White Lions: Timbavati

“I was asked to design and build a sacred place, where nature and all that is created in its name can be respected and ritually engaged. In order to do that I had to imagine what could be unleashed by the unmentionable force that nature can command and the intricate manner with which it manages to balance all life as if it is synchronized in a mythic and mysterious way to support life.

The epicenter is a relocated four hundred year old indigenous tree, struck by lightening. It is secured in exactly the place where lightening struck and reduced the dwelling of the White Lion’s keeper to ashes. The forms and shapes that emanate from this epicenter, resulted from understanding the energy that would be released from the impact of the lightening to create the sculptural metaphors, the architecture that could hold and embrace the prayers of those who entered it’s space.

Creating a large sculptural symphony provided a canvas for me to be in conversation with the primal emotional and creative elements that have informed my previous sculptural practice over many years. To be present as gently as possible, to provide the formal and conceptual envelopes that embraces the natural power of this African landscape, provided me with this unique opportunity and invitation. The work acts as a sort of chronometer, a compass that uses an entire continental geography as part of the referencing of this work, both conceptually and materially.”