Sculptor of Stories | Beacon of Hope | Fearless Visionary
Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe is a South African sculptor of stories. Her upbringing on a horse farm, amongst a multi-cultural and multi-lingual community, has significantly impacted her understanding of the complexity of people and the human form. This forms the basis of her work. Marieke’s sculpted bodies come alive as they make the layered experience of everyday life more meaningful; honouring the past, preserving the present and creating hope for the future. Her fascination with the human body, as a carrier of stories and dreams, led her to a focus on public art, mostly cast in cement. Her work is represented in private collections and galleries both nationally and abroad and very noticeably in several public sites.
Capetonians will be well familiar with her series, ‘Walking the Road’, displayed on the Sea Point Promenade during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Eighteen sculptures of a young Swimmer Girl who yearns to fly like a Dragonfly; representing our young South African democracy in its quest for liberation - to fly in the pursuit of equality. And more recently, Marieke created the African ‘Fearless Girl’ who stands proudly as a courageous celebration of feminine leadership and instills confidence in our young women. What a perfect ode on Women’s Day to the everyday woman who faithfully supports her loved ones and walks the journey with them!
Marieke’s list of awards, esteemed exhibits and remarkable charity auctions are much more than impressive. They are a symbol of the life transforming work being done to shape and enrich the lives of children in our communities.
“The sculpture of your story is a once-off original and it still in the making! Tread softly, speak kindly. This is not yet the end ... it will all be made beautiful.” Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe
@marieke_prinsloo_rowe on Instagram
@marieke_prinsloo_rowe on Facebook
MARIEKE speaks to Strongest Story on holding tightly to hope and keeping the dream alive. Her story of overcoming will gently remould your perspective on pain.
“When it falls, I am underneath it.
A huge felled tree slips as we are trying to carry it and it falls.
On my head, then on my left shoulder and then my chest.
I can’t feel my feet.
It hurts to breathe.
They make an emergency call.
Paramedics come - IV line set up.
A stretcher, the ambulance.
I am 23 and it is the last day of a three month art course in Germany.
I have just completed my Fine Art Degree majoring in sculpture.
This is meant to be the beginning of my life!
It hurts to travel and I still can’t move my legs.
Emergency Room. They take X-rays. I wait.
They put the pictures up on the light box against the wall.
My spine has been broken, snapped to the left. The first lumbar vertebrae is crushed and splintered.
I understand some of the German as the Doctors speak, ‘How is it possible that none of those splinters have punctured her spinal cord?’
Looks are exchanged. It is a 7 hour operation.
Titanium rods, bolts and long screws fuse the T12, L1 and L2 vertebrae together. A little cage is built like scaffolding around the shattered remains of L1, gathering the splinters together again.
I wake up to a halo of faces around my bed. The Doctors look exhausted, but they are smiling.
‘It was successful,’ they say. ‘You will walk,’ they say.
I stumble over my words in broken translation:
‘So, I can sculpt again?’ I cry. ‘I can work!’
Instantaneously, all the smiles are gone. Grave concern, even fear:
‘No. You may not sculpt again.
No. It is too heavy, too hard, too unpredictable.
No. It is not worth the risk.
You must choose to do something else.’
‘Why would I want to walk, then?’
It is 20 years ago now, almost to the day. Yes, I had to learn how to walk again, slowly and painfully. Over many months.Yes, I had to learn to move carefully and consciously. I still have to do so now.Yes, I had to start again.
But I get to have another chance!
And my fingers have formed the skins of a hundred sculptures; from the miniature to those bigger than buildings. And they all tell of the grace that I was shown then and am still being shown now.
To sculp, in wordless song, that Hope holds the end of the story.
And that Hope never fails.”
A message from Strongest Story:
“Life Matters.” This was the Charity Auction where I first met Marieke. The experience is unmistakably etched into my memory. Seated next to her at the dinner table, I was instantaneously mesmerized by her ethereal and enigmatic personality. She, who brought the room to life, was not interested in fame – her heart is too big for that. She breathes life into the belief that giving is better than receiving (her unsolicited generosity to countless charities is testimony to this.) That evening , her life-sized Guardian Angel was auctioned to stand guard over the children in a paediatric hospital – symbolic for a woman who is passionate about protecting the innocence of children. I am unspeakably grateful that I got to witness her life that evening and have gone on to spend many more moments with her. Sometimes she’ll be wearing exquisite gowns at exhibitions and at other times she’s wearing humble overalls in her studio. The scenery may change but her kind character remains the same, relevant, honest and unwavering to the truth; that lives matter. You would be hard pressed to find a lovelier human being. She is an earthly angel. Marieke, Strongest Story holds you in our highest respect!