Image: Louis Minnaar

The world according to Louis Minnaar is no pleasure park. I find myself standing in a bleak landscape with spider-legged, beaked flowers towering above. A churchman rides his flying steed through the sky, shooting these weird, menacing giants.
‘Flower-Spider depicts a war-like struggle between two opposing sides.

I don’t depict war just for the sake of depicting war, but because it is a reality in my daily life – little wars against racism, false identities, lies, lust etcetera.

Louis comments.

The word ‘parable’ comes to mind – a narrative of imagined events used to typify moral or spiritual relations. Using macabre characters with the oddities of circus performers, Louis’s allegorical scenes tell eccentric stories of good and evil beneath their sinister, satirical façade. ‘I guess on the surface it might seem dark, but there is always hidden meaning in my work that reflects hope and love,’ he says.

A flock of black birds soars through the sky above me. They resemble a shoal of airborne piranhas, each with a large human eye – consistent symbols used throughout Louis’ work. ‘Eyes have been fascinating me ever since I can remember,’ he explains.

Three of the birds trail off and circle around a withered old man caught like a laboratory specimen in a pitcher half-filled with water. This is New-Old Man, representing a baptism that Louis once witnessed. ‘I often use birds to depict angels, the Holy Spirit, or members of the church. In this case they suggest the Trinity.’

Image: Louis Minnaar

Image: Louis Minnaar

The black birds and New-Old Man are spraypaint and ink drawings on wood, digitally edited with other elements added in Photoshop and Illustrator. Louis’ technique can best be described as a layercake: a base of ink, pencil or tablet drawings with consecutive layers of digital detail applied in Photoshop, Corel Painter, Illustrator, Freehand or Maya (for 3D work).

‘I always start out by writing down a range of possible directions, using keywords and doodles. From there, I eliminate most of the clutter to reach a basic concept. I then start drawing, developing and finally illustrating.’ His technique has been fine-tuned by his art-steeped education (Pro Arte Alphen park and currently, Open Window Arts Academy) along with hours of relentless drawing.

Louis’ satirical world is tempered with whimsy. I discover this upon encountering his tall Horse-creature marooned on a green hill beneath an orange, wood-grained sky. This creature is eccentric – part-bird, part-horse with visible joints like a hand-crafted wooden toy.

I treasure individuality and everything it entails, so I often just depict characters that are, or might have been,

says Louis.

I bend down and notice a germinating seed. It is One Small Secular Seed, a story about choosing the wrong path, investing in the material rather than the spiritual world. This is Louis at his most didactic. The seed’s dark and twisted form represents death. He explains, “The guy in the seed is chasing his own tail. He is searching for truth in the world and does not find it because ultimately, without God, he is alone.

A current of darkness runs through much of the work emerging from young South African graphic artists, with Louis Minnaar being no exception. Yet, as he has demonstrated in his expertly executed creations, there is hidden light in his dark art.

IMAGE: LOUIS MINNAAR

Image: Louis Minnaar

Image: Louis Minnaar

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Miné has been drawing for as long as she can remember. ‘In standard one, I gave a speech saying that I would be a book illustrator when I grew up,’ she tells. ‘I never made the decision to go into art, it was just something I was always going to do.’ After matriculating at Pro Arte in Pretoria, a severe case of wanderlust took her to Europe, Asia and India. This was to prove a kind of cultural injection to inspire greatness. After three years, Miné settled in Cape Town. She began modelling, acting and making clothes to support herself. In her spare time, she would dredge Cape Town for opportunities to illustrate.

‘I never made the decision to go into art, it was just something I was always going to do’

‘It was difficult to break into the industry,’ remembers Miné. ‘I was spreading myself too thin and not developing in the field I was most passionate about – illustration – so I began phasing out the other things one by one.’ While surfing the Internet, Miné stumbled across a small group of Stellenbosch-produced illustrators working in Cape Town. Armed with her portfolio and a bag of biscuits, Miné went to meet the Am I Collective.

‘I bribed them with cookies! One of the guys told me much later that when he first met me, he had thought I was just a pretty face who probably drew things like pretty fish – until he opened my portfolio. The irony is that the first image I sent them was of a fish leaping out of the water.’ On the one hand, Miné’s work is distinctively Art Nouveau, with its incorporation of romanticism and organic, decorative line work. Her femininity injects a sensuality into her works that is inspired by the willowy, erotic drawings of Audrey Kawasaki. On the other hand, however, this current of femininity is countered by caustic humour, tomboy sensibility, a fascination with undercurrents of society and, yes, paint peeling off walls. ‘It reminds me of antiquity,’ she explains, ‘and what has come before.’

This palimpsest is reflected in the pages of her scrap-book diaries that were exhibited at both the Verstikland Exhibition at the Rust-en-Vrede art gallery with Am I Collective, as well as The R100 Show at The Bin gallery. Each page is a collation of various keepsake elements from her travels, resonating with emotion and a sense of place and identity. Ranging from a self-portrait love letter from Hong Kong, to a page of her father’s passport photographs spanning 40 years, these are highly personal and revealing.

Then there’s ‘Cream’. It’s a Freehand and Photoshop illustration of a transvestite done in collaboration with Kronk – provocative bordering on the lewd.

I’m fascinated by transvestites. I think it is their ugly prettiness which draws me in.

I’m also weirdly drawn to deformities and diseases. This is not really out of character – it is simply an element of my skurwe sense of humour.’ Pretty fish indeed.

www.flickr.com/photos/minejonker

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