Stellenbosch University: FMHS considers Clinical Building rock ‘anew’ as part of visual redress process
Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) recently hosted a Heritage Day engagement session to consider the visual redress process regarding the granite rock in front of the Clinical Building with the Afrikaans poem extract ”n beitel moet kan klip breek as hy ‘n beitel is’ by poet N.P. van Wyk Louw on it.
Situated on SU’s Tygerberg Campus – home of the FMHS – the rock outside the Clinical Building has been a subject of discussion at the faculty for many years. The discussions have primarily centred on the inclusion of all South Africa’s official languages around the rock, which was placed on Tygerberg Campus in 1974, nearly 20 years after the faculty’s establishment in 1956.
Over the course of the past few months, award-winning visual artist, Jenna Burchell has been working with the faculty’s visual redress task team to find ways to preserve the rock’s memory and experience through the creation of her hallmark ‘Songsmith’ method. Burchell explained that she is inspired by the Japanese ‘Kintsukuroi’ method which involves repairing pieces with gold or silver lacquer. “The other thing that became really important to me is considering this rock in its environment here on this campus and how we pay homage to it and ensure that it is not just something we walk past and don’t always notice,” said Burchell.
In a bid to ensure inclusive participation in the process by the entire Tygerberg campus community, the faculty’s visual redress task team, chaired by faculty staff member Florence de Vries, collected over 100 phrases/sayings/metaphors and poem extracts in the different South African and other international languages from faculty staff, students and alumni. Said De Vries: “It’s quite important that this part of the process is led by the people who live, work and study here. That’s why we engaged staff, students and alumni through a series of focus group discussions, voice-note recordings, e-mail surveys and face-to-face interactions. We will continue to do so until we have finalised the phrases or sayings that will surround the redressed rock.”
Faculty Dean Prof Elmi Muller, custodian of the visual redress process, emphasised how welcoming change can also be reflective of the medical and health sciences work that the faculty represents: “Tygerberg campus is not an island and we welcome new shifts in emphasis, also with respect to language. Judging from the comments received from the respondents over the past six weeks, this is a necessary and welcome change.”
On Friday 30 September, the redress process began with the weighing of the rock. Said Burchell, “at 3,1 tons, the granite rock is the perfect weight for the delicate work involved in this redress process.”
Between November 2022 and February 2023, the visual redress task team will invite FMHS staff and students to workshops to discuss the finalisation of the phrases and sayings surrounding the rock.