Young artists from St John’s College explored the emotional and physical burdens people carry during a visual arts exhibition on October 13.

The Upper V and college artists looked at what they held on to and what happens when they put it down on paper, canvas and film at the Rene England Auditorium.

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Art teacher Estelle Potgieter opened the ceremony with a poem and commended the pupils on their art.

Luke Summerton, whose work is titled What happens below the deck, explained that his work addresses the invisible weights of anxiety, sensory overload, and growing up queer in rigid environments.

“Once carried silently for self-preservation, these struggles transform into an uninhibited public declaration of pride and self-acceptance. The artwork reclaims the hyper-masculine sailor archetype, historically a homosocial space where queer identity remained hidden below deck.”

Drawing on Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen, the garment subverts rigid naval dress into gender-fluid couture. Summerton added that the garment includes heritage vintage South African naval buttons from his paternal line to ground the piece in family history.

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Matthew van Kerckhoven, whose work is titled Echoes, explores the experiences, emotions and memories that people carry throughout their lives.

“In response to the theme: The things we carry, I created an immersive installation in the form of an enlarged travel suitcase.

The suitcase functions as a metaphor for the accumulation of experiences, with its worn-out exterior and hand-painted travel stickers representing the visible history we carry, while the interior reveals the more personal and vulnerable sides of ourselves that are often hidden from the outside.”

The viewer is invited to physically enter the suitcase, initially surrounded by darkness and the sound of a heartbeat. As the curtain rises, a silhouette containing a handmade ribcage and heart is revealed within it.

“The heart represents all my struggles and triumphs with my heart defect. It is something deeply personal that I have carried throughout my life, while the ribs suggest a sense of protection and vulnerability,” said Van Kerckhoven.

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