Sandra Hanekom - Foolish Saints and Saintly Fools
Saintly Fools and Foolish Saints is built primarily around the frail boundaries that divide the genius from the idiot, the hero from the coward, the sane from the mad and the saint from the fool. It is a series of works that try to conceive of and reflect on the experimental derangement of living a life.
Of this work, and of her general artistic practice, Hanekom has stated:
‘I try to avoid the spectroscopic brutalities of habitual intellectualism in my artwork. Rather, I opt to create a type of visual lyricism that develops an artwork more dependent on imagery and suggestion than intellectual clarity and superciliousness. I do not enjoy the exaggerated intellectualism of some contemporary theories. To me, unconstrained servitude to the intellectual is the pathogen of contemporary art.’
Hanekom says that she ‘tends to err on the side of the subjective’ and prefers ‘to indulge in the destructive maladies of subjective humanity rather than create work that relies on mere theoretic exhibitionism.’ The artworks that still intrigue, charm, fascinate and enchant her display ‘the capriciousness of individual sentiment. I feel that complete comprehension of an artwork defeats the aim of the artist. I have the audacity and candour to expect an artwork to seduce me on an illogical and purely emotional level.’
Hanekom’s artworks are lived, the final product displaying the unique properties of the artist’s own hand and individual emotional tangibility.
