09 Feb Frans Mulder – nKentshane – observing/reflecting/transferring
Frans Mulder shows the lives of Wild Dogs at their den by means of observing them, reflecting in his mind the power and constant movement of them, and then transferring that information to large sheets of paper.
Using a method of making marks, partly erasing them, making more marks, and reconstructing the structure and movement of the images, these drawings become works of art rather than just photographic image representations. Big in scale, the images of the dogs, sometimes larger than life, move and bounce over the paper just as they do in real life.
Frans Mulder was born in 1955 and educated in Cradock, Eastern Cape. He received a Diploma in Fine Arts at the Port Elizabeth Technikon in 1975.
He was involved with interior and design until he moved to Johannesburg in 1980, where he was involved in space planning for hotels, and then to New York City, where he was director of design in an interior space planning studio.
On his return to South Africa in 1989, he lived and worked for a while in Nelspruit, close to the world-renowned Kruger National Park. It is here that he started painting wild life, while owning and running several eateries and guesthouses in the Northern and Eastern parts of South Africa until his move to Napier in 2015.
Frans expresses his passion for animals in his wild life paintings and he has recently focused his attention on the survival of the endangered wild dogs. These are now the subjects of most of his works and are taken from live interaction with the animals.
Frans and Rossouw Modern will be donating 10% of the show’s revenue to the Wild Dog Advisory Group of South Africa (WAG-SA) foundation.
The Wild Dog Advisory Group of South Africa (WAG-SA)
There are an estimated 6 600 (660 packs) free-ranging African wild dogs Lycaon pictus left in Africa (IUCN 2012). Wild dogs are the rarest carnivore in South Africa with an estimated population of less than 450 individuals. Despite being legally protected in many of their current range states the remnant populations continue to face widespread persecution (Woodroffe et al. 2004). Wild dogs are listed as endangered by the IUCN but are not listed on CITES (Lindsey & Davies-Mostert 2009).
To address the conservation and species-persistence problems facing them, a Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) Workshop for wild dogs was held in 1997 (Mills et al. 1998).
The Wild Dog Advisory Group of South Africa (WAG-SA) was established after the PHVA to monitor and facilitate the development and maintenance of the metapopulation.
The group acts as a platform for reserve managers and interested parties to present and discuss wild dog metapopulation problems and issues and to, together, recommend solutions. In this regard the WAG-SA also collaborates closely with individuals and institutions actively involved with both the captive population and unmanaged free-roaming populations.
Decisions made regarding the reintroduction and translocations of wild dogs within the metapopulation are made at WAG-SA meetings (held quarterly). Participants of WAG-SA include reserve managers, land owners, researchers, veterinarians and provincial representatives.
How to become part of the South African Wild Dog Metapopulation
Anyone interested in obtaining more information about becoming part of the South African Wild Dog Metapopulation by managing them within a sound ecological framework should contact WAG-SA chairperson:
Dr. Harriet Davies-Mostert
Chairperson: Wild Dog Advisory Group South Africa
Endangered Wildlife Trust
Private Bag X11, Modderfontein, Gauteng, 1645
(T) +27 11 3723600
(F) +27 11 6084682
(E-mail) [email protected]