It is set in a bleak, arid Karoo landscape against forbidding mountains and a lowering sky. The dark tone and cold, dull colour of the painting strengthen the sense of bleakness. Nearly all the other objects in the painting are spaced widely apart, and contrast strongly in scale. This emphasizes the depth of the landscape and makes it look bleaker still. In the bottom band of the composition a diagonally placed backgammon board acts as a répoussoir. On it are placed chess pieces in the form of white Boers with voorlaaiers and black warriors carrying traditional weapons. These pawns silently confront one another, while the smoke from a smoking candle in a tin candlestick provides the only movement in the painting.
Onlookers occupy the central band: at the right edge, an old man stands next to his shack. He is the only human being in the painting, but the lack of contrast in tone and colour makes it clear that he is not a player. He watches tensely for the outcome of the game. Three springbuck watch equally intently, but from the sidelines. Four incongruous penguins in the middle of the picture lead the eye in a curve from the game at the bottom to the church at the top.
The source of some of his iconology for Penguins is Biblical. From the Book of Psalms: "Soos 'n hert in dorre streke, dors my siel na U, O God". The Springbuck are not only a national icon representing the people of South Africa, but here they become a symbol of a longing for the intervention of God in our difficult situation. From the Prophet Isaiah - "... the smoking flax Thou wilt not quench...": the candle represents the faith that hope for a solution still exists.
The placing of penguins in this arid landscape where they obviously do not belong lends them particular importance in the painting, as well as making the whole image mysteriously surreal. They are awkward and ungainly in this setting, yet somehow they seem to hold the key. Perhaps Benjamin is suggesting that the church needs to change before it can offer a solution in South Africa, or run the risk of being as useless and helpless as penguins in a desert. - Erna Buber-deVilliers
This painting shows Benjamin's typical formal arrangement. The work is divided into three bands. In the middle of the top band is the façade of a church. It looms forbiddingly over the rest of the picture. Its doors are shut, its windows dark.
