Uniquity Art Gallery

In Rock art lover, Robert Slingsby brings together satire, myth and archaeological memory in one of his most overtly metaphorical works. Originally created for the series, The Archive of unspoken things, the painting confronts the gatekeeping forces that shape access to history, culture and knowledge, forces Slingsby has encountered throughout his decades of research in remote rock art sites.
At the centre stands a cartoon-like, almost monstrous figure, its form loosely inspired by the Rochester rock art site. Part guardian, part obstruction, it becomes a symbol of the institutions and personalities that police the boundaries of heritage and scholarship. Around it, Slingsby assembles a dense matrix of marks, symbols and motifs, some drawn from his fieldwork in the Richtersveld, where he documented the tiny figures that reappear here as the “teeth” of a chainsaw. Their repetition transforms them from ancient inscriptions into an instrument of violent erasure, underscoring the tension between preservation and destruction.
The chainsaw itself operates as a layered metaphor. On one level, it references the artist’s own battles with cultural gatekeepers; on another, it nods to contemporary corporate narratives of drastic “cutting back,” including high-profile personnel reductions that have recently captured global attention. In Slingsby’s hands, the image becomes a critique of how power, whether institutional or corporate, decides what is kept, what is lost and who is left outside the conversation.
Scattered limbs, spurts of red and a tag reading Rock art lover lend the work a dark humour that offsets its seriousness. Slingsby channels frustration into a riotous, surreal theatre of symbols, where ancient imagery and modern anxieties collide. Rock art lover is both a protest and a confession: a sharp, unflinching look at the cultural and professional forces that shape an artist’s journey and at the fragility of the histories we struggle to protect.

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For over five decades, Robert Slingsby has pursued a singular and uncompromising artistic journey, grounded in fieldwork, research and an unwavering commitment to documenting the complexities of Africa’s traditional cultures in transition. A five-year education at the Vrije Akademie in Den Haag, Holland, a crucible of classical training infused, countercultural ideas, innovative expression and revolutionary politics, formed the foundation for Slingsby’s development as a multidisciplinary artist. His practice encompasses painting, drawing, etching and sculpture – including bronze editions, forged steel, cast concrete and laser cut stainless steel, all marked by precision and a profound engagement with Africa’s traditional mark-makers, both ancient and contemporary.
Slingsby’s work is the outcome of immersive field research in some of the most remote and challenging regions of the continent. His obsessive engagement with Africa’s art, particularly the petroglyphs of the Richtersveld and his in-depth documentation of threatened indigenous knowledge systems has positioned him as a singular figure in the preservation and artistic interpretation of Africa’s endangered visual heritage. From the stone-carved histories along the Orange River to the ruptures unfolding in the Great Rift Valley, his art confronts the realities of marginalisation, land dispossession, environmental degradation and the relentless erosion of ancestral culture under modern expansionism.
In his current body of work, a return to oil on canvas, Slingsby draws deeply from this wellspring of lived experience. These complex, layered compositions are both a reckoning and a tribute, anchored in his enduring fascination with ‘the line’, a visual and conceptual thread that runs through ancient rock markings and contemporary mark-making alike. His paintings are precise and visceral: they chart not only the landscape, but the emotional and spiritual terrains of communities standing at the edge of erasure. Through them, he invites viewers into a world shaped by encounter, endurance, embedded beauty and observation.

In this work, Slingsby reflects on the fragile state of the environment and humanity’s accelerating impact in the Anthropocene. At its core is the idea of Eutierria, a deep, intuitive sense of unity with the earth, where the boundary between self and nature dissolves.
Cutting through the composition, the zigzag line becomes a symbolic rupture: a Eutierria tear that marks the widening disconnect between humans and the natural world. Above it, a constellation of symbols unfolds. Developed over decades, this personal lexicon draws on the visual language of ancient rock art iconography, echoing humanity’s long history of seeking connection with the land.

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For over five decades, Robert Slingsby has pursued a singular and uncompromising artistic journey, grounded in fieldwork, research and an unwavering commitment to documenting the complexities of Africa’s traditional cultures in transition. A five-year education at the Vrije Akademie in Den Haag, Holland, a crucible of classical training infused, countercultural ideas, innovative expression and revolutionary politics, formed the foundation for Slingsby’s development as a multidisciplinary artist. His practice encompasses painting, drawing, etching and sculpture – including bronze editions, forged steel, cast concrete and laser cut stainless steel, all marked by precision and a profound engagement with Africa’s traditional mark-makers, both ancient and contemporary.
Slingsby’s work is the outcome of immersive field research in some of the most remote and challenging regions of the continent. His obsessive engagement with Africa’s art, particularly the petroglyphs of the Richtersveld and his in-depth documentation of threatened indigenous knowledge systems has positioned him as a singular figure in the preservation and artistic interpretation of Africa’s endangered visual heritage. From the stone-carved histories along the Orange River to the ruptures unfolding in the Great Rift Valley, his art confronts the realities of marginalisation, land dispossession, environmental degradation and the relentless erosion of ancestral culture under modern expansionism.
In his current body of work, a return to oil on canvas, Slingsby draws deeply from this wellspring of lived experience. These complex, layered compositions are both a reckoning and a tribute, anchored in his enduring fascination with ‘the line’, a visual and conceptual thread that runs through ancient rock markings and contemporary mark-making alike. His paintings are precise and visceral: they chart not only the landscape, but the emotional and spiritual terrains of communities standing at the edge of erasure. Through them, he invites viewers into a world shaped by encounter, endurance, embedded beauty and observation.

Uniquity Art Gallery

About the Artist