Merging a skill that had been passed onto him by his carpenter grandfather and honed by years of studying sculpture at Nelson Mandela University, a Gqeberha artist has put together a collection of expressive abstract wooden sculpture pieces as an ode to wood.
When the world was forced to stay indoors due to Covid-19, NMU lecturer Michael Wedderburn, 35, threw himself into his work to escape the turmoil.
He had started working on the collection about six years ago and used the hard lockdown to focus on sculpting and completing the works.
This week, he unveiled the body of work at the Nelson Mandela Bay leadership summit pre-event at the NMU Business School.
It comprises 25 wooden sculptures and five paintings.
Wedderburn’s art pieces were introduced to the public as part of a wood and wind concept — the brainchild of NMU business school faculty head Prof Pieter Binsbergen.
“Sculpture is how I keep myself grounded, it’s my escape — this is what kept me sane during the lockdown,” Wedderburn said this week.
“I have been working with wood my whole life.
“I was taught carpentry by my grandfather and I took woodwork quite seriously in school.
“I also stayed connected with woodwork projects while I was in university. A lot of my holiday jobs were centred on wood,” Wedderburn said.
After completing his Masters in Visual Arts in 2016, Wedderburn started experimenting with wood in his artistic practice.
“It started consuming more and more of my every day, it stopped being an extramural activity and I started focusing more on wood because I am completely fascinated by it as a material.
“I work in the sculpture department where I get to see all sorts of materials, bronze, resins, different types of ferrous and non-ferrous steels, yet I still revert to wood all the time.
“When I need to get a job done quickly or when I need to make a certain artwork with a certain aesthetic, I know how to do it in wood and I also think it’s incredibly beautiful.
“I like to experiment with it to bring out different elements of how I can make it beautiful in my own unique way,” Wedderburn said, further describing wood as “alive, warm and with character”.
He describes his latest body of work as imperfect.
“In my artwork, I gun towards a unique individualistic experiment.
“I am trying to create my own visual language.
“It's a pursuit of perfection, I know I am never going to get it right because I am also a human and my ideas change in life.
“It’s an evolving practice — what was very abstract three years ago has lots of figures that are coming out now. I have now found my niche and that is how I explore at the same time.”
He said he hoped that finally completing the work and having it showcased at NMU would make his grandfather and mentors David Jones and Andrieta Wentzel proud.
“I hope that people who see this body of work understand that it’s expression, that is the most important part for me as a maker.
“A thing can just be beautiful as a thing, you can like something for what it is and not have a specific reason and that is how I feel when I work with wood.
“I love this material.”
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