Arcana Verte (meaning Language of the birds) is the handle of multi-disciplinary artist Aeiden Swan.
Her magically charged depictions time travel from our primal ancestors to a romantic near history picking up inspiration all along the way.
About Aeiden
Æiden Swan is a naturalist artist working at the place where myth and mysticism meet the physical world.
She was was born in the Eastern Cape around the same time as the last dinosaur trundled off and was gifted with a very unusual upbringing which has seeped into her life and work against her better judgement, in her late teens, she escaped to Johannesburg and finally settled in Cape Town.
With a diverse list of occupations throughout her career, her adventures include living on a yacht, working as a graphic designer in the late nineties, owning her own boulangerie, working in bird rescue and a owning a successful long running couture house until 2017 when “the call of the wild” finally became too strong and she returned to her artistic roots.
Her work explores humanity’s increasingly fragile connection to the natural world and its cycles, as well as our own ancestry, through a veil of dream imagery.
She is a passionate cook, foraging as many ingredients as she can from the wild which ties into her artwork in that she creates inks from earth pigments that she forages thus deepening the link between art and earth.
She has exhibited extensively in galleries as well as created work used in large scale film productions such as Raised by Wolves, The Watch, Invasion and Around the World in 80 days.
She is passionate about conservation. She worked in bird rescue for a decade, is a former member of the Botanical Art Society and has contributed observations of Colius species to the Tracker Manual (Ed 2: 2024)
She is a founding member of the Karoo Gothic Art Collective
Show History
Waka Waka (group show) - Agog Gallery (Johannesburg) 08- 2018
Chimera (solo) GroundArt Cape Town (cancelled due to censorship) 2019
Wild Wildlife (group show) Glen Carlou Gallery (Stellenbosch) 04-2020
Paper (Group Show) Glen Carlou Gallery (stellenbosch) 11-2020
Pop Up (group show) The Cook Sisters Gallery (Cape Town 10-2020
This is Art (faire) Cape Town International Conference Centre 11-2021
Hypnotickles (group show - cape town) 04-2022
Know Thyself (group show) Escap3 Gallery 07-22
Beauty is a Savage Garden (group show) Escap3 Gallery 10-2022
This Is Art (faire) Cape Town International Conference Centre 11-2022
Karoo Gothic (group show - collective) Stokvel Gallery 11-2022
Night Swimming (Group show) Escap3 Gallery 03-2023
Spring Salon at Melkbos Atelier (group show) Escap3 Gallery 09-2023
Unnamed (group show) Kevin Stanley Gallery Cape Town) 10-2023
The Blues (Group Show) Art Point Noordhoek - 08-2025
Film Work
Raised by wolves (series 2020)
Breakdown of soft props
Hero prop creation - Snake skin
Hero prop creation - Cave Paintings
The Watch (Series 2021)
Breakdown of paper props
Hero prop creation - wizard's spell book
Around the world in 80 Days (series 2021)
creation of hero prop - hotel curtain
breakdown of soft props - hotel room
Ghost Party (series 2022)
Hero prop creation - Children's drawings
Invasion S2 (series 2022)
Creation of hero props - children's drawings, interior map of spacecraft
1923 S1 (series 2022)
Breakdown of soft props
Novocaine (movie 2025)
Prop creation - protagonist's sketchbook