Spier Light Art returns for its eighth edition, transforming the historic wine farm into a nocturnal landscape of contemporary art from Friday 6 March to Monday 6 April
As night falls, works glow, shimmer and shift across the grounds, inviting visitors to experience light as both medium and meaning. For this year’s edition, curators Vaughn Sadie and Jay Pather have selected works from 21 South African artists that probe environmental crises, social memory and post-apartheid realities, alongside more abstract explorations of perception, technology and the cosmos.
Unlike a conventional exhibition, visitors navigate the farm at night, encountering artworks along winding paths.
Sadie says there is no fixed route or prescribed experience. “The exhibition invites audiences to immerse themselves in the sensual and ephemeral interplay of light and sound, allowing curiosity and intrigue to guide their journey,” he explains.
“At its core, light art is more than illumination: it is a lens through which we perceive, reflect and question the world.”
The artists, selected from an open call, were invited to explore light in all its conceptual, socio-political and cultural dimensions.
“It’s often a very intuitive decision to cluster a group of works together in the landscapes… This year, there are the direct and immediate neon text pieces that celebrate the South African vernacular, while other works illuminate unexpected intersections between technology, infrastructure and the natural environment.”
Pather adds: “Shared thematics emerge each year from the artworks shortlisted from the open call. This year, it’s very much a collective kind of exhibition. There’s a shared interest in memory and ways of accessing the past.”
This year the exhibition will continue its international exchange programme, welcoming Swiss artists Florian Bach and Kerim Seiler.
The exhibition runs daily at dusk. Bookings for entry and sunset picnics can be booked on Dineplan.
For more information, visit www.spier.co.za.
