Stellenbosch

STELLENBOSCH - well yeah, we remember it as a 'rugger bugger' - i.e. rugby obsessed, right wing, Tassies imbibing, red neck town - home of Afrikaanerdom, heart of Apartheid etc - but how it has changed!


"I am loving Stellenbosch town at the moment – there is art scattered everywhere.  What a brilliant concept!! With the white canvas – ie the gorgeous white houses all over Stellenbosch – as its backdrop the sculptures just “pop” out as you walk around.  It has lent a real creative atmosphere to the town... What a great platform to show off art to the public! "
Above a quote from blogger http://capefusiontours.com/2012/01/25/art-in-the-streets-of-stellenbosch-20 
The Chance Muse couldn't have said it better...

Stellenbosch is known as 'City of Oaks' or 'Eikestad' because of its oak tree lined streets. Founded in 1679, second oldest town in South Africa and named after the first Governor Simon van der Stel, it is situated on the banks of the Eerste River - 'First River' - and has some fine examples of Cape Dutch architecture

Dead sexy designer hotels

Like the Coopman Huis

Cool young people like my nephew Robin B

Who is studying photography at the Stellenbosch Academy  http://www.stellenboschacademy.co.za/

A state of the art institution set in vineyards and filled with amaaazing Apples

      The Academy hosts courses in photography, graphic design  and illustration.                         "Our vision is to set a new benchmark for visual communication in higher education. We are dedicated to growing a new generation of highly motivated, thoughtful and technologically adept designers, photographers and illustrators who are consistently able to produce intelligent, exciting and relevant visual communication." so says the blurb and the student's work bears this out

The town has numerous galleries - here we are with our London friends Sue & Keith at the Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary (SMAC) Art Gallery - one of largest commercial exhibition spaces in the Western Cape.

The SMAC Art Gallery "is primarily concerned with the significance of historical and contemporary art movements in South Africa such as the modernist abstract era, the protest era and the neglected contribution of African artists in the post-war period" We viewed a retrospective exhibition of Nel Erasmus whose work spans 5 decades

Described as post-cubist or stylistic abstraction, her paintings are characterized by simplification of forms and a concern for abstract relationships.  Not really my cup of tea...

But last years wonderful exhibition Fugitive Lines, by Sue Pam-Grant was definitely high on my favourite list

 Originally an actor, writer and director, Pam-Grant’s work shifts between performance, video, installation, assemblage, collage, painting, print-making, drawing and sculpture

 "Fugitive Lines is the culmination of a process. The artist momentarily fuses and assembles threads, fragments and faded memories for the viewer in a body of parallel, seemingly incon­gruent works that are challenging, disquietingly familiar and ultimately - strangely comforting"

 Here we are with my sister Sandy & Robin in the light-filled upper gallery

Pam-Grant uses traces of drawings that come from old family photographs to consider facets of family life, in particular the relationship between mother and daughter.
"Memories are like fleeting lines moving forwards and backwards," she says. "My memories of my mother are like that. Sometimes you catch them, sometimes you don't."
I think Sandy agrees

"My family and environment reflect and echo a larger picture that people can access and relate to. My work always has a personal voice, my experience of loss and my attempt to find strength and power in fragility."

Pam-Grant's work focuses on women - family as well as iconic African women       

And draws on her concerns about fragility and resilience, traces and loss, and memory - hinting at illness and mortality

"We are all child, adolescent, woman and mother all the time. I try to reach into these places vividly and, in stripping myself bare, to allow people to engage with my narrative and consequently to explore their own." This strikes a familiar cord with the CM

As we left the gallery this huge canvas of a headless babbalas - hungover - Bacchus reminded us of Stellenbosch's reputation for great wines and of how thirsty we were

Stellenbosch is home to one of the country's oldest established universities with over 25000 students and there's a bustling night life during the university term-time, with loads of clubs and pubs with funny names like 'The Mystic Boer' - catering for these cool young people

And there is loads of street art - some of it quite sittable - if as a student you have nothing better to do

 Others invite a quick stroke. As Cape Fusion says: "I love that all of the art is tangible – yes literally so – I have stroked the suitcase display – I have felt the rubber bull as I walked past.  With all of these displays there has been a lot of creative stores opening in the town.  So – if you have not walked Stellenbosch for a while – do yourself a favour and go and walk Dorp Street, Kerk Street and then walk around the Braak………..and then report back!"
And so I am

I loved the fab fantasy washing line display in the centre of town

With colour-co ordinated pastels and brights - like a high wire Omo ad - against a blue sky

More colour co-ordination - the old flag and the new - there's no getting away from history

And Stellenbosch has as mentioned some amazing historical architecture.  When Governor Simon van der Stel first visited the area in November 1679 he was much taken by its beauty. The name Stellenbosch - 'Van der Stel's bush' - was given to the site of the governor's camp, and by the following year the first settlers had arrived from Cape Town

Oak trees were planted and houses built of locally available material, with thick walls, doors and windows made of local woods such as yellow-wood and stinkwood, and roofing of black thatch. The houses were finished with white-lime wash and many of them remain as national monuments

Fine multi-paned windows with decorative motifs graced the buildings of burghers and law makers and I can't help imagining bobbing maids' mop-caps and grey-headed elders looking sternly or surreptitiously from these casements

 

Creeper-clad eco sculptures celebrating the World Cup, now grace the gardens of the old Town House

And the wall relief which honoured the Huguenots of old - their persecution, exile, struggle and subsequent freedom - can now be seen in the context of SA's new and hard won freedoms

An irony not lost perhaps on these young people freely wandering the streets today

This young girl entering the library would never have been permitted inside in the days of   'Separate Development'

This is a man called Derek -  don't know how much the new freedoms mean to him...

 

Perched on his plinth among the the art, he hangs out hopefully under the oaks of old

While an Anthony Gormley-look-alike straw man stares thoughtfully into the future

Some more history - Stellenbosch was established not simply as a centre of agriculture. It became a romantic frontier town. The mountain ranges overlooking Stellenbosch from the north marked the limits of the little-known world of southern Africa, and beyond lay a great expanse of unexplored land

To control the hunters and pioneers intent on penetrating the interior, a magistracy was established in 1685, and for the next century this post wielded authority over the interior. In Stellenbosch there was law, order and the tax collector, north of the town was nothing but wilderness

The recently created Village Museum comprises a number of original houses restored and furnished in the styles of several histroical periods. This one presided over by a serious woman in a mop-cap who wouldn't let us in without paying but permitted one photograph

No. 18 Ryneveld Street serves as the entrance to this collection of restored buildings. This peculiar wall-papered hall with its display of hunters' trophies is perhaps a paen to a best forgotten bygone age

Among these restored houses is the old home of the Reverand Meent Borcherds, La Gratitiude, on the gable of which the original owner modelled the 'all-seeing eye of God' to look down on townsfolk. I wonder what these old burgers and Boer forefathers would think of today's Stellenbosch?

In Dorp Street you can find one of the longest rows of old buildings surviving in southern Africa - most of the buildings date from the 19th century - though some are considerably earlier - all were built in solid Cape Dutch style and all are surrounded by the magnificent mountain scenery of the Jonkershoek valley

The architecturally beautiful central Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk - NGK - built in 1863 - conceals a somewhat heinous past. 

"In the years after 1948 the relationship between the Dutch Reformed Church and indigenous churches was often seriously hampered through the policy of apartheid. Since 1994 the ideal of unification with the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa, the Dutch Reformed Church in Africa and the Reformed Church in Africa has gathered momentum although a lot of work still has to be done. Throughout the last decades of the twentieth century the Dutch Reformed Church paid serious attention to the relationship between church and society. This resulted in the publication Church and Society (1990) and the rejection of apartheid by the DRC in 1998."

This from http://www.ngkerk.org.za/ 

The former Young Christian United Hall - mock Grecian temple - home of many of the core values of the white supremacist past - now spruced up with a fetching pink pediment and a whole new view on society...

Our lovely old hotel D'Ouwe Werf in the centre of town

 Established in 1802, d'Ouwe Werf is South Africa's oldest and one of its most historic hotels

Silky pink King Proteas - the national flower past and present - in the entrance lobby

The courtyard of our hotel

With a tranquil shaded pool

And some rather gorgeous bathing belles - and boy

 
Which just left time for dinner - there is an explosion of small and wonderful places to eat around the town. We tried the The Apprentice just off Kerk Street – test kitchen of a culinary academy – which I enjoyed immensely  -  our visitors were rather less impressed - but that may have been as a result of having a tray-load of glasses tipped over them at our earlier drinks venue...

That aside, there are some delicious ideas for outdoor nosh while you are there: "the Basic Bistro in Kerk Street – very simple – fab little bistro to sit outside and people watch or Java – stop for a coffee in Kerk Street – if you can find a table – they make seriously good coffee at a seriously cheap price – a winning formula for university students – so they are always packed!" - so says my blogging mate

Of course, there's always a Brazilian Blow Dry to pass the time if you're not hungry

 

Eateries wherever you look in every nook - note pic - and cranny

"Cupcake – in Dorp Street – does delicious salads and sandwiches at lunch – their secret is that there is a big courtyard behind them – and it is like a green oasis in summer – I love it – tinkling sounds of water and a slightly funky creative feel – I lurk here often when in Stellenbosch.  It is definitely a favourite." 

All culinary advice from Ms Cape Fusion above so don't blame me...

Lovely poster advertising a 'Wordfees' - whatever that is

The Stellenbosch synagogue - hinting at a past when the Jewish community was much larger than today before departures for Sydney, San Diego and London...

Quaint Edwardian cottages with broekie lace verandahs

Yes, these old birds have certainly seen plenty of changes on these leafy shaded streets

While these relatively younger ladies stroll the sunlit courts and alleys

  

Before heading for nearby Lanzerac - the famous hotel and Winery just down the road

 

In 1692 a tract of land in the Jonkerhoek Valley was granted by Governor van der Stel to Isaac Schrijver and three freed slaves – Manuel and Anthony of Angola and Louis of Bengal. Schrijver, named the farm 'Schoongezicht' and planted vineyards. Nothing is known about what happened to the freed slaves

 In 1914, Schoongezicht was bought by Elizabeth Katherina English - an Afrikaaner woman despite her surname - for 18, 000 pounds. She changed the name of the farm from Schoongezicht to Lanzerac and produced the first wine under the Lanzerac label 

Here we take a little wander through the guest cottages and tinkling water features of this 5 Star establishment, listed amongst the most prestigious luxury hotels in the world

Remembering many happy vists here in the past

And hoping our guests enjoyed it as much as we did

Where we linger unchecked by the residents' pool - you can literally walk in and make yourself at home on a chaise longue

Before strolling back unhurriedly across the lawns

And into the welcome shade of the old house

And out again from deep shadow to brilliant sunlight

For a quick tea on the terrace

And a look at the lovely lounges of this gracious hotel

With its antiques, flowers and paintings where Randlords and Burgers share the walls with Xhosa Chiefs and freed slaves

Frequented by the rich and famous, one of its more illustrious guests was Senator Bobby Kennedy. It is amusing to note that in a 1967 issue of Sarie magazine, consumers were advised that they could eat a full meal at the hotel for R1.25 a head

Today wedding breakfasts are held in primrose painted ante-rooms at considerably more expense

And a pleasant courtyard promises more pleasures to come...