Gate

Viewed collectively, there can be no doubt that farm names are a testament to the profound meaning land holds in South Africa. Scattered across the countryside, often hidden along remote dirt roads, some farm gateways transcend the mere functional purpose of marking the threshold to a piece of property. Mostly created by the owners themselves, farm gates can range from the triumphant to the ascetic, from the humorous to the religious, showing all sorts of imagery - tractors and bicycles on poles, obsolete farm implements, tin cut-outs of animals suspended from rickety posts, rusted handmade signs and roughly hewn carvings or sculptures. Regardless of their form, these extraordinary portals serve the same purpose as conventional art: to mark the presence or past of an individual spirit. Introduced by an incisive essay that examines how it is that a particular parcel of land is claimed, surveyed and named, this book captures the unique character of farm gates around South Africa.