Die Groot Quack

“Die Groot Quack” (2025) is a hand-bound artist’s book combining multiple printmaking techniques—etching, silkscreen, lino print, and embossing—to evoke the essence and feel of a children’s book while carrying a layered, serious message. The project is deeply personal, inspired by the artist’s family’s recent move to the Western Cape and broader reflections on identity, migration, and belonging in South Africa today.

The cover features a dry point etching on Plexiglas with oil monoprint, depicting ducks as symbolic stand-ins for the artist’s parents and grandparents. The narrative begins with a silkscreen-printed dedication, followed by a symbolic “front door” breathing page. The first hybrid print, “Ver-quack oor die berge”, reimagines the Great Trek in reverse, showing ducks in both traditional and modern boer attire migrating down to the Cape. The next print, “Ver-quack oor die see”, draws parallels with global migration, especially the Trump-era refugee crisis, highlighting the disillusionment some Afrikaners feel in contemporary South Africa.

Centre are screen-printed maps of South Africa with arrows pointing toward the Cape, referencing historical maps and text featuring only duck sounds—symbolizing the artist’s struggle to voice personal opinions due to racial identity and fear of backlash. The book closes with the line “Eendjie op soek na ‘n dam” (A duckling searching for a pond), followed by a blind emboss of a lone duck, representing both the artist and anyone who feels displaced in their home country. Die Groot Quack is a heartfelt visual letter pleading for peace, unity, and mutual understanding in the Rainbow Nation.