Seeing six years of work together felt like laying out a timeline. Not a polished one, but an honest one.
In 2025 I took part in Solo Studios, hosted across Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West in the Western Cape. The exhibition was personal twice over: I was showing in the valley I now call home, and I was hanging my earliest pieces next to my newest for the first time.
The oldest work dates from when I was still finding my way into making art. The most recent was made after I moved here in search of quiet and space. Between the two sits everything that changed.
My practice moves through abstraction, mapping and memory. Hanging six years in one space made the shifts visible to me for the first time. The work has slowed down. It has become more layered. It no longer tries to explain itself too quickly. Most of that change is tied to this place and its slower rhythm.
The Solo Studios format suited this kind of work. Artists were spread across both towns, and visitors moved through the valley between studios. People arrived slowly, stayed longer, and engaged without hurry. The work was allowed to breathe.
Exhibiting in Riebeek West, minutes from where the work is made, collapsed the gap between studio and exhibition. It felt less like presenting finished outcomes and more like inviting people into a process that is still moving.
Solo Studios 2025 will stay with me as a marker: where I started, where I am now, and how deeply this place has worked its way into what I make. More about the event is at Riebeek Valley Solo Studios.
The next chapter is already taking shape. In 2026, Solo Studios comes to my own home and studio in Riebeek West, in collaboration with ceramicist Corinne de Haas.
Works from these years