The End and the Beginning

Lynda and I joined the Walkabout at the Nirox Winter Sculpture Exhibition this morning. I heard about the Nirox Sculpture Park last year and always wanted to go there and this morning we had the pleasure walking around the quiet tranquil gardens of Nirox set in the Cradle of Humankind. With the birds tweeting, the sounds of water tumbling along brooks between the still dams, and discovery beautiful art was enough to take our breath away. Okay some art was disturbing and thought provoking such why the obsession on dead birds.

I wanted to lay my head down on the lawns next to one of the expanses of water, close my eyes and listen. With a river running through behind me and the birds whistling in the branches above, why did I contemplate the end and the beginning of all?

It was hard trying to understand this piece of art by Daya Heller made from cold concrete, steel and bronze. The pregnant women’s face was featureless, no expression while half her expectant body was broken and missing pieces and all the while she gently held a dead bird in her hand. Don’t get me wrong, I am intrigued yet disturbed by this. Is bringing new life the beginning of the end for her? It can’t simply mean the beginning of life and the end of it. I am captivated by the deeper spiritual meaning of why are we here in this world.

A birth and an end, nothing is all what it seems with this cold broken sculpture set in a quiet place with life living on.