Toekennings - Adrieta Wentzel
Jaar gewen: 2009
Titel: Aspects of the dark other
Me Andrieta Wentzel, dosent in 3D aan die Skool vir Musiek, Kuns en Ontwerp van die Nelson Mandela Metropolitaanse Universiteit (NMMU), Port Elizabeth, is vanjaar die wenner van die Helgaard Steyn Toekenning vir beeldhoukuns. Die kunswerk wat vir die toekening in aanmerking kom, moet volgens die bepalings van die Trust, dateer uit die afgelope vier jaar en in 'n openbare kunsversameling opgeneem of in ’n publieke gebou geïnstalleer wees.
Haar werk Aspects of the dark other (12 totempale van nieshout en gemengde media), in die permanente versameling van die Nelson Mandela Metropolitaanse Kunsmuseum in Port Elizabeth, is as die wenwerk aangewys. Dit het in 2006 ontstaan as deel van die ateljeewerk vir haar M Tech-graad, The four cycles of Heracles: Towards the visual articulation of myth as psychological process, waarin sy die probleem aanspreek van hoe die teoriëe van Jung se diepte-analitiese psigologie in verhouding tot die vier siklusse van die Herakles-mite, in ‘n beeldhoukunstige installasie verbeeld kan word.
In die werk verbeeld die twaalf totempale nie letterlik die verhaal van Heracles se twaalf opdragte nie, maar daar word gepoog om ‘n gevoel te skep waarin die aspects of the dark other getrotseer word gedurende die reis na psigiese volwassenheid. Die installasie is ‘n voorstelling van die reis na die innerlike self, deur die assimilasie van die argetipes: skadu, die anima en die wyse ou man.
Die kunstenaar verwoord dit as volg: “Op kollektiewe vlak en deur wat Jung die ‘aktiewe verbeelding’ noem, is kunstenaars in staat om met hul vormgewende vermoëns die onbewuste instinktiewe prosesse van die psige to bewussyn te bring, sodat andere ook die mitiese dimensie van die bestaan kan beleef en ervaar”.
Me Wentzel het onder meer in 2006 die P.A. en Aliza Malan Gedenktrust-beurs (Worcester) ontvang en die afgelope jaar die NMMU se toekenning vir Skeppende en Uitvoerende Kunste.
Sy het verskeie opdragwerke uitgevoer, soos ‘n bronsborsbeeld van Nelson Mandela vir die Oos-Kaapse Provinsiale Wetgewer in Bisho, wat in 2004 op sy 86ste verjaarsdag aan hom oorhandig is, ontwerpe vir keramiekteëls en reliëfpanele vir die Landdroshof in Port Elizabeth en olieverskilderye vir Sun International se belange in dié stad. Van haar werke is ook in privaatversamelings in Suid-Afrika, Duitsland, Engeland en Kanada opgeneem.
Die paneel van beoordelaars het vanjaar bestaan uit proff John Botha van die Potchefstroomkampus van die Universiteit van die Noordweste, Dirk van den Berg van die Universiteit van die Vrystaat en dr Lydia de Waal van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch.
Die Helgaard Steyn prys ter waarde van R170 000,00 word op 2 November 2009 op Potchefstroom aan Andrieta Wentzel oorhandig.
Ms Andrieta Wentzel, lecturer in 3D aan die School for Music, Art and Design at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitaanse University (NMMU), Port Elizabeth, is this year’s winner of the Helgaard Steyn Prize for sculpture. According to the stipulations of the Helgaard Steyn Trust, the art work considered for the prize has to date from the last four years and be part of a public art collection or installed in a public building.
Wentzel’s winning work, Aspects of the dark other (12 totem poles of sneezewood and mixed media),is in the permanent art collection of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitaanse Art Museum in Port Elizabeth. It was part of her studio work in 2006 for the M Tech degree, with the title The four cycles of Heracles: Towards the visual articulation of myth as psychological process, in which she addressed the question how the theories of Jung’s depth-analytical psychology in relation to the four cycles of the Heracles myth, may find expression in a sculptural installation.
The 12 totem poles do not literally represent the story of Heracles’s twelve labours. They rather create an atmosphere in which aspects of the dark other are faced on the road to psychological maturity. The installation relates the journey to the inner self through assimilation van the archetypes of shadow, anima en the wise old man in the formation of the self.
According to the artist: “On the collective front through what Jung called the ‘active imagination’, the artist with his/her form-giving activities, is capable of bringing to conscious life the unconscious, instinctual processes of the psyche, so that other may view or re-experience the mythic dimension of being”.
Ms Wentzel received inter alia the P.A. and Aliza Malan Trust bursary (Worcester) in 2006 and in this year the NMMU award for the Creative and Performing Arts.
Commissions include a bronze portrait of Nelson Mandela, presented to him on his 86th birthday in 2004, commissioned by the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature in Bisho, designs for painted and glazed ceramic tiles and decorative relief panels for the Magistrates Court, and oil paintings for the Boardwalk, Sun International, in Port Elizabeth. Wentzel is also represented in private art collections in Germany, England, Canada and South Africa.
Prof John Botha of the Potchefstroom campus of the University of the Northwest, Prof Dirk van den Berg of the University of the Free State and Dr Lydia de Waal of the University of Stellenbosch served as the panel of adjudicators.
The Helgaard Steyn Prize to the value of R170 000,00 will be presented to her on 2 November 2009 in Potchefstroom .