Land
Not a drop to drink
Starting from a point of “now here”; this series came to be after a visit to my father’s farm in the Northern Cape during December 2019. Feeling a deep connection to the landscape in this section of the Karoo, and having closely documented the flora, fauna and landscape over the past 13 years, I came to witness with my own eyes the devastating influence climate change have on not only our lives, but also the lives of the nonhuman animals and flora of the Northern Cape.
There are large parts of the Northern Cape, a mere 60 – 80km from our farm, that hasn’t had rain in more than 8 years. There are 8-year-old children in the Sutherland district that have never seen rain1(Davis 2020).
The environmental palette contains only dull greys, browns and reds. (Davis 2020)
By cutting up the photographs I have taken in December 2019 and merging them with earlier photographs taken of fauna and flora on the farm, I started to create a new reality. A reality that might reflect the possible future of man, animal and flora in
this landscape, should the climate crises proceed along its current trajectory.
By tracing the silhouettes of the small herds of Kudu, Eland and Giraffes, and filling them with earlier photographs of Karoo flora, I am creating a desperate cry for the time that has gone before. This may seem nostalgic to some, I disagree, I believe it to
be despair, and desperation. The shadows cast by these small groups of animals are, ironically, cut out of either distorted images of their former selves, or photographs of dry mud and flora taken in December 2019. The message is simple: “If we don’t act,
this is where they will end up; dried out dust and remains.
1 https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-01-22-in-drought-ravaged-northern-capegovernment
Memory of Water I
Memory of Water II
Barkskins I
Barkskins II
Gold Fame Citrus I
Gold Fame Citrus II
The Year of Atwood’s Flood #I- #IX
Laurette de Jager, The Year of Atwood's Flood No 1 - 9, 2020, Photomontage on Fabriano Artistico 300gsm, 20cm x 20cm each framed
©2021 by Laurette de Jager