Tracings of Impermanence is a land-based spatial installation for the Tankwa /Karoo desert ecology. The project is conceived as a cartographic sigil created from the earth it stands upon and is raised as a witness to the entanglement of species and forces across time. We propose this structure as an invitation to sense the desert as a living field of forces and lineages: wind, water, heat, dust; migration routes of birds and animals; indigenous flora; the movements of pastoralist peoples suchas the San and Khoekhoe; the treaded path of the voortrekker, and of course an ancient ocean that once covered this basin, leaving mineral memory in the playa.
Artwork
The Crossing
Read More »
The Crossing consists of two groupings of elements. A rigid line cuts through the landscape, a boundary that may represent law, structure, or control. Intersecting this line are more organic forms that rise irregularly, as though shaped by wind, erosion, or time. The line may be read as a border or a threshold, a boundary between order and chaos, captivity and freedom, life and death. Movement unfolds across this divide. From one perspective, the passage across the line could represent departure or exile, figures leaving something familiar behind. From another, the same movement may suggest arrival, a transition toward possibility and renewal. The Crossing comes together through shared effort, people learning, experimenting, problem-solving, and physically constructing something at scale. It exists because of a community, for a short time, shaped by the desert and the people within it. As with many desert installations, the sculpture is intended to transform through fire. When it ultimately burns, the work completes its own crossing, shifting from structure into flame, light, and ash.
17 April 2026
No Comments
