Most Loyal Companion

Most Loyal Companion

Acknowledgments and thanks to

Eric Weinstein Stephen Jenkinson Nicci Bailey Tiziana Giardini Start Hunt Caro Jesse Emma van der Merwe Len Verwey

Photography Jan Ras

Everard Read Cape Town

Most Loyal Companion Facing Death

A weekly ritual using small, pertinent objects, to mark time and face Death.

The work is an intimate conversation between myself, the participant and their Most Loyal Companion, Death.

I have counted out the number of weeks, for that friend, that Saturn* takes to make 3 full revolutions, from their date of birth. This works out to be roughly 89 years, or just under 5000 weeks. These weeks are marked by roughly 5000, small objects which hold significance for that person; safety pins, buttons, stone chips, matches, journal-papers, rhinestones, salt. The ritual happens weekly on the same day that the person was born. The actions of the ritual are simple; taking a small gold safety pin from the vessel holding the original 5000, opening it, and placing it into another. This marks a week spent, a week gone. It also weighs the vessel which collects the spent weeks and emphasises the pull towards the increasingly possessive, MOST Loyal Companion. A meditation of turning toward and facing Death.

Mark Rautenbach Winter 2023 *Saturn, astrologically, is the planet associated with time, cycles, death and rebirth.

23 November 1964 - 30 December 2052, 4597 small gold safety pins.

Ritual day: Monday, A/P 25 October 1975 - 19 July 2064, 4630 black shirt buttons.

Ritual day: Saturday, G/P 31 May 1964 - 23 February 2053, 4630 polished labourite chips.

Ritual day: Sunday, A/P 1 June 1965 - 3 March 2054, 4631 blue iridescent gel rhinestones.

Ritual day: Tuesday, 5/9 19 April 1983 - 6 October 2071, 4616 matches.

Ritual day: Tuesday, 6/9 29 March 1973 - 5 May 2061, 4597 small squares cut from poetry journals, Ritual day: Thursday, 7/9 13 March 1976 - 24 July 2066, 4715 chiselled Himalayan salt crystals.

Ritual day: Saturday, 8/9

markrautenbach.com