The pool of the psyche : water in the work of Ariana van Heerden and Kevin Roberts

Abstract

Water is a material which pervades the earth and is the source of all life, the fons et origo (Cirlot 1971: 365). Humans are seventy percent water and it occupies seventy percent of the earth’s surface. As a substance that can exist in a number of physical states, water is form and formless, material and metaphor, image and idea, substance and symbol. Thus it is hardly surprising that water is a powerful symbol: for the unconscious in Jungian terms; for purity and baptism in many religions; a symbol of spiritual or physical journeys and of aspects of the human condition. It appears in the work of many traditional and contemporary artists. Ariana van Heerden and Kevin Roberts are South African painters and both depict water in numerous works, in very different ways, varying from the wide oceans to the water in a cup. This paper will investigate their paintings of this substanceless substance, and aspects of the unconscious that are reflected in their works when the latter are approached from a Jungian and neo-Jungian point of view. For example, the differing contexts in which water appears in the paintings of Roberts and van Heerden can suggest the anima and aminus as aspects of the psyche, the male or female principle, birth and death, the personal and the collective, the romantic and the classical, because of these artists’ approach to this most liminal of materials

Water is dié element wat wyd verspreid oor die aarde voorkom; dit is die bron van alle lewe, die fons et origo (Cirlot 1971:365). Die mens bestaan uit sewentig persent water en dit beslaan sewentig persent van die aardbol se oppervlakte. As ‘n stof wat in verskeie natuurkundige gedaantes kan bestaan, is water vorm sowel as vormloos, wesenlik en metafoor, beeld en denkbeeld, wese en simbool. Derhalwe is water ‘n kragtige simbool: vir die onderbewussyn in Jungiaanse terme; vir reinheid en die doop in vele religieë; ‘n simbool vir spirituele en fisiese reis asook aspekte van die menslike bestaan. Dit kom voor in etlike tradisionele en hedendaagse kunstenaars se werk. Ariana van Heerden en Kevin Roberts is Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaars en albei beeld water uit in talle werke, op verskeie maniere wat wissel vanaf uitgestrekte oseane tot die water in ‘n teekoppie. Hierdie referaat ondersoek hulle skilderye wat hierdie substansilose stof uitbeeld, sowel as aspekte van die onderbewussyn wat gereflekteer word in hul werke, gesien vanaf ‘n neo-Jungiaanse sowel as ‘n Jungiaanse uitgangspunt. Byvoorbeeld, as gevolg van die uiteenlopende verband waarin water, die mees drempelend van alle stowwe, in Robberts en van Heerden se skilderye voorkom, mag die anima en die animus voorgestel word as aspekte van die psige, die manlike of vroulike, geboorte of die dood, die individuele of die gemeenskaplike, die romantiese of die klassieke.