He gets his message across in a far more subtle way.
Behind closed doors in a garden shed is a recently completed work of art that originated from an idea that came to him almost three years ago. The completed piece is a dining table with a major difference. Instead of standing on four legs, the Beech wood top is held up by four sturdy Stinkwood arms. The dark, sensual, organically shaped indigenous wood holds up the rather rigid looking, pale coloured top, constructed from European timber.
Get the message? Bet you don’t.
Leggatt’s social commentary is far more refined than simply implying that white people of European descent are living the good life at the cost of African blacks.
In Leggatt’s world nothing is black and white. Every idea originates from a very deep place and travels through a labyrinth of complex thoughts before the result, in this case a statement table, takes shape.
According to Leggatt this piece started with the idea of simply switching table ‘legs’ for table ‘arms’ and soon started taking on an identity of its own: the age old relationship between master and slave; the scramble for Africa; and the globalised First World’s continued exploitation of the resources of an apparently obliging Third World.
The strong arms and hands represent physical work, whereas the boringly homogeneous, angular and somewhat uninviting (but ever-so-slightly softened!) top, symbolising the callous nature of an economic mentality, holds the harvest of that labour.
Fourth generation
Leggatt is a fourth generation Wilderness local and lives in a wooden house on Wilderness Heights with his wife, Lida, daughter Natassia and son Samuel. His inspiration comes from nature and living close to the land.
"I enjoy working with hand tools and using traditional methods. That way I believe the end product has a much more real feel.
"I am not really one for the modern world and all its synthetic technology and I feel our money-based value system has led to massive exploitation and degradation of almost all aspects of life on this planet. Perhaps it has been a long time coming, but unfortunately the result is a world in which very few people actually have the time or capacity to really think. We are spoon-fed thoughts and have become fearful of questioning ‘acceptable’ norms or entertaining original thought. We are fearful of being non-conformist.
"In my work, as in my life, I look below the shiny plastic surface that is being pulled over this world, to a place where the fragility of existence struggles for light and air."
This table and its symbolism will mean different things to different people and one can only but imagine the conversations, debates and arguments that might be heard at meal times!
The confines of the garden shed are rather limiting for this unusual table, but Leggatt appears to be somewhat particular about finding the table’s ‘rightful’ home. Though, exactly what that means is anyone’s guess.
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The statement table with Blue Moon Cottage in the background.
ARTICLE: ILSE SCHOONRAAD
