Where the Clouds Gather takes its name from the Khoekhoe phrase ǁHui !Gaeb, one of the earliest recorded place names of the Cape, meaning “where the clouds gather.”

This body of work developed from Kristi Marié’s response to the overwhelming pace of contemporary city life in Cape Town. The density and noise of the urban environment often create a longing for stillness. Walking through the city, the artist sometimes imagines a moment where everything disappears. The cars are gone, the streets fall silent and the land is able to breathe again.

The series explores this imagined quietness by looking toward earlier visual records of the Cape landscape. Many of the compositions are informed by archival photographs dating from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Rather than relying on digital image searches, Kristi conducted research at the National Library of South Africa and the Cape Town Archives, studying historical photographic collections that document the region’s early landscapes.

Each work is created on hand dyed linen or wood panel through a slow process of soaking, staining and layering inks then painted in oils. The palette remains restrained, focusing on earthy ochres, fog greys and weathered stone tones.

Through these atmospheric landscapes, the series reflects on memory, landscape and the quiet ecological presence of the Cape coastline.