Annemie Odendaal - Why don’t pigs Fly: Whimsical

Bio: Annemie Odendaal

Annemie Odendaal is a female South African artist residing in Pretoria. She obtained her BA Information Design degree at the University of Pretoria in 1991. After working a few years in graphic design, she took a break to do extensive travelling and explore other business opportunities. After 25 years in construction, she finally made the leap of faith to return back to art in 2019, exploring art through a variety of fine art mediums.

This multi-disciplinary artist has since won us over with her beautifully executed linocuts, but also loves doing sculpting, printmaking, painting, sketching (charcoal & ink), photography, embroidery, as well as surface pattern design.

In 2020 she was chosen by SANAVA for a three-month art residency in Paris at the Cité des Art, which consequently had a huge influence on her art production. She has since exhibited at Cafe des Arts, CoArt, Trent Gallery, Elfriede Dreyer Gallery (EDG), Association of Arts Pretoria, and various other local galleries.

“Why don’t Pigs fly”

The series consists of different piglets, each one christened with a different personality trait of mine. The clumsiness and weight of the pigs are juxtaposed with the lightness of the wings or balloons, signifying the daily struggle I face to adapt my lifestyle dramatically with my chronic illness. I made this series to work through the trauma and grief processes that it brings about, to make sense of it all and to get to a point of acceptance. Every pig is finding a different way to make it possible for them to fly.

I am obsessed with bronze sculptures. To think that you can forge a piece of the earth into a thing of beauty that will last for generations.

These sculptures are cast in bronze with a green patina.