House and Leisure – August 2019

JONI BRENNER
‘Karel’s home is a potent site of co-existence:
plants, trees, leaves, animals, objects, artworks
and the narratives of all their makers and
custodians through time are comprehensively
enmeshed in the thoughtful life of Karel Nel.
‘Identified by specific trajectories, storylines
and the pathways along which they’ve travelled,
each object encapsulates a set of relations
that weave Karel and his vision into a broad
community of past and present artists,
designers, dealers, collectors, historians,
writers, palaeo-scientists and astronomers.
‘The giant Senufo guardian bird sculpture
was bequeathed from the personal collection
of the African art dealer Vittorio Meneghelli,
and other impressive works of art joined this
home when Esmé Berman, Phillip Tobias and
Egon Guenther died. These objects and their
creators continue and are again enlivened here
through the mind and vision of Karel Nel.
‘So, in different ways, each object represents
lines of life and loss, change and continuity.’ O