Draft:Barbara Fairhead

Barbara Elizabeth Julia (Grenfell) Fairheadb.30.8.1939

Barbara Elizabeth Julia Fairhead (née Grenfell) (born 30 August 1939) is a South Africa based multi-disciplinary artist, poet, writer, and therapist.

Known for her pioneering work in art therapy and personal transformation, she has made significant contributions to South African arts through her poetry, sculpture, music, and therapeutic practices. She is particularly noted for developing The LifeSpaceGame, an innovative art therapy workshop, and for pioneering Sand Play therapy in Cape Town. Fairhead was a Director of Camphill in Malmesbury under Julian Sleigh in the 1980s.

=== Early Life and Education ===
Born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England the day before World War II, Fairhead relocated to South Africa in her youth. This early experience of cultural transition would later influence her artistic exploration of threshold spaces and transformation.

=== Personal Life ===
Fairhead married George William Jeremy Ractliffe, former CEO of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, in 1960. Together they had six daughters between 1961 and 1967. Jo Ractliffe, Toni Clark, Tamzin Ractliffe, Geordie Ractliffe, Leigh Koenigsfest and Trilby Krepelka. She married Peter Fairhead in 1981.

Artistic Career

Clay brick carving

The Great Mother. Clay carving cast in synthetic resin.

One of Fairhead's many assemblages with found objects.

Early Sculpture Work (1960s)

During the 1960s, while raising her six daughters, Fairhead began her artistic career working across multiple sculptural media:
• Ceramic portraits (including commissioned works)
• Clay brick carvings
• Wood sculpture
• Soap stone sculptures
• Found object assemblages
• Bronze sculptures
She supported her early artistic practice by creating and selling ceramic bookends, demonstrating her practical approach to sustaining creative work.

Some of Fairhead's multi-media works with the RIver People.

Expansion into Multiple Media (1970s)

In the 1970s, Fairhead expanded her artistic practice to include:
• Large-scale black and white drawings
• Mandala paintings
• Textile arts (spinning, dying wool, and weaving tapestries)
• Poetry (see under books)

The LifeSpaceGame

In the 1970s, whilst working also as a counsellor at LifeLine Cape Town, Fairhead developed The LifeSpaceGame, a personal growth workshop which removes speech (intellectual explanation) from all processes, substituting a range of non-verbal choices eg. masks, puppets, Mirror Dance, Blindfold Trust Walk, Finger Paints etc. as a way to truly experience the deepest feelings of an issue.
Fairheard created:
• Over 25 handcrafted face masks
• Several large animal masks
• Custom game board
• Feedback cards and quotations
• Comprehensive game manual
The program was later continued by Joan Brokensha, who ran it for over a decade. In the early 1980s, Fairhead often visited Findhorn in Scotland to attend The One Earth Gathering held at the Findhorn Ecovillage where she had the opportunity to also host a workshop with The LifeSpaceGame.

Sandplay: A non-verbal therapeutic process for exploration of (re)lived experience and feeling

Therapeutic Work

Fairhead was the first I AM appointed trainer by Pat Grove. I AM uses hands-on learning approaches like games, discussions, exercises and reflection to help participants gain insight into themselves and how to improve important areas of their lives. Participants explore topics like trust, listening, and relationships. Graduates report increased effectiveness, satisfaction, and sense of direction.

Fairhead pioneered Sand Play therapy in Cape Town during the early 1990s, having studied with Joel Ryce-Menuhin in the UK who was head of the British and Irish Sand Play Association. She practiced from her home in Marina da Gama until the late 1990s, establishing this therapeutic approach in South Africa.

Musical Career

In the 2000s, Fairhead wrote the lyrics for four Red Earth and Rust albums:
• "Look For Me" (2008)
• "Dark Mercy/Wrestling the Angel" (2009)
• "Skeletons of Memory - Songs for the West Coast" (2011)
• "The Mercy of Wild Things" (2015)

Literary Works

Poetry Collections

• "And Now You Have Leaped Up to Swallow the Sun" (Tortuga Publishers, 1997)
• "Word and Bead: The Presentation of a Journey" (2001)
• "Raven's Moon" (2001)
• "The Love Sheet" (with Jacques Coetzee, African Books Collective 2017)
• "KIN: Selected Poems, Song Lyrics and Prose Sketches" (Hands-on Books, 2022)
• "The Alchemy of Poetry" an evening talk by Fairhead recorded in 2005 and mastered by Dave Langemann of Creative Native Productions (engineer of Freshlyground Ma'Cheri in 2007)

The New Mexico Trilogy

Published by Sunstone Press:
• "Of Death and Beauty" (2013)
• "Whereof One Cannot Speak" (2017)
• "The Coming Guest" (2020)

The River People

Other Works

• "In Search of the White Wolf" (Self-published, 2017)
• "Follow the Wind - The Work-Book" (Self-published, 2017)
• "Rio Abajo Rio: River Beneath River" (Modjaji Books, 2021)
• "Messenger" (Hands-On Books, 2023)
• "The River People" (Hands-On Books, 2024)

Handmade Books

In 2024, Fairhead collaborated with Trilby Krepelka to create five handmade books:
• "In A Far-Flung Field"
• "Low Tide"
• "Ruach"
• "Hiraeth"
• "you always you – running back to me"