About the artist
Kali van der Merwe has had a rich and diverse creative career. She is an artist, award-winning filmmaker, photographer, sound designer and skills trainer. She graduated with an honours degree in Fine Arts, majoring in sculpture, at the School of Michaelis, University of Cape Town. Exhibiting at galleries nationally and internationally, Kali has worked in the mediums of ceramics, printmaking and sculpture, Her early work has been collected by the Iziko South African National Gallery and exhibited at MOMA in Oxford England.
While living in Berlin in the nineties, Kali began experimenting in the mediums of film and photography. Returning to South Africa, she continued with filmmaking, creating documentaries on gender and social issues. She also co-founded and co-directs the non-profit organization, Other-Wise media. Other-Wise produces innovative media on under-explored topics while training participants in the making process. Kali’s films have screened around the world to critical acclaim, winning multiple awards both locally and internationally, including Best South African and Best African documentaries.
Two and a half years ago, out of a deep need to return to more personal creativity, Kali began putting herself in front of her own cameras. In this photographic practice she works with long exposures and light to explore archetypal and mythological states of being from a contemporary perspective.
Having spent the last year mostly isolated in the wilderness, her work has deepened in self-exploration and expanded into the realms of fynbos and indigenous forests.
K a l i - t h e - G o d d e s s
Devi-Mahatmya (Great Goddess)
The name Kali was first known by in 4 AD
By you this universe is born, by you this world is created
By you it is protected, O Devi. By you it is consumed at the end
You who are eternally the form of the whole world,
at the time of creation you are the form of the creative force,
at the time of preservation you are the form of the protective power,
and at the time of the dissolution of the world
you are the form of the destructive power.
You are the Supreme Knowledge, as well as ignorance,
intellect and contemplation
Kali is usually represented naked – stripped of all illusion – she is nature (prakriti). She gives birth to the cosmos – she has the male principle within her. Her hair is the fabric of space time which organises the matter out of chaos. Her garland of 50 human heads represent the 50 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet – this symbolises knowledge and wisdom. She wears a girdle of human hands signifying karma - hands being the instruments of work – accumulation of deeds. Her red lolling tongue represents the rajas – the activating quality in nature. She has 4 hands. In her left hand she holds a severed head – indicating the annihilation of ego bound evil forces. In her other hand she carries a bloody sickle sword which cuts off heads. She is limitless primordial power awakening unmanifest Shiva beneath her feet.
She is the archetypal image of birth and death, giver of life and destroyer. The vital principles of the visible universe which has many faces – gracious cruel – creative – destructive, loving – indifferent – the endless possibility of the active energy at the heart of the world. She can be benevolent and frightening.
She can be worshipped in the form of a naked female, the further away from the accepted norms of beauty the better. But the worshipper must feel the same awe and fear as when worshipping the terrible mother goddess.
