocean. The clear sightlines to both the front and back of the plot make it possible to plan your home that captures sea views with clever orientation.

Approved house plans included.

Suiderstrand is a sanctuary for those drawn to serenity and natural fynbos.

Stunning, doll! Stunning!

What Richard has failed to mention here is that while this plot absolutely backs onto lush fynbos at the moment, that won’t be the case for very long, with 15 houses being built all over that very same lush fynbos in the new – and rather controversial – Moquini Bay housing estate, in the very near future.
And then this plot will back onto first a building site, and then a security estate, and not lush fynbos.

But then, I wouldn’t want to accuse Richard of being slightly disingenuous with his description of this place. After all, how on earth would he know about that new development?

Oh yes, now I remember.

He’s selling the houses there too.

Right.

Quota Kestrel

Posted on

A long but fun day celebrating Mrs 6000’s birthday. There were gifts, there was a really good lunch, there was even a bit of time to chill out this afternoon.

Oh, and there was incredible wind, as well.

We – like the UK – are in for a rough day or two.

But now I’m knackered, so here’s a quota Rock Kestrel – a Rooivalk – from Agulhas last month.

Obliging little guy sat on an old telegraph pole very patiently for just as long as I needed to shoot him.

Thanks for that.

Have you not heard of squash?

Posted on

Spotted on a local Facebook feed this morning:

What? No. That’s simply not right.

You know that I’m not the biggest fan of padel. But that’s neither here nor there in this instance.
Because I’m not really into squash either, but I do know enough about it to know that hitting the wall is very much part of the game there. It’s pretty much the entire way of playing the game.

Ask Google about padel and it says:

Padel is often described as a cross between tennis and squash. It’s played on a court similar to tennis but smaller and enclosed by walls, which are used as part of the game like in squash.

“Squash”, you say?
“Walls”? Hmm.

It’s hardly subtle stuff. The clues really are all there.

What makes this even funnier (for me, but then I’m still recovering from that meeting) is that ironically, Bredasdorp (where this padel tank is) is very much an Afrikaans speaking area (83.1% first language), and the Afrikaans word for squash is Muurbal, which literally translates as “wall ball”.
I actually only worked this out this a few years back when driving past the Bredasdorp Muurbalklub, and they’d cut the trees back.

See?

I’m just waiting for Miskey’s to open their 10-pin bowling business: “the only sport where rolling a ball is actually part of the plan!”. Although I’m sure that the Bredasdorp Rolbalklub (yes, seriously) would have something to say about that.