Rock Arts in South Africa

A large part of the history and the arts of South Africa is correlated to the rock art that was created nearly 4000 years ago, when the apartheid ended in the 1990s many of these rock art paintings suddenly where being recognized. The Bradshaw foundation is a foundation that helps fund and support the San rock art paintings that are being found. The knowledge and findings of these pieces of art comes from the work of researchers at the University of Witwatersrand, who are dedicated to finding these paintings along with showing the world the amazing beauty in the paintings. They have been able to discover what tribe made these painting and that this tribe called the San Shamans where painting about the spirit world and peoples journeys in it. All of these paintings are located in the Drakensburg Mountains in a location called the game pass shelter, which in 2000 was declared the world heritage site of the year by the UNESCO. All that is known about these paintings is that they are thousands of years old where drawn by the sans people, none of them are titled or have exact dates to them.

pic 1

(https://geolocation.ws/v/P/2213886/san-rock-art-game-pass-shelter-kamberg/en)

This painting to me looks like a heard of buffalo, since these paintings are about spiritual journeys I suspect that the buffalo have something to do with food or something along those lines and the journey forward. The red color of the painting makes me wonder if that was one of the only colors they had back when this was made.

pic 2

(https://geolocation.ws/v/P/2213886/san-rock-art-game-pass-shelter-kamberg/en)

 This makes me think of that silly video of the song “what does the fox say” kind of silly I know! But to me this looks like a fox who has been humanized but is still faceless, I wonder why they took his face away and choose to make him human. The detail on this photo is really what caught my eye with all the speckles and other dots that add to the photo.

pic 3

(http://www.timhaufphotography.com/South-Africa/World-Heritage-Sites/South-Africa-photography-park/i-L4mrXms)

This photo to me looks like humans killing an animal for food, the way they contorted the animals neck to run similarly with the rock pattern gives this image a very curved and non aggressive feel. This image is one that I would have expected to see from this past time period, it seems very normal to rock images.

Resources 

“ROCK ART PAINTINGS OF SOUTH AFRICA.” Bradshaw Foundation. N.p., 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/south_africa/south_africa_gallery.php>.

“Southern African Rock Art.” Southern African Rock Art. N.p., 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2014. <http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~raar/RegionsSAarticle.html>.

One comment

  1. ijlammers · December 9, 2014

    I see where you get the thought of “what does the fox say”. It really does look like a fox! I really liked your interpretations of the art. It is apparent that you have really taken a greater appreciation for art especially art created so long ago. The fact that they don’t have titles is something that I think artists today could bring back. I think by not having a name with the piece it really leaves it up to the audience to use their imaginations to bring the art to life and give it meaning.

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