10/06/2026
Something remarkable is taking shape behind the scenes for the banks of the Eerste River.
As part of Stellenbosch Art Mile’s commitment to investing in the creative process, we’re sharing an early look at Weather Vane, a major new public artwork by South African artist Jenna Burchell that is currently in development.
Part sculpture, part instrument, and part living monument, Weather Vane will comprise a series of towering steel reeds crowned with sculptural wind vanes. As the wind moves through the installation, recorded voices will emerge and gather into an ever-changing choir, creating a composition conducted entirely by weather.
Burchell’s work explores memory, archives, and the stories that exist beyond formal records. In Weather Vane, the wind vane becomes more than a tool for measuring direction; it becomes a symbol of resilience, movement, and collective voice. Rather than preserving a single narrative, the work remains open and unpredictable, allowing the wind to shape what is heard, when, and by whom.
Stellenbosch will become the first permanent home of this ambitious work. Created in collaboration with a local choir, the installation will capture a distinctive local “Wind Song”, a communal voice carried and continually recomposed by the landscape itself.
This is a prototype in progress, and over the coming months we’ll be sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of the project's making, testing, and evolution of the project as it moves towards completion.
Watch this space.
