2 minute read
Taking the viewer’s mind for a walk
Writer Hedda Mittner
The internationally-renowned artist Jaco Sieberhagen, who has been based in Onrus for the past 10 years, is perhaps best known among local residents for his sculpture, Traveller, which graced Gearing’s Point as part of the 2016 FynArts Sculpture on the Cliffs exhibition.
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What few people know, though, is that Jaco has been exhibiting extensively both in South Africa and abroad for more than three decades. This highly-acclaimed, multi award-winning sculptor has produced a staggering body of work and, apart from numerous national solo and group exhibitions, he has participated in more than 20 international exhibitions and symposia in places as far afield as the USA, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Ghana, Nigeria, China, Taiwan and Australia.
Jaco works mainly in flat steel which is laser cut to precision and then painted matte black or, in some cases such as Traveller, blue. The flat steel creates a two-dimensional silhouette which tells a visual story, or, as Jaco puts it, “takes the viewer’s mind for a walk”.
Because the design of these intricate sculptures has to be broken into elements (or cutting files) that are laser cut separately before being welded together in a seamless and energised unity, Jaco uses CAD to produce meticulously precise drawings. Once the laser cutting has been done, he welds the different elements together and spray paints the completed sculpture himself in his studio – a daunting process that is testament to both his creative and technical ingenuity.
Imagery, symbols and archetypal figures are used to convey a narrative that questions our sense of identity, while others provide scathing comment on the injustices of our socio-political history, the superficiality of popular culture and the destruction of the earth by modern greed and consumerism. Jaco describes these thought-provoking scenes created by his sculptures as “landscapes of the mind”. To tell his stories, he often incorporates the ideas and skills of sequential art and creates a series of works that depict a certain theme.
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