Dreaming and Lucidity, 2024, single channel video, 4:03
Project Statement: “Dreaming and Lucidity” is a sculpture and performance created in the Tankwa Karoo, SouthAfrica. The sculpture is created from the sticks collected from the thorny and invasiveMesquite trees that grow along the bed of the Tankwa River, and forms a shelter. This shelter is for the traces of life that, while no longer visible, remain strongly present on the land: the ancient ocean that once covered this landscape, the |Xam people killed by colonial genocide, the herds of springbok brought to near-extinction by European hunters and the flocks of sheep who temporarily replaced them. The performance was inspired by the night I spent sleeping alone under the stars, at the site of the sculpture. During this night, I experienced the Tankwa as a space of existence between realms, a place of “dreaming and lucidity” where the spirits of these past-lives can be heard.With thanks to Tankwa Artscape, Kim Goodwin, JP de Villiers, Vanessa Cowling andThomas Barry (construction assistance), Kamil Hassim (drum), Jane Mpholo and Iman Adams (voice), Inka Kendzia (drone footage), Bronwyn Trupp, Sara Carneiro and Tapiwa Guzha (video footage)
Artist Statement: Using foraged plant-and tree-materials, my sculptural work expresses the stories of the land and the life that it supports. I trace the impact of colonial intrusion and capitalism expansion upon human-Earth relations in the landscapes that surround me, and search for hope in what remains of the spiritual ecologies that have held nature’s vitality as sacred. Through drawing attention to the inherent creative and sustaining power of the living world, my work seeks to repair and regenerate reverence for the earth and land.
