Leoni Uys

Breathing Lessons

The artist and her husband, Robin, started a family and in 2008 their daughter, Lily, was born and in 2009 their son, Jett. Having spent her early adulthood freely enjoying the good things in life, having children challenged the way in which she had experienced life up to this point. Negotiating the new responsibilities and constraints children presented is the theme that is embraced in Breathing Lessons.

The paintings depict an ordinary swimming pool which positions the artist in the context of suburbia. From this we can find a parallel between pool water and suburban life, both of which on the surface look pretty easy to negotiate, hiding the turbulence and dangers beneath their placid appearances. Once submerged in these realities, new rules have to be learnt in order to survive.

While Breathing Lessons is the exploration of the emotional register of being a wife and a mother in a suburban South African context, it also has a larger context. As water is not the natural domain of humans, the suggestion is that growth can only be achieved by taking the plunge into the largeness of life rather than staying within the stultifying yet safe zone of the already known, whether it be cultural, spiritual or social. The paintings negotiate a fine line between the sumptuous enjoyments of swimming while at the same time suggesting the dangers of being out of one’s depth. In the paintings, mothers clutch their children who struggle to be free. The confidence and ease with which they move through the water suggests that it is in adulthood that we become fearful and constrained by conventions – a loss of innocence that, while inevitable, needs to be recognized.

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