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SA writer Willem Anker on art — to make the world clearly strange and strangely clear

Paul Klee’s Die Zwitscher-Maschine (Twittering Machine), 1922.

By Mick Raubenheimer

9 May 2025

South African writer Willem Anker reflects on influence, inspiration and the strange clarity of art.

We spoke to highly original novelist Willem Anker about influence and the limits of the sayable.

When did you first identify as a creative artist?

Maybe one day when I fail better.

Outside your medium, what branch of art most stimulates you?

Music.

Which artists in said discipline have significantly inspired you, and why?

Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Blixa Bargeld, Alfred Schnittke and Veljo Tormis. Waits and Cave are great poets and false singers, Bargeld can make music in a scrapyard or a factory, Schnittke does interesting things with notes and Tormis curses iron with an ancient drum.

What do you consider to be art’s most important function?

To make the world strange and clear, clearly strange and strangely clear.

Who are the local creatives in any medium who excite you?

Some people I know keep themselves busy with very exciting creative work, so I won’t mention them in case I leave someone out. Because I teach creative writing, I’d also rather not mention any local authors. I like the empty swimming pools of Willem Pretorius, the conceptualisations of William Kentridge, the “how dare you” of Bitterkomix, the performance art in Parliament.

Which specific work – be it in literature, music or visual art – do you return to again and again, and why?

Paul Klee’s painting The Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine) from 1922. There is something there about machines, music, art, nature, humanity, an expression of forces – creative and cruel, sinister and playful. It is a complex, contradictory experience beyond the sayable.

Anker Paul Klee’s Die Zwitscher-Maschine (Twittering Machine), 1922. (Photo: Supplied)

What are your thoughts regarding the AI revolution?

We are already living in the uncanny valley, but, for now, robots still write pretty shitty poetry. But then, so do most humans. I do think that AI art is a long way from having the same affective effects as (even bad) art made by humans. Once that happens, though, will it be so bad to have fellow, nonhuman artists exploring the world with us, giving their machinic perspectives, sharing their experiences of the new flesh?

Do you have any project you’re unveiling or wrapping up?

A novella called Patmos is to be released later this year. It is a story about music and black holes. DM

Mick Raubenheimer is a freelance arts writer.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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