Artist’s statement

Drift was originally created for the Site-Specific 2011 project in Plettenberg Bay, as a temporary installation on the beach. For this installation steel words and phrases were applied to found pieces of driftwood.

These words and phrases explore two related but different sets of ideas: The one set explores the parameters and laws of society, through words and phrases that refer to, amongst others, the Human Rights charter, the UN standards of good governance and ancient Egyptian wisdom texts. The other set explores the parameters of the individual, through words that represent the Four Noble Truths and the Five Aggregates of Buddhist philosophy, as well as the spectrum of human emotions, derived from Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions.

The two large pieces of driftwood are different to each other in form. The one has a strong architectural quality, like a Corinthian column, which is combined with the words that refer to Society. The other is organic and gnarled, which is paired with the words that refer to the Individual. In the former, the stainless steel words are reflective and pristine. In the latter, the mild steel words are rusted and dark.

The juxtaposition of these words onto the two different driftwood forms, further explores the parameters of knowledge in terms of conflict and control. The use of driftwood, as a medium, evokes arrival, imposition, loss and redundancy, as well as a sense of growth and transformation, like barnacles on a foreign object.

Kunstenaar se verklaring

Hierdie woorde en uitdrukkings van vlekvrye staal in gevonde dryfhout ondersoek twee konsepte wat met mekaar verband hou: een ondersoek die parameters en wette van die gemeenskap deur woorde en sinsnedes wat, onder andere, na die Handves vir Menseregte, die Verenigde Nasies se standaarde vir goeie staatsbestuur en antieke Egiptiese wyshede verwys. Die ander konsep ondersoek die parameters van die individu deur woorde wat die Four Noble Truths en die Five Aggregates of Buddhist Philosophy, asook die spektrum van menslike emosies uit Robert Plutchuk se Wheel of Emotions verteenwoordig. Die naasmekaarstelling van hierdie woorde in die dryfhout kyk verder na die parameters van kennis in terme van konflik en kontrole.