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Surinamese Maroons are the descendants of formerly enslaved Africans who escaped the Dutch plantations in the Guianas and went on to establish well-organised societies inland. Suriname, unofficially known as "Dutch Guiana", gained independence in 1976, and there are six major groups of Surinamese Maroons who settled along the river banks. Having nurtured strong ties to their cultural heritage, the traditional Surinamese Maroon religion is Winti – a syncretisation of different African religious beliefs.
Suriname is the birthplace of Jungerman, who is now based between Amsterdam and New York. For the past 30 years of his practice, he's woven the history of his people into his work, placing fragments of Maroon textiles and other materials found in the African diaspora in direct contact with materials and imagery drawn from more "established" art traditions. The artist uses kaolin clay and griddled textiles employed for ritual use in the Afro-Surinamese Winti religion, harnessing their symbolic presence. Winti people use clay for bodily purification and wear colours correlating with the four key elements of water, earth, air, and forest.
Though abstract in appearance, Jungerman's works mirror the way fabric falls on the body when worn. "Even though it is a gridded textile, the lines are not straight because once you put it on the body, it follows the shape of the wearer. This is something I wanted to connect in these works, that the body is very important; the movement of my hands, rubbing the clay on the surface, the carving of the lines, the dripping of the clay. The final layout of the lines creates a rhythm on the surface of the work," he says.
Still Waters opens on Sat, May 4 from 10:30 at Goodman Gallery in Rosebank, with a walkabout led by Jungerman from 11:00.
