A land where the tamed and wild coexist, Dylan Lewis' remarkable studio and gardens in South Africa attest to the symbiotic relationship between art and nature. Emma Becque and Isabel Bronts take us on a journey through the sculptor's slice of paradise in Stellenbosch.
BY EMMA BECQUE | ROOMS & GARDENS | 21 JUNE 2024
The Old Studio, radiating with organic curvature and furnished with antiques and handmade pieces, serves as a vibrant gallery © Isabel Bronts
Dylan Lewis wears many hats: artist, sculptor, collector, hiker, surfer. Each vocation has played a vital role in carving out his sculpture garden in Stellenbosch, near Cape Town. Dylan is an instinctual adventurer and thrill seeker. His high-octane daily rituals - surfing the South African tides and trekking the Cape Point terrains - inspire and inform the palette and fluidity of his masterful works in clay.
The result is extraordinary: a sculpture garden where the wild orchestrates and Dylan conducts. “The tamed and wild coexist here," he says. The space, once a river basin, now gleams under the watchful presence of mammoth sculptures and an artist's studio, and a pavilion, each a testament to the dialogue between man and nature.
Like a museum, the garden's path winds through to the Old Studio Courtyard, where Dylan's sculpting journey began in 1992 © Isabel Bronts
Visitors are drawn into and through the garden in Mulberry Farm, Stellenbosch by 60 of Dylan's works, each completely at home in their surroundings. The South African backdrop is equally mesmerising. Stretches of water meander around masterpieces cast from tactile clay. A pouncing leopard, a hybrid lion-masked male, and fantastical shamanic figures interact with lush vegetation.
The sculpture garden is a display of ecological juxtapositions. Indigenous flowers, African thorn trees, and supple hedges encircle the sculptures, creating an 'organic theatre'. Garden guests witness the equilibrium between delicate blossoms and robust plants —where sharp spikes touch silky petals. The mise en scène of green was a conscious effort, a collaboration between Dylan and horticulturist Fiona Powrie and landscaper Franchesca Watson. As the garden evolved, it became a teacher for the artist, revealing lessons of patience and the beauty of living with ambiguity and duality.
The mise en scène of green was a conscious effort, a collaboration between Dylan and horticulturist Fiona Powrie © Isabel Bronts
The storied sections of greenery enrich the garden's narrative. Each plot is dedicated to sculpted beings born from Dylan’s imagination, set among native wildflower, such as the scattered indigenous Fynbos, peaking in color and fragrance from July through September. The garden is a botanic spectacle with year-round colour, notably on Heather Hill, where Ericas, Buchus, and rare varieties of plants - including the extinct-in-the-wild Erica verticillata from Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden - thrive.
Amid this native flora, an African cat and a horned nymph emerge as guardians of the realm, with a winged figure (circled by an eagle) symbolising life's transience.
The Old Studio, radiating with organic curvature and furnished with antiques and handmade pieces, serves as a vibrant gallery © Isabel Bronts
Like a museum, the garden's path winds through to the Old Studio Courtyard, where Dylan's sculpting journey began in 1992. Once an apple shed, this space draws inspiration from Japanese gardens and the surrounding mountainous flora.
The Old Studio, radiating with organic curvature and furnished with antiques and handmade pieces, serves as a vibrant gallery. Here lie cabinets of curiosities showcasing Stone Age tools, animal skulls, and miniature works amid foraged shells and fossils. Beneath the room, a treasury of plaster progenitors and sketches reveal the artist's process. Against this backdrop, Dylan's framed childhood art is in good company with pieces by his mother, Valerie, and grandmother, Renée Hughes.
A pavilion ablaze in rust orange invites interaction with nature © Isabel Bronts
On a sloping hill, a pavilion ablaze in rust orange stands - an award-winning structure by Enrico Daffonchio. Originally debuted at the Untamed exhibition at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, it now invites interaction with nature in its new home, highlighted by a singular light source illuminating the sculpted work below.
In its fore, an embossed poem by Ian McCallum describes gardens as a 'church with no dogma’. Similarly, Dylan posits that losing touch with our wild self can lead to eventual psychological demise; he finds that vitality and inner peace come from embracing this paradox, a physical and visual theme in his sculptures and garden.
Originally debuted at the Untamed exhibition at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, the award-winning pavilion was designed by Enrico Daffonchio © Isabel Bronts
Inspired by fellow artists Claude Monet, Henry Moore, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Ian Hamilton Finlay, who all crafted distinctive gardens alongside their artwork, Dylan Lewis has embarked on an ever-evolving wild and tamed creation. Sculpted by nature's antics, this garden is an auteur of its own story. Watch this space.
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