LIZA GROBLER

An Elephant Stepped on My Phone

27 January – 20 February | Everard Read at Leeu Estates

Everard Read Franschhoek is proud to present a new solo exhibition by Liza Grobler entitled An Elephant Stepped on My Phone.
Please join us to celebrate the opening of the exhibition at 11AM Saturday the 27th of January. 

To be added to the catalogue waiting list please click HERE.

An Elephant Stepped on My Phone

There are snapshots of worlds inside all of us.

Oudtshoorn, South Africa

(June 2023)

This is a true story of a winter's day in the Klein Karoo, when a four ton elephant stepped on my Samsung S21.

A friend from Jamaica, whom I met in New York, sent a text message to tell me that she was in Johannesburg for a conference and that she wished to visit. I showed her my home and the vast Karoo landscape. It was an exceptionally wet winter and the veld had an unusual display of acid greens. There was no noticeable change in the ostriches.

On this day in June, the skies were clear, the dams were full and the feeding camp of the three rescue elephants was a rich umber mud pit. I took photos of my friend with these gentle giants. We fed them a range of seasonal fruit. The phone slipped from my hand and sank in the mud. One bull stepped forward, touched the phone with his toe, then quietly, stepped back...

The screen of the phone and the pictures of that landscape, shattered.

Delhi, India

(August 2023)

What we did not expect was a panther on the water tank.

The winter of 2023 was long and cold.

I traveled with a jeweller friend to Delhi, in search of seed beads and raw silk and warmth.

The heat coiled around us; tighter every day. I love this city, because anything could happen and it does...On day five, the monsoon brought everything to a halt. Roads turned into rivers. We were drenched to the bone. A stringy man and his auto rickshaw rescued us; cool at last!

On my last night in Delhi, we sat on the roof of the three-storey building to find some reprieve from the heat. I was waiting for the taxi that would take me to the airport. We drank whiskey whilst huge fruit bats, and small satellites, circled in the night sky overhead. Then, the flick of a tail in our peripheral vision on the rooftop of the adjacent block. Reason told us it must be a rubbish bag, but there was no breeze and then it stretched like a very large cat.

Some things, you can only see at midnight.

Franschhoek, South Africa

(October 2023)

The mountain had fresh claw marks from some prehistoric vulture that took flight.

I arrived at the Leeu Estates residency only days after the flood had swept through town. Many of the stores were still closed, but along the riverbed the nasturtiums bloomed in abundant orange and cadmium red. Rusty landslides ran from town to mountain to sky.

The estate escaped the worst of it (only the entrance bridge collapsed) and the river stayed sprinkled with uprooted trees. Some vehicles had been washed away, but the vineyards were intact.

These were the hours: Friends came for studio visits and lunch or crisp local wine. The days became sketches or long walks to town. But the weeks were devoured by the hungry paintings and the jealous studio. The last visitors on the last day sent a WhatsApp to step out and up. There it was: a double rainbow hugging the scars. Then both day and rainbow dissipated.

Such is the nature of time and place.

(January 2024)

Dear viewer/ visitor/ friend, as you meander through An Elephant Stepped on my Phone, allow your own world to speak to mine...

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

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

erlgallery@everard.co.za
021 492 5980