




WAAR BLOED NIE LOOP NIE (WHERE BLOOD DOESN’T FLOW’)
Mellaney Roberts
This body of work emerges from an open-ended question, rooted in the artist’s reflection on lineage, ancestral knowledge, and personal becoming. Through sculpture and installation, the work explores themes of home, identity, land, heritage, and the collective memory of the Baviaanskloof Coloured community. Expanding on a previous series, the artist investigates the space between tangible and intangible memory, engaging with the silences and absences of forgotten voices that continue to shape meaning. Fragmented histories and untold stories are central to this exploration, as the artist traces cultural ties at risk of being lost. Positioning herself as both artist and archaeologist, she works primarily with clay, a sacred, transformative material that holds both fragility and permanence, echoing the nature of memory. Through clay, she connects to the land, excavates belonging, and honours ancestral lineage.The works invite viewers into a contemplative space, one that reflects the layered complexity of identity and the quiet persistence of cultural memory rooted in place.