Artist, educator, curator & researcher · Co-Director, Ponte d’Arte
Resin casting & laser-cut stainless steel — suspended aquatic creatures; installation, dimensions variable (each creature W 36 × H 18 × L 18 cm)
Image to come(Missing info)Resin-cast, laser-cut stainless-steel aquatic creatures, suspended on filament so they appear to swim through the gallery. It is a comment on hydropolitics — the precarious future of water, which, as fresh water grows scarce, becomes an increasing source of global conflict.
All aquatic life has been affected by high concentrations of pollutants — heavy metals and chemicals — in rivers, streams and oceans. The creatures, armed with implements used as weapons in human conflict, have evolved out of the toxic sludge to defend their waning territory: both tragic and absurd, drawn from the ‘sublime of delightful horror’ — the simultaneous aversion and attraction of the terrifying.
Shown over the felted ‘seabed’ of Litany at the Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein.
Litanyc. 2015–2020 · Hand-dyed commercial, organic and synthetic textiles and yarns — hand-weaving, knitting and felting; hand and machine embroidery; rusted 19th-century pressed-ceiling panels, wire and PET plastic. W 300 × H 200 × D 200 cm
Disavowal2005–2006 · Polyurethane, velvet, suede, fake fur & latex
Litanyc. 2015–2020 · Hand-dyed commercial, organic and synthetic textiles and yarns — hand-weaving, knitting and felting; hand and machine embroidery; rusted 19th-century pressed-ceiling panels, wire and PET plastic. W 300 × H 200 × D 200 cm© 2026 Celia de Villiers