Experience the elemental beauty of water at Hanien Conradie's exhibition

Fine artist Hanien Conradie invites art lovers to immerse themselves in the elemental beauty of water at her upcoming exhibition, Water-Verse: Traces of the Traceless, at Spier Wine Farm in Stellenbosch.

Running from Friday, October 31, to Saturday, February 22, the exhibition showcases a decade of Ms Conradie’s exploration of rivers, droughts, and floods. Through paintings, performance rituals, and prayers, she examines how water shapes both landscapes and inner worlds.

“This body of work is a tribute to the spirit of water — its fluidity, its power, its memory, and its uncanny ability as a medium to express human consciousness,” she said.

Using natural pigments such as clay, soot, ash, and ochre, Ms Conradie allows water to animate the matter itself. “What we might call ‘paint’ is really a collaboration. Water gives form to my emotions, moods, and thoughts — then disappears as it evaporates, leaving the pigment behind,” she explained. 

What may appear to be tranquil water lily ponds at Spier are, in fact, part of a living water recycling system, she said, where the farm’s wastewater is cleaned and returned to the land. This approach to water mirrors Ms Conradie’s practice: attentive, regenerative, and rooted in respect.

During the first month of the exhibition, she will create a site-specific painting in the gallery space using local ochres and water from Spier’s ponds. Visitors will be able to observe her process, gaining insight into both her practice and the work of water stewardship.

Whether through Ms Conradie’s clay paintings, her ritual performances, or her meditative inks, the exhibition asks the audience to recognise water as a spirit, teacher, and mirror of their own consciousness.

The exhibition will open daily from 9am until 5pm at the Spier Wine Farm, R301 Baden Powell Drive, Stellenbosch.