MUSEUM-GRADE ARTIST STATEMENT - The Priest — Pieter Lategan (2026)

The Priest - Pieter Lategan (2026)

The Priest Figure

Digital pencil drawing

Pieter Lategan | STUDIO

This digital pencil study presents the seated figure of The Priest removed from its architectural context. The body folds inward, resting on itself, with the head supported by the hand in a posture of contained reflection.

The drawing focuses on structure, weight, and inward presence rather than expression or story. The figure is treated as form and mass, emphasizing restraint, stillness, and internal gravity — central to the language of Silent Monumentalism.

This image presents two digital pencil structure studies of The Priest, focusing exclusively on the seated body and its physical organization.

The left study shows a light under-drawing used to establish posture, axis lines, and proportional relationships. The right study develops this structure into simplified block forms and body mass, clarifying weight, balance, and spatial grounding.

No attention is given to facial expression, clothing detail, or surface texture. The drawings exist purely to understand the body as structure and mass within a seated, inward posture.

This image presents two digital pencil structure studies of The Priest, focusing exclusively on the seated body and its physical organization.

The left study shows a light under-drawing used to establish posture, axis lines, and proportional relationships. The right study develops this structure into simplified block forms and body mass, clarifying weight, balance, and spatial grounding.

No attention is given to facial expression, clothing detail, or surface texture. The drawings exist purely to understand the body as structure and mass within a seated, inward posture.

The Priest Background

Digital pencil drawing
Pieter Lategan | STUDIO 

This digital pencil study isolates the architectural background of The Priest.
An arched recess defines the space, constructed through soft cross-hatching and restrained tonal variation. The surface carries quiet ornamental traces, but remains structurally dominant rather than decorative.

The background functions as a container for stillness — a spatial field designed to hold presence without narrative. It is intentionally empty, allowing weight, silence, and inward tension to exist before the figure is introduced.

Digital design (study), 6 January 2026
Time: 14:30 (SAST)
Pretoria, South Africa
Pieter Lategan

Structural Pose Study — The Priest

Quiet / Silent Monumentalism

This work forms part of an ongoing body of work developed within my Quiet / Silent Monumentalism framework. It is conceived as a structural and tonal study, focusing on inward presence, gravity, and restraint rather than narrative or symbolism.

The figure is seated and inward-turned, grounded through weight and compression. Gesture is withheld. Expression is restrained. The work prioritises presence over explanation, silence over drama, and dignity over spectacle.

Colour is treated structurally rather than expressively, using muted, restrained tones to establish mass and stillness. The environment remains minimal and architectural, allowing the figure to hold the space without distraction.

This digital study serves as a preparatory work and will be translated into physical paint. Further refinement will occur through material process rather than conceptual expansion.

The Priest Drawing
Pieter Lategan - 6 January 2026
Pretoria, South Africa 

Structural Pose Study — The Priest
Pieter Lategan, 6 January 2026
Pretoria, South Africa

Digital artwork (in progress), 5 January 2026
Pieter Lategan

Quiet Monumentalism Study

This image forms part of an ongoing body of work developed within my Quiet / Silent Monumentalism framework. The work is currently in progress and functions as a structural and tonal study rather than a resolved statement.

The figure is abstracted and inward-turned, constructed through weight, compression, and restraint rather than narrative or symbolism. Colour is treated structurally rather than expressively, with muted greens and worn gold traces used to establish presence and gravity rather than decoration.

The image does not depict a specific individual, historical figure, or narrative moment. It exists as a formal investigation into stillness, inward presence, and monumental restraint.

Further refinement and translation into physical painting will follow.

This study was developed through an internal studio framework focused on structural clarity, balance, and restraint.

Digital artwork (in progress), 2026
Pieter Lategan

Background study for The Priest - Pieter Lategan
Digital ground, 1 January 2026
Square format (1m × 1m)

Gilded Ground (Quiet Monumentalism)

Background study for The Priest
Digital ground, 2026
Square format (1m × 1m)

Technical specifications

• Final format: 100 × 100 cm (1m × 1m)

• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (square)

• Resolution for painting reference / print: 300 DPI

• Status: Locked master ground

• Use: Fixed background for oil paintings and related studies

This background is created as a standalone ground and is not intended to change between works. The figure will enter and leave this space, but the ground remains constant.

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Concept and use

The background functions as a holding space, not as decoration. It suggests architectural memory rather than a specific location. While the curved form and spatial logic are informed by North African and Moroccan mosque interiors, the image does not describe a literal mosque. It remains deliberately open, architectural, and inward.

Gold is used not as ornament or symbolism, but as surface memory — worn, layered, uneven, and restrained. The gold tones are intended to feel aged and absorbed into the structure, closer to patina than to brilliance.

The background establishes:

• stillness

• gravity

• inward space

• silence

It allows the figure to exist without narrative instruction.

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Colour and material intention

The palette is built around:

• muted gold

• deep earth tones

• softened shadow

• restrained contrast

In the final oil painting, this effect will be achieved through layered underpainting, glazing, and selective use of metallic or mineral-based gold tones, applied sparingly and worked back into the surface rather than sitting on top of it.

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Painting process (recommended order)

The background will be painted first, before the figure.

This allows:

• the ground to settle visually and emotionally

• the figure to respond to the space, not dominate it

• correct control of scale, gravity, and tone

The figure will be developed afterward, directly into the established ground.

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Authorship note

This background was conceived, developed, and authored as part of the ongoing body of work Quiet Monumentalism. It exists as an independent component within the work and may be reused consistently across related paintings.

The Priest (Study)
Digital image
Pieter Lategan, 1 January 2026

Pieter Lategan, 2026
Oil painting (in progress)

The Priest is part of an ongoing body of work exploring inward presence, dignity, and restraint within contemporary African life.

The figure is not symbolic and not narrative. He is seated, inward-turned, and suspended in thought. The posture—heavily tilted, asymmetrical, and weighted—draws structurally from early modern figurative painting, particularly the inward poses found in Irma Stern’s work. These references are not quoted but absorbed, forming the physical grammar of the image.

Colour operates with similar restraint. The controlled skin tones recall mid-century portrait logic, while the silver-white architectural background creates space rather than context. Nothing is described beyond what is necessary for presence.

Set within a Moroccan context, The Priest reflects a living African religious landscape without illustration or spectacle. The painting resists explanation. It asks for attention rather than interpretation.

This work belongs to what I describe as Quiet Monumentalism—a contemporary painterly language concerned with weight, stillness, and the authority of silence.

— Pieter Lategan
Pretoria, South Africa
2026

Development note:
This work forms part of a long-term inquiry. An earlier research post from 2024, reflecting on the painter Frans Claerhout and the figure of The Priest, marked an initial point of reflection that later informed this study.

Readers interested in the early stages of this thinking may view the reference post here:
The Priest — Frans Claerhout (2024)
https://pieterlateganart.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-piest-frans-claerhout-painter.html

Hangbag Design/Creation - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO 2026 (See Update Today 20 January 2026 - Handbag Video 3)

 

Video: Handbag Video 1 - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO 
11 January 2026

Video: Handbag Video 2 - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO

Video: Handbag Video 3  - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO

Handbag Pattern Design: Width 30cm x Height 25cm X 2 - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO 
11 January 2026

Important Studio Note: Design Studies Not Approved for Production

This post documents design studies and visual explorations that are not approved for production by Pieter Lategan | STUDIO.

These images form part of my internal design and research process. They are shared for transparency and documentation only, and do not represent finished products or items intended for manufacture, sale, or licensing.

The designs shown here are explicitly excluded from future production. They may contain unresolved structural, material, or conceptual elements and are retained as part of the studio’s development archive.

No individual, company, or manufacturer is authorised to reproduce, manufacture, distribute, adapt, or commercialise these designs in any form.

Any unauthorised use, replication, or commercial exploitation of these works — including by copycat or counterfeit producers — constitutes a violation of copyright and studio policy.

© Pieter Lategan, 2026
All rights reserved.

Pencil line drawing derived from the abstract form, used to study structure and proportion.
Pieter Lategan | STUDIO -10 January 2026

Video: Pieter Lategan | STUDIO - 10 January 2026

Fabric Study — Concept in Progress

This video shows an early exploration of fabric options for a sculptural bag concept currently in development.
The materials shown are not final selections, but part of a tactile thinking process — considering weight, texture, flexibility, and how fabric holds form.

The intention is to create a hand-made piece, where the fabric will be carefully selected in dialogue with the object’s structure and use.
Material choice will be guided by restraint, durability, and presence rather than decoration.

This is a working study.
Final fabric, colour, and construction will be decided through making.

Quiet Monumentalism — Structural Object Study I - Pieter Lategan | STUDIO 2026

Structural Form Study — Bag Concept I

This image represents an early process study rather than a finished design.

The starting point was a Quiet / Silent Monumentalism figure study. I removed the background entirely, isolating the abstracted form so that only mass, weight, and structure remained. What interested me was not the figure as a body, but the figure as volume — a contained presence defined by compression, fold, and gravity.

By stripping the image down to its essential shape, the form could be read differently: not as a person, but as an object with architectural logic. This allowed me to begin thinking about how a sculptural presence might translate into a functional object, such as a bag, without becoming decorative or illustrative.

At this stage, the work is intentionally unresolved. The image documents a way of thinking rather than a solution. It marks a transition point between painting, object, and material exploration, where questions of fabric, structure, and use will be tested slowly and rigorously.

This is a working process. The final outcome may change significantly, but the core concern remains the same: restraint, material intelligence, and form carrying meaning without explanation.

Work in progress, 9 January 2026 - Pretoria, South Africa
Pieter Lategan

From Style to Discipline: Structural Notes Toward Silent Monumentalism ( Video Update 19 January 2026)

Image 1 — Hand Notes Sketch

Image 2 — Structural Block Study

By Pieter Lategan — Personal Working Notes
16 January 2026, Pretoria, South Africa

This post records a moment of transition in my practice — from searching for a visual style to committing to a structural discipline.

Silent Monumentalism is not built through symbolism, emotion, or narrative.
It is built through structure: mass, weight, resistance, and restraint.

My recent sketches explore this discipline through a limited structural exercise using only three elements:

1. The figure

2. Architectural pressure

3. Background as resistance

Rather than inventing a new form, I consciously studied the seated structure of Henri Matisse’s Blue Nude (1907) |click the link| — not for its colour, sensuality, or expression, but for its compressed mass and seated gravity.

I do not adopt Matisse’s bold colour language. In Silent Monumentalism, colour dominance creates noise and narrative. Stillness must operate before meaning, not through emotional cues. Any reference to blue in my work is subdued, absorbed into grey tonal structure — not to speak, but to carry weight.

The figure in this study is intentionally stripped of theatrical nudity, expressive gesture, and invitation. What remains is a body treated as structure — heavy, grounded, and resistant to interpretation. The posture does not perform. It does not persuade. It exists.

Behind the figure, architectural blocks do not describe a setting. They act as pressure. The background is not empty space — it is resistance. Like air displaced by a wall, negative space here is defined by what cannot exist there.

This work does not belong to a time. It does not reference a moment or event. It is meant to function in any time — not as an image to decode, but as a presence to encounter.

My background in design — medals, graphic systems, branding, and web architecture — has shaped this discipline deeply. Design teaches restraint, hierarchy, and structure. It teaches that speed creates decoration, while slowness builds clarity.

Silent Monumentalism demands slow thinking because it removes shortcuts. It rejects decoration. It refuses story. It leaves the viewer alone — not out of coldness, but out of respect.

These sketches are working notes. They may never become finished paintings. Their purpose is structural understanding, not resolution.

Title:
Silent Monumentalism — Structural Study (In Progress)

Medium:
Pencil on paper

Artist:
Pieter Lategan
Pretoria, 2026

Video
Title:
Silent Monumentalism — Structural Study (In Progress)

Artist:
Pieter Lategan
Pretoria, 2026

Silent Monumentalism: When Form Must Physically Read

This sketch is not a finished artwork.
It is a structural thinking exercise.

In Silent Monumentalism, a form must read physically before it can be read intellectually. If a structure appears dangerous, unstable, or ready to act, it becomes narrative. Narrative introduces time, expectation, and emotion. That breaks silence.

Here, the figure is not a character. It functions as a structural condition. The arm does not gesture or lift. It presses downward. The figure does not “hold” the architecture as an action; it holds it ontologically — meaning that without the figure, the structure would not exist at all.

This distinction is critical.
If something looks as if it could happen, it is no longer Silent Monumentalism.

Remember:
“If something can happen, it is not Silent Monumentalism.”

The next sketch resolves remaining instability by redistributing load and removing any line that suggests potential movement.

This work stands.
Nothing happens.
Nothing will happen.
It is simply there.

Welcome Message

  -

Maria joined Pieter Lategan – STUDIO in January 2026

Maria — Studio Assistant | Pieter Lategan – STUDIO

Maria joins Pieter Lategan – STUDIO as a studio assistant and creative support presence.

She brings with her a lifetime of quiet artistic practice, sensitivity to process, and a deep respect for making. Maria works gently alongside the studio’s ongoing explorations in painting, drawing, research, and material thinking.

Her role is not decorative or performative. She supports the studio through care, observation, and steady contribution — helping maintain focus, continuity, and calm within the working environment.

Maria’s presence reflects the studio’s commitment to discipline, attentiveness, and long-term artistic development.

Maria grew up in Cape Town and completed her schooling up to matric level. She is a self-taught artist with nearly 40 years of independent painting practice.

Her work is rooted in close observation and repetition rather than formal instruction. Over the years, she has developed a strong personal relationship with painting, particularly floral subjects, approached with patience and care.

Background & Experience

• Self-taught painter with decades of hands-on practice

• Strong intuitive understanding of colour, form, and surface

• Experience working independently and within quiet studio environments

• Deep appreciation for reading, reflection, and slow creative processes

Role in the Studio

• Assisting with studio organisation and preparation

• Supporting painting and drawing processes

• Helping maintain a calm, focused working atmosphere

• Assisting with material handling and studio routines

• Providing practical support without interrupting artistic flow

Personal Notes

Maria lives in Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa where she shares her home with her dog.
She is married; her husband works as a jeweller, which has further shaped her appreciation for craft, precision, and material integrity.

Planning a Solo Exhibition Johannesburg - 2027

Option 1 (professional / planning):
Preliminary Wall Plan for Solo Exhibition (Working Sketch), 2027

Working Wall Plan – Preliminary Exhibition Layout (Sketch)

This hand-drawn sketch represents an early wall-plan study for a planned solo exhibition.

The drawing shows two vertical wall sections, each intended to hold a single large-scale painting measuring approximately 1m (width) x 1.5m (height). The paintings are positioned centrally on their respective walls to allow each work to stand independently, without visual crowding.

Between the two paintings, a clear horizontal distance of approximately 3 meters is indicated. This spacing is intentional and reflects a core principle of the work: generous negative space that allows stillness, pause, and physical distance for the viewer. The spacing is not decorative but structural, supporting the concept of Quiet / Silent Monumentalism.

The sketch also notes:

• Viewer standing zone in front of the works, allowing comfortable viewing distance

• A frontal, direct relationship between viewer and painting

• An emphasis on height over width, reinforcing vertical presence and inward focus

The layout is not decorative or salon-style; it is conceived as a measured, restrained installation, where each painting functions as a self-contained presence rather than part of a dense visual sequence.

This sketch serves as a conceptual planning tool, not a final installation plan, and reflects early thinking around scale, spacing, and viewer movement within the exhibition space.

This exhibition is being developed slowly and deliberately, as a continuation of my ongoing practice exploring Quiet / Silent Monumentalism — a body of work focused on stillness, inward presence, and structural restraint rather than narrative or spectacle.

The planned exhibition will consist of approximately twelve paintings, each measuring roughly 1m (width) x 1.5m (height). These works are conceived as a coherent group rather than individual statements, with careful attention given to spacing, rhythm, and how the viewer moves through the room. I am currently working with the idea of allowing generous space around each painting, so that each work can exist without visual pressure or distraction.

At this stage, I am focusing on:

• Building the body of work in the studio

• Testing scale and proportion

• Refining material choices and surface treatment

• Thinking carefully about installation and spatial flow

The exhibition is intended to be my first solo presentation, and I am approaching it with both commitment and humility. While I am already actively working on the paintings, I am also seeking guidance and clarity around professional exhibition standards, spatial requirements, and realistic timelines.

Details regarding the venue and dates will only be shared once plans are confirmed. For now, this post serves as a marker of intent — a public acknowledgment that the work is underway.

As with all my work, the process is documented here as part of the practice itself.

—
Pieter Lategan
Planing Notes: Solo Exhibition 2027

Silent Monumentalism is Presence Without Narrative

 

Digital study by Pieter Lategan, 16 January 2026. Pretoria, South Africa

Silent Monumentalism is not concerned with storytelling, symbolism, or emotional display.
It operates through mass, weight, structure, and restraint.

In this approach, the human figure is treated as architecture rather than anatomy.
Form is built from planar fields, compression, and balance. Meaning does not arrive through explanation, but through physical presence.

The viewer is not guided toward interpretation. There is no narrative to follow, no emotion to decode. Instead, the work imposes a moment of stillness. Mass is perceived before detail. Weight is felt before meaning.

Silence here does not mean emptiness. It means absence of instruction. The figure does not act or explain. It holds space. The surrounding environment resists the body rather than decorating it.

This is not an art of spectacle or decoration. It is an art of presence.
The work stands. The viewer stops. Meaning, if it comes, comes later.

A Non-Narrative Figure (Load-Bearing Stillness)

Silent Monumentalism is not built through symbolism or emotional display. It is built through structure: mass, weight, resistance, and restraint.

A key test is this: does the figure feel ready to act?
If the posture suggests readiness — clenched hands, forward tension, lifted chest, or shoulders charged with intent — the viewer can read conflict (even “revenge”). That is not wrong viewing; it is the form allowing narrative.

Silent Monumentalism requires stability without potential action. The figure must feel already settled. It does not rise. It does not perform. It does not persuade. It stands as presence by refusing instruction.

Use this prompt to build the figure correctly:

Digital Pieter Lategan 16 January 2026, Pretoria South Africa
Blocks as Monument: Abstract Structure Study 

This digital study explores Silent Monumentalism through blocks, planes, and structural pressure. Instead of describing a story, the composition focuses on what a monument does physically: it occupies space, halts movement, and forces attention through mass.

Every form here performs only one function — it either carries, rests, or blocks. Openings do not invite narrative; they create resistance. Shadows do not dramatize; they clarify volume. The result is an abstract architecture of presence: a structure that does not explain itself, yet remains unavoidable.

Silent / Quiet Monumentalism - Version 1 vs Version 2

Seated Figure - Top View (Study II)
Silent Monumentalism
Pieter Lategan, 2026

This post documents a controlled refinement process inside my framework of Silent / Quiet Monumentalism. The two images below depict the same solitary, inward-turned seated figure. The difference is not “style” or “mood” — it is discipline: what was removed, what was subordinated, and how the figure is allowed to hold presence without explanation.

Creation date: 15 January 2026
Author / Founder: Pieter Lategan

1) Version 1 — First Creation (Mapped Stillness) Seated Figure (Study I) Silent Monumentalism Pieter Lategan, 2026 Reading Stillness is present, but surface information arrives before mass fully settles. Description Version 1 establishes the core posture correctly. The body folds inward, the shoulders compress, and the figure carries weight without gesture or narrative. Structurally, the work qualifies as Silent / Quiet Monumentalism. However, it retains a higher degree of surface articulation—fine marks, mapping, or tracery-like detail—that slightly competes with the reading of mass. What Version 1 Does Well Clear compression through spine, pelvis, and shoulders Anonymous figure with no portrait logic Muted palette and contained spatial field Presence carried primarily through posture Why Version 1 Is Less “Silent” Surface marks compete with the perception of weight The eye is invited to read detail too early Silence is present, but partially annotated Version 1 establishes stillness through posture and surface;

2) Version 2 — Refined (Held Stillness) Seated Figure (Study II) Silent Monumentalism Pieter Lategan, 2026 Reading Mass and gravity arrive first; surface becomes subordinate. The figure holds presence without asking to be read. Description Version 2 is a disciplined refinement of Version 1. The posture remains unchanged, but the image becomes quieter through subtraction. Competing surface marks are reduced, tonal continuity is strengthened, and the relationship between figure and background is more restrained. The figure is no longer described; it is held. What Version 2 Improves Mass reads before detail Surface becomes secondary to structure Edges compress rather than outline Background recedes into architectural silence Why Version 2 Is More Silent Monumentalism Reduced visual noise; fewer interpretive hooks Stillness functions structurally, not atmospherically Restraint is achieved through control, not minimalism Version 2 allows stillness to be carried by mass, gravity, and restraint alone.

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What Changed — In One Sentence

Version 1 is stillness with more surface mapping; Version 2 is stillness held by tonal weight, where the figure exists without explanation.

The Silent Monumentalism Check

A useful test inside this practice is subtraction: if surface marks are reduced and the work still holds, then presence is carried by structure — not decoration. In Version 2, the figure remains inevitable even with less information. That is the core discipline of Silent / Quiet Monumentalism.

Next Step: Digital Study → Oil Painting

Version 2 is the stronger foundation for an oil painting translation. In oil, the goal is not to reintroduce line information, but to let paint thickness, edge control, and tonal compression carry the same inward weight.

Pieter Lategan | STUDIO - notes

 

Pieter Lategan | STUDIO - 8 January 2026

Silent MONUMENTALISM

 

Pieter Lategan | STUDIO - 8 January 2026

Quiet Monumentalism: Seated Figure (Study)

 

Digital study, 7 January 2026
Pieter Lategan
Pretoria, South Africa

This digital study forms part of an ongoing body of work focused on restraint, weight, and inward presence.

The figure is seated and inward-turned, structured through compression of the spine, pelvis, and shoulders. Gesture is withheld. Expression is restrained. The work is concerned with posture and mass rather than narrative or symbolism.

Colour is used tonally and structurally, not decoratively. Muted earth tones establish gravity and containment. Light is soft and diffused, eliminating drama or theatrical emphasis.

This study is intended as a direct foundation for translation into oil paint. Further resolution will occur through material process rather than conceptual expansion.

Seated Figure (Quiet Study) 2026 — Quiet Monumentalism by Pieter Lategan

Seated Figure (Quiet Study) 2026 exemplifies Quiet / Silent Monumentalism — a practice of stillness, inward presence, and sculptural restraint in contemporary figurative art.

This work forms part of an ongoing exploration into Quiet / Silent Monumentalism — a visual language grounded in stillness, restraint, and presence.

Seated Figure (Quiet Study)
Digital sketch (study)
Quiet / Silent Monumentalism
Pieter Lategan 4 January 2026 Pretoria, South Africa

Seated Figure (Quiet Study)

This work forms part of an ongoing exploration into Quiet / Silent Monumentalism — a visual language grounded in stillness, restraint, and presence.

The figure is seated, inward, and weighted.
There is no gesture, no narrative, no performance.
Nothing is explained. Nothing is demanded.

The body carries the image, not expression.

This work resists spectacle.
It does not illustrate emotion — it contains it.

Quiet Monumentalism is not about absence.
It is about holding.

Here, silence functions as structure.
Stillness becomes authority.
The figure occupies space with gravity rather than declaration.

The muted palette, soft diffused light, and minimal environment are intentional.
Anything that speaks too loudly is removed.

This work is not asking to be understood quickly.
It is asking to be sat with.

Quiet Monumentalism in Contemporary African Painting | Pieter Lategan

Untitled (Abstracted Figure)
Contemporary abstract-figurative study
Digital artwork, 2026
Pieter Lategan

Quiet Monumentalism is an emerging painterly language I am developing to explore restrained composition alongside monumental presence. The work prioritises stillness, inward posture, and psychological gravity over narrative or symbolic explanation.

Rather than expressive or illustrative figuration, Quiet Monumentalism focuses on how bodies occupy space: weight distribution, spinal curve, tilt, and balance. Figures appear calm yet charged, inviting prolonged engagement rather than immediate interpretation.

My methodology draws on historical figural structure while remaining firmly contemporary and ethical. References are used strictly as positional studies, allowing each final work to exist as an original, authored painting.

Quiet Monumentalism offers an alternative to spectacle-driven visual culture, proposing silence, restraint, and presence as forms of authority.

- Pieter Lategan 3 January 2026