Ayakha - Indlela Yokuxola offers for the first time an exploration of new mediums including wood, animating Wolf’s elongated figures in a three-dimensional landscape which she has fused to create a multi-textural experience of her works. She adds layers to the unending depth of her works and encourages the viewer to share that perspective. The paintings – acrylic and sand on canvas – continue to exemplify Wolf’s reverence of the earth’s natural materials, and the curation of this project demonstrates a poignant evolution in her practice.
Says Wolf, ‘The mind and the body often quarrel in the face of uncertainty. The mind may search for solutions while the body relies on intuition. This creates a psychological dilemma: the fear of the unknown on the one hand versus an innate surety on the other. Uncertainty might then always be an obstacle in the exploration of forgiveness. It suggests that reality may not be as it seems, which may be the opportune time to ask what lessons there are in knowing something is not real while feeling certain that it is.
Ayakha - Indlela Yokuxola explores the vast and complex layers unravelled during the process of forgiveness. If there are consequences to what we cannot control, what are the consequences of forgiveness and who do they benefit? From Wolf’s perspective, this body of work became a lived exploration of her own experience of grief, loss, uncertainty, and acceptance: it is a close to the heart offering. Two of the paintings, Thandontaba and Reacquainted with My Limbs take a deeper dive into the intricacies of the process of forgiveness.
Wolf, whose principal gaze is focused on the art and form of the female anatomy – shining a light on its diversity, depths and intelligence – positions her gaze in this body of work as a shared perspective. Part of the experience of navigating the emotions that accompany loss include reflecting on lived experiences; revisiting the events that left behind trauma in search of answers, and the hope of closure. The unpopular teacher is discomfort. How do we use what remains to shape our mindsets and rewire our nervous systems to propel us forward?
The path to forgiveness is shaped by our differences, life experiences, and unique vantage points. Working our way through the loss and the discomfort of having to function without what we once had causes us great agony and unrest, however, perhaps this journey contains a difficult truth: that one must keep moving forward while taking in all the lessons with grace.
