I wanted to engage tourists visiting our small country town Parys, over the notoriously busy Easter weekend.

I had access to pre-punched plastic cards and thought of making a large installation in the bustling main road. Though this would have been effective, it would not have been interactive. Because I was making it for Easter weekend, I wanted it to be interactive and touch people. I love landscape art that disintegrates and disappears over time and thought of making this work with that in mind.

I wrote most myself but handed cards to some of Parys’s most significant churches and got them to write personal, encouraging messages and blessing on the cards. The notes are in Afrikaans, English and Sotho. The cards were then tied to red wool (symbolising the blood of Jesus – for Easter) and hung throughout town to engage passers-by all over town rather than a single location. Over four-hundred cards form part of the installation.

TAKE PART – TAKE A MESSAGE
If a message “speaks” to you, you are encouraged to break it off and keep it as a memento (also symbolising your breaking that “thing” (giant/mountain) that binds you.)

Happy Easter!

(Thank you to #godlifechurch #ngkerkoos #hervormdekerkparys #everynation #siongemeente #plumtreerestaurant #liewerkoffi)