A PATCH TO PROCESS THE RIVER’S BOUNDS, 2024

Gina van der Ploeg

Woven Port Jackson and Black Wattle with Indigenous Seedlings

Made in deep partnership with landscape architect Katy Rennie, Stellenbosch University Botanical Gardens (Instagram), Stellenbosch University’s Environmental Services, and Stellenbosch University’s Center for Invasion Biology.

Special thanks to Annerie Senekal from Subot and Taariq Fakier from Stellenbosch University’s Environmental Services Department without whom this project would not have been possible.

The Eerste River, which starts in the Jonkershoek Valley, threads through Stellenbosch like an artery, connecting these vineyards with the Cape Flats and, eventually, False Bay. A Patch to Process the River’s Bounds brings into focus the flora of the region and the complex history of Stellenbosch as an epoch for the practice of colonization through agriculture which both alienated indigenous peoples and has created a vibrant economy today. By using an interweaving of plant species, both invasive (dead, and dried) and indigenous (growing and fertile), I further reference the juxtaposition of this great river running through some of the western cape’s richest and poorest areas, which remain as wretched results of colonization and slavery and, more recently, Apartheid land segregations and forced removals.

Along with Taariq Fakier from Stellenbosch University’s Environmental Services Department, we harvested invasive port jackson (acacia saligna), black wattle (acacia mearnsii), eucalyptus (several species), and manatoka (myporium species) from Coetzenberg mountain. Using a “weaver bird” technique, I wove a trellis and shade structure out of these non-indigenous branches.

Then, with Katy Rennie as well as Annerie Senekal and Ester Wasserfall from Subot, we collected indigenous plants from along the Eerste River (plants specific to this area in Stellenbosch), in particular, unironically, from the Koloniesland Trail. We focused on collecting plants that were found in pathways or had already been trampled and transplanted 18 indigenous species (see list below) from the road all the way down to the river, significantly increasing the biodiversity at my site. We planted many bulbs, as well as asparagus, sedges, river plants, and one sapling. These can use the woven structure as a base/foundation/support/shelter to grow and populate the site. We did not clear the site of weeds or non-endemic species, preferring to see how the indigenous plants grow alongside these existing plants.

This site-specific work will change, grow, die, compost, re-germinate in the iterative act of seasonal processing. I am drawn in by how it can engage change, reflect the seasons and the greater climate patterns, and respond so directly to its immediate environment. In this way, the woven “invasive” mat may become lost over many years in an indigenous patch of green and yellow.

List of transplanted indigenous plants:

  • Sparaxis bulbifera

  • Geissorhiza aspera

  • Oxalis purpurea

  • Oxalis pes-caprae

  • Eragrostis curvula

  • Psoralea sp.

  • Moraea flaccida

  • Asparagus declinatus

  • Cissampelos capensis

  • Juncus lomatophyllus

  • Juncus capensis (I think)

  • Cliffortia odorata

  • Zantedeschia aethiopica

  • Isolepsis prolifera

  • Juncus sp.

  • Halleria elliptica

  • Brabejum stellatifolium

  • Setaria megaphylla