THE ART & SOUND OF RoE: Wendy Stone
Water and Soil Quality, Circular Waste Management
(10 years experience)
William Kentridge expresses his process as ‘ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain endings’ to hold both optimism and nihilism in check. He has said that the ‘absurd is a productive way to understand a world where certainty often leads to disaster.’
Wendy reflects, “In Return on Ecology, I find space to explore less certainty, as I grapple with knowledge. I have worked in riverine systems and long grappled with years of catching hope, and years of sensing it slip away. Kentridge expresses the full reality, the grit of the South African socio-political landscape — and yet, whispers of hope break through as nature seeps through his cities and landscapes: encounters with small flashes of beauty in a stark reality.”
“As I’ve grappled with hope, many authors have reminded me that it is surprising, it is revolutionary, and it is only encountered together.
‘People have always been good at imagining the end of the world, which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of change in a world without end.‘
‘Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.’
– Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark (2004)
Desmond Tutu himself tells of his hope before Apartheid fell. He called it ‘whistling in the dark‘, when asked by a journalist whether he knew the end would come:
‘Well, I’ll tell you something. In January this year I was asked by one of the TV crews what my New Year’s resolution was. I had answered somewhat gleefully, ‘I want to improve my dance routine because I think we will be doing quite a lot of celebrating this year.’ Perhaps it was wishful thinking, a little bit of whistling in the dark. But, you know, I also knew God was around, what with the Berlin wall coming down and freedom breaking out all over.‘ – Tutu in ‘A Politics of Love’ (1990)
Pair this with Risha Lötter’s acoustic version of Nakho and the Medicine Man’s ‘We are on Time‘ (original and cover below). She is a local artist, living and working in Knysna. This song captures the depth of relationship I experience with the natural world, this team, and our partners: the intimacy we are building, the consistency, the harmonies as we whistle together in the dark. The song captures the long-term relational health necessary to build a home.
“I am on your side, I am not drawing a line, only want what is right, what is best for your life.”
“Meet me in the streets, in the dark, in your bare feet, meet at a place where your heart drops a deep beat”
Cover: We are on Time by Risha Lötter
Original
