I am an avid collector of shells which I find along Muizenberg beach, now that I’m getting older I find I’m now attracted to the broken structured or very weathered specimens. Preferring to look inside and at the architecture of the shell. the structural inner workings. As a youngster, whenever the family went for walks collecting shells along the capes beaches - I would dart out and run far ahead hoping to find the best shells first. My dad would always walk the slowest and pick up a shell and stare at it for ages - the shells he picked up where always to me very drab – and years later I would invariably find his small collection of shells tucked away somewhere amongst his things. I would recognize the shells as they where the common ones and to me at the time not so exciting. Well I now do the same – my kids run ahead, missing the shells I find exciting to look at and I walk slowly behind, picking up broken and drab specimens – staring at them for ages to try and pick up a clue or a creative spark in their composition.
My collection of shells get deposited in the courtyard leading to the front door – it is here where for me the real drama begins. The collision of several distinctly different eco systems. The spiders use the shells and webonise intricately lacing the structures. What i call shell web spider moss lacing, a form of gothic. The green moss creates an alluring patina, which reminds me of gothic architecture which to my mind weaves itself around the structure like a habit. Its very other worldly, which from an aesthetic perspective – is a type of wildetecture. The fusion of shell structures , linked into an arachnid lair fused with green moss and living organic vegetation. A strange combination of living specimens, but to me the linkage between how we can start looking at our structures.
I sit and stare at my contrived spider , moss playground – I would love to be able to shrink – and walk through these giant dangerous hallowed halls.
