Sasol New Signatures

Some exciting news!

I entered the Sasol New Signatures art composition. My artwork, 33°57’15”S, 25°32’38”E, has been selected as one of the 100 finalist chosen. I am a part of the 100 artists that were chosen around South Africa to have their works exhibited in the Pretoria Art Museum in September 2023. I am grateful for this opportunity.

I created this artwork in my third year of university in 2022. The artwork portrays the Baakens Valley and the devastation I have witnessed in our local environment. The valley’s flora and fauna are diminishing, and the habitat of the local animals is being lost as a consequence of the electrical pylons that are not maintained by the municipality.

During load shedding the electricity is switched on and off causing the pylons to surge and explode, creating destructive non-containable fires. The aftermath of these fires is a burnt wasteland with only the pylons as the surviving and standing structures.

This artwork depicts how the valley will appear in the future, creating an exaggerated and apocalyptic composition. The work represents a critique of the anthropocentric perspective that people hold towards nature, whereby nature exists as a resource to be exploited. The lack of colours used represents the lack of life in the area. The textured surface and additional use of found rusted metal objects intended to make the degradation more tangible to the viewer. The composition depicts the slow degradation of the environment, and portray the reality of the deterioration and negligence within an area.