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Wordingsfeer

2017 Competition entry

Louis Krüger

Details:
Signed
Digital photo montage on cold pressed paper
99.5 cm x 99.5 cm

Description:

Wordingsfeer (Creation Sphere) explores the relationship between the landscape and the visionary imagination. This digital photo montage consists of photographs of the landscape, which is filled with fragments of former visionary activities like a Khoisan rock painting located in the forlorn, arid Northern Cape landscape (taken at Wildebeest Kuil). This location alludes to spiritual practices of shamans and visionary experiences connected with the Southern African landscape.

The shape of the artwork ties in with the visionary imagination and the visualisation thereof because, as an archaic shape, a circle suggests completeness. The all-encompassing, 360 degree vantage point places the viewer in an elevated position to experience the manipulated image as Earth's globe. Through this process man's viewpoint is expanded as would be the case in a visionary experience.

‘Earth’ as landscape motif is explored artistically in Wordingsfeer. This can be seen in the traces of historic activity left behind in the sand visible in the centre of the work. Soil has value for man as a lasting “memory of the Earth” (Weilacher, 1999:14). This recollection of the earth involves a cultural memory that is contained within the landscape and is awakened by the image. In Wordingsfeer the viewer’s eye is directed towards the centre of the work – the open, red ground. On this piece of ground traces and marks of activity were left behind that seem flowing and energetic. The centrality of this piece of earth, set with marks, indicate that the entire surrounding landscape comes together to testify to (or is the result of) man’s intimate involvement with the landscape. 

Furthermore, traces of the creative process were left behind in the artwork. With the crops, edges, repetition and merging of images, the artist aims to reactivate the visionary potential in the once ethereal landscape.