Messum Crater Lichen

When I started experimenting with text in my art, it was mainly for visual appeal. I was studying towards a Visual Arts degree, and exploring the theories of evolution and creation. Text seemed to be an appropriate medium of expression. I really liked the result, and started using text more and more.

Lichen fascinated me - the beauty and variety of the little organisms. I tried painting and drawing them, but somehow I could never really capture the complexity. Then I tried interpreting the lichen in text, and loved the result. Somehow the abstraction and scale 

Recently I discovered that lichen is considered to be a primitive life form, consisting of a fungi and a bacteria. Suddenly I was back to the evolution/ creation debate, and it all came together.

In December 2014 we travelled to Namibia. The lichen in the Messum Crater was unlike anything I had seen before. The shapes and vivid colours against the volcanic rock were simply mesmerising.

Nellien Brewer: Altered Realities: 2 Chronicles 15:3 (2015)

Nellien Brewer: Altered Realities: 2 Chronicles 15:3 (2015): At the beginning of 2015 (or it may even have been toward the end of 2014) Johan Conradie informed us that he ...

Altered Realities: 2 Chronicles 15:3 (2015)

At the beginning of 2015 (or it may even have been toward the end of 2014) Johan Conradie informed us that he was planning a group exhibition at the Association of Arts in Mackie Street, Pretoria. The theme was to be 'Altered Realities', and the date was set for mid-August 2015. 

As the months passed, I had absolutely no inspiration. Johan asked me to do a digital work as he already had a number of artists who were going to submit painted works, and I knew that I wanted to use my Scripture lichen images (A new religion 4 Gospels (2010-2013) in some way. Lichen occurs all over the world, and always transforms the substrate into something beautiful. Especially in the harsh environments of inner cities, the resilience of the complex little organisms never cease to amaze me - a symbol of hope and regeneration amidst the hopelessness and despair.

In the past, if inspiration was slow in coming, I would panic and stress to a point where I'd be tempted to cancel my participation in the exhibition. Nowadays, I pray about it and then leave it to the Lord. I am slowly getting used to the idea of trusting Him regardless of my human need to instantly have the inspiration, media, material and techniques under control. As I thought about the theme, I remembered an inspiring series done by Elizabeth Olivier-Kahlau  a few years ago using graffiti as the central theme. Graffiti is often an expression of isolation, hurt, despair and misery, and I began to sense that this would be an appropriate background to the lichen growing over and transforming the site. 

At the end of June we went to KZN. Time was running out. I now had a concept of what I wanted to do, but still hadn't found a suitable graffiti image, and I didn't even know if the idea would eventually work out. One day, driving along the highway between Umhlanga and Durban, I spotted the graffiti below. It was perfect - a combination of anger, resignation and despair - an expression of the hope which people have when they migrate to the cities only to be disillusioned in the poverty and squalor of the back streets. 

And that was how 2 Chronicles 15:3 happened. 

• With thanks to Johan Conradie and KarlGustav Sevenster for their critique and assistance.