Art en route – travel blog

Finding creativity in unlikely places is one of the things I love most about travelling this region. These are photos of some of the inspired works I’ve found on my journeys. I’ve included information about Nukain Mabusa and Fiki Mmini, which I wrote about in earlier editions of Getaway. I heard about the creator of the airplane home from friends in the Northern Drakensberg, but nobody was home when I visited. The Mozambican artist had set up his works off the EN1 in Marracuene, Mozambique. Sarah and I stopped to take photos but the artist was nowhere to be found.

Nukain Mabusa
In the late Eighties photographer Obie Oberholzer included a photograph of Nukain Mabusa’s ‘garden of flowers’ in his book Southern Circle. At the time he wrote: ‘It was difficult getting the story about these painted boulders … Apparently, one local, to rid himself of boredom, painted these rocks in the Krokodilpoortberge. He would then happily sit under the shade of a haak-en-steek thorn tree and charge a fee to any inquisitives, who, like me, would stand there and wonder about the painted rocks. He died some years ago.’ In Obie’s photograph the rocks are still bright and clearly discernable from the roadside. These days it takes a bit more effort to spot the stones, which have faded considerably and are partly obscured by the long autumn grasses. But while his creations have faded, Nukain has achieved prominence as an important South African outsider artist and his work has been adopted as a branding tool by Barberton Tourism. Nukain Mabusa’s ‘garden of flowers’ can be found on the on the R38, eight kilometres from Kaapmuiden.

Fiki Mmini
Sage advice can come to you from the most unexpected places. Take the informal ‘Itireleng curios tourism shop’ and Nobody township dwelling of Fiki Mmini, a man ‘born poor, but rich in mind’. Among the home-made drums, hubcaps, shoes, planks, plastic flowers, tin cars and other curiosities you’ll find rules to live by cast in concrete and painted on wooden hearts – ‘love is for two, but three is for divorce’ and ‘respect a fool, avoid noise’, among them.
The bright, township dwelling, built using discarded bottles and cans, has caught the eye of many passersby, who are welcomed with a warm smile. Fiki’s only request is that you sign his visitor’s book and if you decide to buy a curio or two please ‘pay with a smile’. On the R71 just past Mankweng, about 30 minutes from Polokwane.