I find the duiker (a small antelope native to Sub-Saharan Africa) to be a local icon of innocence, meekness and mystery. Included in the painting we see its natural environment in an idyllic glade of grass and shrubbery. However, the duiker seems somewhat overwhelmed by its surroundings, which has been interpreted with a certain hyperreal quality, suggesting artificial powers greater than the meek duiker at play. This is emphasised by the almost completely hidden sapling to the left and a towering tuft of grass to the right which ominously frames the duiker within these subversive, hidden and powerful forces that may be threatening to its well-being, and creating a sense of jeopardy in this otherwise harmonious scene of ’untouched’ nature. Yet, the noble duiker endures, in spite of its seeming disadvantages, and in that I see beauty.