Through here a flower passed

Henrico Paul GREYLING (Pretoria)

Through here a flower passed

Steel

220 cm x 115 cm x 20 cm

Through here a flower passed is a steel sculpture that invites a physical interaction from the viewer. The artwork draws from the dimensions of an archway that led to a familiar room at my grandparent’s house. The archway is a symbol of life and death, having been the passage through which many family members have moved, of whom my grandmother is the only one yet to return, and evidently, she never will. By constructing the archway from pieces of rusted metal, the passage of time is reinforced through the shifting colours caused by the rust. But at the same time, the different patterns and colours caused by the rust and the process of fixing different-sized steel patches together to form the whole create a parallel with the patches of material that my grandmother often used to fix my or my brother’s clothes. Greyling invites the viewer to walk through the archway, allowing the act of movement to become a part of the artwork; a reminder of being alive.