“Dreaming and Lucidity” is located in the Tankwa Karoo Desert, South Africa and was created during
Tankwa Artscape 2024.
The work is created from sticks hand-collected from Mesquite trees, growing along the Tankwa River. As
with much of my work, this work makes use of materials from non-indigenous trees and in so doing,
traces the impact of colonial activity upon South African landscapes.
“Dreaming and Lucidity” is designed to create shelter within a landscape. It is an acknowledgement of
the circular shelters built by the |Xam people, who for thousands of years prior to colonial
intrusion, found home in the Tankwa Karoo.
The semi-circular forms of this work, the circles that are both there and not-there, are inspired by
the Tankwa as a space of existence between realms, a place of “dreaming and lucidity”. The vastness of
the landscape, and the skies above, speak to an absence of life, but also contain the traces of life
that, while no longer visible, remain strongly present.