Event information
Nukain Mabuza created a painted rock garden in the Barberton/Kaapmuiden area in the 1960s and 1970s. He was in buried in the Emjindini Cemetery in Barberton in 1981 in a grave with just a reference number, but his work lives on in a ‘Stone Garden of Flowers’ amidst indigenous Lowveld bush near the R38 highway.
His bold geometric rock art painted directly onto boulders makes for a quirky roadside gallery for passing motorists, and serves as a self-made tombstone for this creator whose rocks were featured in Obie Oberholzer's book 'Southern Circle'.
Mabuza’s distinctive use of pattern, colour and line attracted numerous visitors in the late 1960’s and 70’s to this hillside which he had cleared of veld. And in 2015, Athol Fugard produced a play about his life, titled ‘The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek’.
Mabuza is now recognized as a significant outsider artist and his stone garden at Revolver Creek is listed in John Maizels’ book Raw Creation: Outsider Art and Beyond (1996) as one of 44 notable environmental works from around the world.
While the bold coloration of Mabusa’s work has faded, his work has stood the test of time.
