Phoenixes and ashes: A close reading of selected work from Stairways and Ruins

In his curatorial statement for the exhibition Stairways and Ruins (2023), Andrew Lamprecht (2023:4) observes how the artworks in this exhibition emerged from a particular set of dire global circumstances, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing threat of global conflict. Lamprecht (2023:4) suggests that the artworks in this exhibition, made in response to prompts that evoke themes of hope and disillusionment, 'provided a moment of pause, of reflection and of introspection'. The idea that art reflects a particular historical moment is similarly suggested by the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1996:23), who argues that art embodies the style of a cultural era and reveals the historical being-in-the-world of human beings. He points to art's ability to manifest, articulate or illuminate cultural and temporal concerns from within the world and time of that culture (Heidegger 1996; Dreyfus 2005). Heidegger also suggests that art reconfigures the traces of the past (Dreyfus 2005:416), a theme observed in several works in the Stairways and Ruins exhibition. Through a close reading of work by Kiveshan Thumbiran, Nicola Grobler, Corné Venter, Louisemarié Combrink, Lesego Motsiri and Pieter Odendaal, Danelle Heenop and Juan Steyn, and Héniel Fourie (in collaboration with Armand Aucamp and Paula Kruger), I consider how these artists reconfigure history as part of a contemporary moment that can be read through the cyclic, allegorical narrative of the myth of the phoenix. While the works thus reflect a particular moment in history, I consider how these artists grapple with what is ultimately part of a life cycle: catching a phoenix on a burning day.