The Ridge School is a leading independent school for boys in Johannesburg.  Straddling the peak of the rocky Westcliff ridge, it covers some 16 acres, with views over Parktown and the surrounding suburbs. It was established in 1919, and for the 100 year Centenary celebration, Marco Cianfanelli was commissioned to create a sculptural work that expresses some of the values the school holds dear.

The resulting sculpture is an expression of the notions of connectedness, growth, and the tensions between individualism and solidarity. Representing the figure of a singular boy from the focal view, it transforms into a tree-like sculpture of many branches when viewed from the side. Each individual leaf carries the name of a student, teacher, or staff member at the school in 2019.

Constructed of rusted mild steel, it sits on a newly constructed plinth that helps to form a small pedestrian-friendly urban plaza.

Completed: 2019

Location: Westcliff, Johannesburg, South Africa

© Marco Cianfanelli

South Africa has a complicated history which seems to move imperceptibly slowly before suddenly taking an unexpected jump. These historical leaps are often directly caused by the words of a single, powerful individual. The idea that the act of speech, of simply vibrating air with the larynx, can alter the lives of millions of people has become increasingly troubling to me.

This series of plates captures a few of those vibrations in a way that represents the potential repercussions they can have – by setting them, permanently, in concrete. Through experimentation with cement, foam, water, dye, salt, and fibers, a method was discovered which allowed speech to be recorded in an unconventional way. Dyes and other solid particles are placed in a thin formwork over a speaker, and recorded speech is played at maximum volume through the system. The unique vibrations caused by each voice, recording method, and even breathing pattern disperses and vibrates the particles in a unique way, creating a singular imprint of each voice and event. A mix of cement, super-plasticizer and water is carefully added, absorbing and encasing the solids.

Finally, all soluble and soft elements are washed out to reveal the hardened concrete record. The speeches recorded include Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial, the announcement of an independent South Africa by Harold Macmillan, and F.W. de Klerk’s unbanning of the ANC and release of political prisoners, including Mandela himself. Speeches were chosen as watershed moments in and of themsevles or as representing the voice of a person who may still have outsized power over the fate of others in this country.

While the recorded speeches are still available to us all as sound or video clips, we also see their traces in every bit of the physical world surrounding us. At a point in history where we may be tempted to believe that technology and democracy have given all a voice, this work reminds us that some voices still reach further, change more deeply, and reverberate longer than all others.

Completed: 2019

“So much of Sebastian Coe’s and indeed many other celebrated middle-distance athlete’s progress was fuelled by rivalry and a sense of competition. Perhaps it is innate, intrinsic to our genetic code, that competition motivates us to reach new heights. Central to this is the instinct for survival, to work and struggle within the group but to strategically separate oneself from the pack and push forward at the critical moment. Sebastian Coe was known to have impressive running form, and he structured his movements decisively, allowing him to surge ahead of the pack in the last moments of the race.

Mapping the movement and form of the runner reveals interesting topographies of motion that speak of dynamism, strategy, time and distance. These figures represent the competitive dynamic of the middle distance running group, moreover, they are also a representation of the race itself, as a continuous narrative, depicting the shifting tempo of start, middle and end. Flowing, subtly fluctuating angles of the tubes echo the rhythm and tempo of the mapped strides. The sway of each torso made manifest in these shifting elements, lends dynamism to the compression and expansion of the narrative arrangement- one gets a sense of the bolting start, the jostling competition and finally the break away.”

Completed: 2017

Location: Nike World Headquarters, Beaverton, Oregon, USA

© Marco Cianfanelli

In 2017 the Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust (a non-profit pro-public art organisation) ran a competition for a series of creative new bike racks with a sculptural twist. Two of my designs were among the winners.

‘Leaf’ was based on the curled and drying oak leaves that fill the cobbled streets of this picturesque student town, eventually ending up in the ‘leiwater slote’ that still line many streets.

‘Mountain’ took the iconic forms of the mountains surrounding Stellenbosch and abstracted them into bent and perforated steel sheets which line up to form a view reminiscent of the ridgeline from the vineyards.

Completed: 2018

Location: Stellenbosch, Western Cape

© Nico van Loggerenberg

“The title of the sculpture suggests infinite possibility; brilliance, emergent growth and the complex strategic play inherent in the game of football. Informed by the youth development work of Atlanta United FC, Myriad Formation expresses development, maturation and evolution in the extension of incrementally transforming figures through space. Arching along the site, is an array of 26 angled steel plates, each with perforations of singular or multiple silhouettes of soccer players, ranging in age and skill level.

Each figure represents a stage in the evolution of the individual player as well as the team,
from youthful novice to mature professional. From specific vantage points, the discreet clarity of the images become apparent, framed by their surrounding steel construction. From other angles the dynamic sculptural quality of the steel construction is evident in the orchestration of diverse elements to form a united whole, Myriad Formation speaks to the incubation of skilled youth and a commitment to their evolution. The arrangement of the panels in plan is suggestive of the swooping strike of the football. The polished steel creates complex compounded reflections of the sculpture, as well as the immediate  surroundings, contextualizing the Training Facility as the source of development and growth, evolution and progress as well as community, camaraderie and team work.”

Completed: 2017

Location: Atlanta United Football Club, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

© Marco Cianfanelli

“Synapse II is an exploration of two suggestively organic forms meeting and merging, exchanging information, and departing again. The spiralling form is reminiscent of the chromosome, the seat of DNA or the essential genetic information of all living beings. Biologically, the synapse acts a terminal between nerve cells, a conduit for information, in response to an impulse, an extremely small gap across which information travels. In this context, the synapse acts as a gateway, a conduit that transports one into the space of the Alice Lane plaza. In dialogue with the accented, geometric architectural forms, the presence of this neural entity emphasizes the magnitude of the fissure between the two wings of the building. However, while the physical expanse is accentuated, it is also metaphorically bridged by the conciliatory activity of Synapse II.

The tapering and twisting forms of the structure give it a transient nature, as its complexity shifts with the fluctuation in the amount of visual and experiential information available from different viewpoints. The delicate attenuation of each “limb” gives way to the spiralling lines and widened forms of the sculpture’s midsection imbuing it with multiple, various dimensions. When viewed from above the form is compressed and it’s linear quality is only betrayed by the descriptive shadows that it casts.”

Completed: 2017

Location: Alice Lane, Sandton, Johannesburg

© Marco Cianfanelli