NIEL JONKER

Jonker, a graduate of the then Natal Technikon, has grown up with clay as an extension of his being – from digging in communal clay pits on the family farm as a child to collecting clay along the coast in the way that ancient inhabitants of Africa did eons ago. His manipulation of mostly terracotta clay infused with natural pigments like ochre and other earths is intuitive and thereby timeless.

The sculptures feel like they could have been made hundreds of years ago or last week. The forms are reductive, simplified, and archetypal and this is their power. Surfaces are scratched, hewn, incised, and even cracked adding to their timeless quality.  Representing animal forms that have anthropomorphic and therianthropic qualities remind the viewer of our innate connection to sentient beings such as birds, baboons, and other animals. As viewers, we experience a moment in time where animal and man are closer to each other than in reality. This phenomenological moment provokes feelings of familiarity with past, present and future – reminiscent of the Sankofa bird images made by the Akan tribe from Ghana.