Exhibition at Ebony in Franschhoek

I met the lovely Dewald and Co at Design Indaba this year when they came running into my stand and promptly bought 3 artworks.  Once all the madness was over I took a drive out to Franschhoek to deliver the work.  Well, Ebony is gorgeous.  It covers 2 floors and has a very unique selection of Art and Design pieces - a lot of which I have never seen anywhere else. 


I have created 13 new pieces of work - some following my favourite style and others a little different.  The exhibition opens on the 11th of May and coincides with the Franschhoek Literary Festival.  The work will remain up for 2 weeks, maybe longer. Books used are South African in nature and explore various themes in nature and culture. 


For any enquiries do contact Ebony directly.


Ebony
4 Franschhoek Square, 32 Huguenot Street
info@ebonydesign.co.za
+27 (021) 876 4477

 ‘n Lied vir ons land

Keri Muller

Translation: A song for our land

This is a book of Afrikaans poetry issued by the Department of Education in 1967.  The list of subjects I found inside the book and thought the handwriting in ink particularly beautiful reminding me of a climbing rose.   

Southern Africa and the rest of the World

Keri Muller

I often feel cut off from the rest of the world down at the bottom of Africa and even more so when in Mozambique or other Southern African countries.  The torn page framing the map is an index page listing some of my favourite places in the rest of the world.  I always come back to Cape Town though, like most migratory bird species. The pages are from a Readers Digest World Atlas.  The birds are cut from Cape Liner.

A rare breed

Keri Muller

An old English/Afrikaans School Dictionary has been used as the folded base.  The birds have been cut from ‘Western Cape Pocket Guide to Flora’ and intertwined with pieces of copper wire.   

Aspekte van die geskiedenis van Afrika

Keri Muller

Folded pages from inside the book collaged with flowers cut from the ‘Western Cape Pocket Guide to Flora’.  Lines of Longitude and Latitude sewn with Copper wire.

Bilingual

Keri Muller

An original ‘Tweetalige Schoolwoordeboek’ cut, folded and glued.

Can you speak the Language?

Keri Muller

An ‘English Xhosa’dictionary cut, folded and glued.  Additionally a set of commemorative stamps from the 80’s have been added reflecting South Africa’s various rare commodities in that time. 

Cry the Beloved Country

Keri Muller

One of my favourite themes and books – swallows in flight represent the ultimate freedom to me.  Cut from Cape Liner and collaged into the rolled pages of this book I like to think Alan Paton would be pleased that his book is not sitting on a shelf gathering dust but rather being seen.

Hou op Kwel en begin Lewe

Keri Muller

Translation:  Stop complaining and start living

I spend a lot of time listening and observing people in my day to day life and always amazed at the amount of complaining I hear.  When I came across Dale Carnegie’s book translated into Afrikaans I just had to use it.  Inside the book was this torn out page of a Chiff Chaff – this little bird makes the funniest call that can become rather irritating a lot like complainers. The Boy Scout is from an Annual published in the 1950’s. ‘Every Moment Matters’ has become one of my personal mantras and something I think we should all remember as life is short.  Something I have to remind myself to remember!

Leaping

Keri Muller

Cut from a well thumbed School Pocket Dictionary – the leaping buck are one of my reoccuring themes.  I thoroughly enjoy the notion of running and jumping just for fun. I often think Impala are doing just that.

Dancers of the Karoo

Keri Muller

The Karoo is an incredibly beautiful, free space to me.  These ballet dancers in their various poses represent this lightness and space.  

Trekking On

Keri Muller

A well thumbed school library copy all about the Great Trek complete with the original Library card.  In the days of the Great Trek the Springbok migration still happened, unfortunately as the settlers moved inland so they hunted and killed all the animals. The forward in this book is written by Jan Smuts. 

Botanicals – Animals of the Cape Province

Keri Muller

Folded from a pocket size guide to the Animals of the Cape Province and collaged with Flowers and a bird cut from a similar guide book.  These were all printed in the 1960’s.

   
Botanicals – Proteas of the Western Cape

Keri Muller

Folded from a pocket size guide –The Protea’s of the Western Cape.   Collaged with various Proteas and the bird is a Cape Penduline Tit -  these are all cut from the Pocket Guides to the Birds and Flora of the Cape Province.