Chapter 3 - Phases of a Flower Reflection

Reflection:

van der Linden, A., (2019) Phases of a Flower,
Installation in Copper and Sterling Silver

After reading the Phases of a Flower poem, I see that there is a clear element of personification present where the flower is personified as a human female. I can see this through the use of the words “she”, “her” and “dancing”. I can also see that there is a progression present where the flower starts off as “young” and “weak” describing a bud and further down in the poem, words such as “tall” and “strength” are used to describe the mature flower.

I feel that the poem may describe a personal metaphor, where I see myself or an aspect of myself as the flower where the progression of the flower is a metaphor of the progression of an aspect of my life. I think that this installation may be a metaphor of my 5 year study period at the Durban University of Technology and the thoughts and emotions I experienced regarding this period of my life. Now that I am nearing the end of my B-tech, I realize that I have grown as a person and as an artist and that I have developed many new skills and knowledge allowing me to be confident enough to start a business on my own. I have also realized that there are many new opportunities awaiting me and that it is a start of a new phase in my life.