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Rustic Art, Calvinia – a weird world in the Karoo

8/6/2016

18 Comments

 
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
By Roxanne Reid
There’s something in the water of South Africa's Karoo that grows bizarre places and wacky people. Or maybe it's just that wide open spaces lure free spirits whose brains are wired a little differently. Next time you’re in the area, stop at Calvinia’s Rustic Art tucked away from the main drag and you’ll unearth the kind of thing I mean – a weird world in the Karoo.

​The Karoo is bursting with ancient fossils, sheep and dusty little towns. It’s a place of wide blue skies, dirt roads to nowhere and a booming silence. If you slow down and take the time to look beneath the surface, you’ll meet wonderfully eccentric people and discover that strange things happen in the Karoo. There’s not much I love more than to slot wacky places like the Tankwa padstal or Williston Mall into a road trip through the heartland of South Africa.

Rustic Art in Calvinia’s Stigling Street is a similar journey into a fun and funky mind. 
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
​It was a sizzling Sunday afternoon. The street was deserted and quiet, not another soul about. But when we pulled up and got out of the car, the neighbourhood dogs broke into a clamour of territorial ​yapping and bawling to express their disapproval.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
The pavement of Rustic Art was thronged with bits and pieces from rusted trucks, cars and bicycles to a compilation of signs, shoes and succulents. But this was no jumble; it had been orchestrated with sharp eye for quirky fun and to hint at Karoo stories from the old days.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
A rusted Austin and the front half of a faded green Mercedes truck lay comfortably on the pavement, an old Studebaker sign not far away. Corroded bicycles lined up on a flat roof, some with satchels still clipped into the carriers. Enamel basins pockmarked with rust were nailed to the wall not far from rolls of barbed wire oxidised to a chocolate-and-ginger finish. A rusted wheelbarrow was now a sign for Rustic Art, which combines rusted art, a ‘hippy shop’, a bakery and a self-catering guesthouse.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
Conked-out shoes danced a conga-line between the ‘found art’ installation and the hard black tar of the municipal pavement. Most of the shoes were black or nondescript greyish, with the odd gaudy orange or pink one flashing like a Vegas showgirl. 
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
Here a pitchfork stuck to the wall, there a wooden chair with a charred seat. An old black-and-white AA sign pointed the way to the far-flung Karoo towns of Williston, Brandvlei and Sutherland, and part of an old scooter was bellied out on the ground.

​A wide gate made of bits of rusted metal had part of a blue-green truck door slipped in for good measure – an inspired door-within-a-door structure. On either side of the gate, a giant ceramic insulator from a power line spiralled into the sky. 
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
A truck with an oil drum holding a withered plant where its engine should have been, the metal rim of a wheel sprouting succulents, a pot plant hanging from the roof inside half a truck – these were some of the living, breathing characters we met. There were old metal signs for Africa too – a BP farmer service sign, a cherry-red sign peddling Joko tea, an old road sign promising Putsonderwater was just 46 miles away.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
A Shell fuel pump, its solid red faded to pale pink by the Karoo sun, was adorned with sun-dried wildebeest skulls and a sign saying, ‘What the frack Shell, don’t frack the Karoo.’ It was a reminder that Karoo folk don’t take kindly to the idea of a big corporate coming here to pump chemicals into their rocks and ground water, and generally wrecking their ancient and much-loved land.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
The truth needs no explanation, says the sign
Camera clicking frenziedly, my hubby-photographer-person tried to get a wide-angle shot to give a sense of the scale of the thing, backing up against the fence of the house on the opposite side of the road. A dragon-sized dog exploded from nowhere and bellowed at him in indignation. He got such a skrik he nearly dropped the camera.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
​It’s almost too much to take in at once – and that was just what we could see from the road. Being Sunday in the sleepy Karoo, the place was shut up tight and the chance of exploring the garden or inside the ‘Hippy Shop’ or even meeting Dirk and Sonja van Rensburg, the owner-creators of this crazy space, simply wasn’t on the day’s menu.

But what a cracking excuse to come back again on a weekday to visit the other-worldly planet of Rustic Art.
Rustic Art, Calvinia, Karoo
Need to know
1. Find Rustic Art at 39 Stigling Street, Calvinia. If you’re approaching on the main road (R27) from Cape Town, turn left into Dorp Street then left again at the next corner into Stigling Street. Believe me, you can’t miss it.
2. Book a night or two at a self-catering apartment (R750 for two people) or room with bathroom (R600 for two). You might even be able to talk the owners into pandering to your drumming or pebble walking desires (for an extra fee).
3. Come hungry and buy a loaf of freshly baked bread from the bakery on the premises.
4. Phone 027 341-1423 or 083 656-8592; email karidecor@kingsley.co.za.
You may also enjoy
Strange things happen in the Karoo
Williston Mall in the Karoo
The Tankwa padstal in the Karoo

Diesel & Crème vintage diner on Route 62, Barrydale

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Rustic Art - Discover a weird world in Calvinia in the Karoo, South Africa #Karoo #SouthAfrica #art #weird
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​​Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za​​
18 Comments
Cheryl
9/6/2016 10:11:35 pm

Sound fascinating. The Karoo certainly has its odd pieces - thats why I love it.

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 07:40:33 am

Thanks Cheryl. Odd yes, but oddly compelling too!

Reply
Dirk
10/6/2016 06:05:33 am

Thank you for the wonderfull way and words to describe our place, The Republic of RusticA... Im am soooo sorry we were not here to welcome yoy in , for i would lived to shared our Dont Cry Bar with and a great cup of good coffee or something. Thank you for finding our olace interesting and writing about it is such a complament to us... Hope to see you guys soon onnyour comeback... We will wait for you... Dirk

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 07:42:30 am

My pleasure, Dirk. We loved the way your artistic mind works and will definitely be back sometime to appreciate the rest!

Reply
Jan swanepoel
10/6/2016 07:11:29 am

Very nice,I like,I like

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 07:41:23 am

Thanks for reading and commenting, Jan. I really appreciate all feedback.

Reply
Veruschka link
10/6/2016 08:15:49 am

Such a great blog - I am definitely going to go. And what great images!

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 10:23:07 am

Thanks, Veruschka, you won't regret it, I promise!

Reply
Carrey
10/6/2016 11:54:27 am

Stunning! :)

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 01:13:05 pm

Glad you think so too, Carrey. Well worth a journey.

Reply
GORDON WILSON
10/6/2016 03:48:08 pm

my wife and I visit my son every year he stays in Mossel bay we have travell all over the garden route in the last 9 years where are you near on Route 62 as we would visit next trip

all the best from Scotland

Reply
Roxanne
10/6/2016 06:14:21 pm

This place is nowhere near Route 62, Gordon, but in Calvinia, which is between Vanrhynsdorp and Brandvlei/Kenhardt in the Northern Cape.

Reply
Mark link
11/6/2016 11:10:35 am

Great Article Roxanne. I'll definitely add this to my "must go" list. It also looks like it's only around a 4 hour drive from Cape Town - so not a crazy distance to drive for a long weekend away.

Reply
Roxanne
11/6/2016 11:19:44 am

While you're there, don't miss the Hantam Huis too, Mark. If you want to make a wide circle before you head back to Cape Town it's worth stopping at the wacky Williston Mall (http://www.roxannereid.co.za/blog/williston-mall-in-the-karoo) and definitely worth staying in a corbelled house outside Carnarvon (http://www.roxannereid.co.za/blog/stuurmansfontein-a-corbelled-house-in-the-karoo). Have fun!

Reply
Sabine link
24/9/2016 09:40:27 am

We only passed briefly through Calvinia, we were kind of in a rush to get to Namaqua. It looked like an interesting town to visit. Now that I have seen this, we definitely have to make time for a visit. This place looks just awesome. What an amount of rustic art they have there.
Calvinia, here we come :)

Reply
Roxanne
24/9/2016 09:44:31 am

We also usually drive straight through Calvinia on the way to Kgalagadi, Sabine, but a little foray off the main road was very rewarding! It's also worth going inside the Hantam Huis restaurant and shop.

Reply
Amanda Williams link
24/9/2016 07:12:29 pm

This place is so unique. I love the idea of rustic art! Turning waste in to art.

Reply
Roxanne
24/9/2016 08:33:21 pm

Definitely an imaginative use of found objects, Amanda. There's no such thing as waste to these people!

Reply

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