“whisper” poem robert koch, visuals leli hoch, audio leli hoch, ellen schindler, sound matlali matabane, edit leli hoch
Karbacher Rangen, Steigerwald, Germany, August 2023
“Burned Self” collaboration of Leli Hoch, concept, performance; Kali van der Merwe, video; Nikki Miles, body art; Robert Koch, poem, audio, edit
Bodhi Khaya, South Africa, November 2022

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.” (Herman Hesse)
Bodhi Khaya, South Africa, October 2022

In December 2021 I wrote Robert Koch’s poem on a fresh banana leaf and photographed it regularly for 6 months.

“Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand.” Rebecca Solnit

We laid out this poem on a dry pan on Stonehenge Private Reserve with black stones found on this dry pan. Length 25m. Collaboration with Nikki Miles and Robert Koch (poem)
Stonehenge, Tankwa Karoo, South Africa 2021
“Tamar in the Tankwa – 2 Sam 13:22 OT Tamar, daughter of King David is raped and left desolate. She throws ashes upon her head, voicing her devastation and grief”
Tankwa Artscape Residency 2021

“SpaceTime”
When we sleep,
we travel to new universes.
And on some days,
when we awake,
we can’t find our way back
to the one
we started out from.

(r.e)

Tankwa Artscape Residency 2021

“A Broken String”
Because of a broken string
because of a people breaking the string
the earth my place is the place of
something, a thing broken,
that does not stop sounding breaking with me

Poem by Stephen Watson based on
Dia!kwain’s /xam story, Lloyd Bleek Collection

Tankwa Artscape Residency 2020

I set out to find
myself
and arrived at a place of
nothing
(entangeld with everything)
where there should be
something
I found nothing

(r.e)

Tankwa Artscape Residency 2021

Creating four different pigments from Tankwa riverbed in a makeshift kiln
AfrikaBurn 2019

“Unity in Diversity”
Tytsjerk Artist Residency
Leeuwarden, NL, 2018
“embrace” video & edit Leli Hoch, Oshoek, Vermaaklikheid, 2022

embrace
this journey
hold on
to nothing
knowing
there
is
no
permanence
just
the path
ahead
spread your arms out wide
feel the sunlight
on your face
breathe in
all that it
means
to be
here
now
alive
(r.e)