NIC BLADEN 
Baskloof

Everard Read Franschhoek is proud to present a new exhibition by Nic Bladen entitled Baskloof.

To request a catalogue click here. 

 ARTIST STATEMENT: 

This collection of plants comes from Baskloof, a piece of privately owned land on the Cape Peninsula. It is the result of a longstanding friendship with landowners Ivan and Danielle Harris, who made available this tract of land to use at my discretion.

 While, in one sense, this collection of cast botanical sculptures is the work of the last eighteen months of dedicated focus, it is in actual fact a distillation of the last twenty one years that I have spent hiking on Baskloof: many hundreds of visits getting to know not just the plants, but every path and rocky outcrop, each spring and stream, and also all the different perspectives of the Atlantic Ocean. The addition of photographs to accompany the sculptures is my attempt to try and immerse the viewer in my context, as I have so wholly been.

 Baskloof (literally ‘bark valley’) was named after the Protea nitida which occurred here in vast numbers, and whose bark was used in the leather tanning industry in a ‘heyday’ period when everything nature offered was deemed infinite. It is located on the west-facing flank of the Cape Peninsula, above the villages of Misty Cliffs and Scarborough, where three adjoining properties have been united to now comprise a piece of land measuring 310 hectares. Even on this relatively small site there is so much diversity in the landscape: quartzite, granite and sandstone outcrops, cliff faces, a coastal milkwood forest thicket and open plains. There are different soil types, and about 350 plant species have been recorded.

 In my mind, Baskloof consists of a coastal thicket, a plateau, and the nuances found in the secrets that make up the unique micro-habitats of each small valley or wind-funnel. I’ve noticed that certain species are only found on the loamy soils of the north east-facing slopes of Baskloof, and I’ve noted that some species on Baskloof consistently flower two months ahead of the same species found 10km north.

It is my ambition with this collection to depict the Baskloof landscape through the plants which occur there. Some of the plants I’ve cast are those easily passed by, scruffy and nondescript – until one looks closer of course. Others plants seem to dominate the landscape: individual entities which have an almost animal-like presence, such as the Mimetes fimbrifolius or the Leucospermum conocarpodendron ssp. viridum, or the Protea nitida, standing out grey on the salt-laden, sea-facing slopes. The coastal forest thicket is represented by very large castings of selected species in order to describe the density and scale of the forest.

 While all the plants (bar two) are from Baskloof, only a handful of plants were actually harvested from the soil, and then only when there was an absolute abundance of that specific species. Most of the sculptures are cuttings, and even these were taken mindfully from plants where, hopefully, the cutting won’t be too visible to visitors. The larger sculptures are made up from dead wood picked up and ‘dressed’ with leaves and twigs taken from a live companion plant. As always, I try to be as respectful as possible of the landscape, and to tread as lightly as I can.

 Stattice perezzii, though it doesn’t strictly grow on Baskloof itself, does occur at the base of a rocky outcrop right next to the road (the M65), just south of Misty Cliffs. Upon factchecking, I learnt that this plant is actually native to the Canary Islands but, by some gardener’s mistake – a stray seed – it grows right next to Baskloof. I procured a specimen from a local nursery and it stays as part of the collection. A final disclosure is regarding the Orbea variegata, which also comes from a nursery. While there is a small population of these plants on the southern boundary of Baskloof, where Scarborough joins the Cape Point reserve, it does not grow within Baskloof itself.

 For practical purposes, I have divided this collection into three categories: Coastal Thicket, Proteaceae and Fynbos. All the Proteaceae depicted here fall under Fynbos, but differentiating the pieces into these different categories distinguishes the landscape for me and helps to create a system of order in the workshop, which flows into the catalogue.

 The Coastal Thicket sculptures are influenced by my experience of living in a house in Kommetjie, surrounded by milkwood trees. Under these trees it is dark and cool in the height of summer. My family and I have learnt when to expect the musty smell the flowers omit, and the berries, which are thick-skinned but delicious, and which stain our laundry. With the berries come the baboons, and watching them eat the berries through our kitchen window has taught me a trick: place five or six berries in your mouth, chew leisurely, and spit out the skin. Milkwood trees are real entities to live with, and it is a privilege to share their shade.

 The Proteaceae aspect of this body of work alludes to a previous study of this plant family (my Proteaceae solo exhibition at Everard Read in Cape Town, February 2020) and thus in a sense continues that ‘unfinished business’, as there are 361 species of Proteaceae in Southern Africa.

 I am wholly indebted to Ivan and Danielle Harris for being able to showcase the botanical diversity of their beautiful property, of which they are remarkable custodians.

 - Nic Bladen, Baskloof
October, 2022

A percentage of the proceeds from this exhibition will be donated to the preservation of Baskloof.

Everard Read at Leeu Esates
Leeu Estates, Dassenberg Road, Franschhoek

Opening times: Wednesday - Sunday 10:00 - 17:00 
Contact us to make an appointment outside of these hours. 

erlgallery@everard.co.za
021 492 5980