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The national flower of South Africa

2018 Competition entry

 
 
Johandi Du Plessis

Details:
Signed
Digital drawing on Fabriano
1 m x 0,7 m

Description:
The word 'protea' is derived from the Greek god's name 'Proteus', signifying that which is complex, mutable, able to adopt many forms. It is from this idea of something able to change between many forms, together with the notion of 'post-truth' and the #GuptaLeaks (2017) that inspired me in creating this work. It was important for the work to be printed on physical paper, but to also have an inherent digital quality. The work was deliberately created with only a mouse and not a Wacom pad, as to emphasise the digital character thereof. The work alludes to the cans of 'contrived narratives' and 'effective stories' that company Bell Pottinger allegedly spread through digital and social media news platforms, fake bloggers, commentators and Twitter users in 'capturing the state'. In the work the protea becomes 'endangered'; foreign elements such as the Dirham coin invade the flower and other strange things ensue, like a Bell Pottinger virus-insect, and the KPMG logo that reproduces and propagates into some sort of strange digital-cancerous growth.