2024/5 - Origins Center
Hold Me Said the Earth - Origins Centre, WITS, Johannesburg Nov 2024 - March 2025
Hold me said the earth
Hold me said the Earth, is an exhibition of artwork inspired by the relationship between humanity, the earth and her colours. The process of assembling an archive of Botswana’s earth colours required respectful collaborations with the traditional users and traders of earth pigments found in Botswana. The ochres, particularly red ochre, are linked to the development of human symbolic culture. I have discovered that working with the earth colours, and becoming familiar with their nuance, engenders a sense of belonging. By working with colours sourced by female traditional healers, mural painters and cosmetics traders I have discovered community. As I encounter the colours of each region of Botswana, I have walked the river beds, hillsides and termite paths where they are found and felt the earth beneath my feet.
The shape of language
The Shape of Language
What is the shape of language?
The thoughts of a woman in a garden
dreaming of revolution
while praying to the blue in the sky,
to the gold of rocks painted by a rising sun
to the song of invisible birds
to the ocean swell of a desert sea
to the palm held in the mind’s eye.
