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Gallery
THE LEGACY IN THE LANDSCAPE
“I listen, watching for a story…I feel that the story
is the wind” *
The inaugural exhibition in the Photo Gallery at !Khwa ttu was opened on March 8, 2006.
People from many cultures and countries have remarked that landscapes
are like theatres, accumulating memories of performances over many
years.
This exhibition attempts to discover why the ancestors of the 19th
century /Xam chose to mark special places in the landscape with
images on dolerite boulders that recall their beliefs and customs.
Photographs are by Craig Foster, Shadley Lombard, Roman Ndeja and
Strijdom van der Merwe. A text by archaeologist Janette Deacon provides
context and raises many questions about the meanings and the metaphors
expressed in these rich and evocative images. The video “The
Lizard, The Lion and The Elephant” records a field trip undertaken
by Janette Deacon, Roman Ndeja, Kondino Samba and Johan Vaalbooi.
The memories of sacred encounters with the spirit world and more
mundane experiences with the natural world are etched forever onto
rocks in the art galleries of the /Xam heartland. Even with the
rich resource of the Bleek and Lloyd archive and the residual memory
of San people, it is difficult to comprehend the precise meanings
and metaphors that the art represented to people hundreds or thousands
of years ago. Yet it is with certainty that we acknowledge their
beliefs that inspired the creative energy and power of the artists,
who have left their rich legacy in the landscape
The potent discourse between man and nature is encapsulated within
these lasting and evocative records from the past – the legacy
in the landscape.
* In an interview in 1870, recorded by Dr Bleek, //Kabbo poignantly
expressed his longing to return home: ‘I listen, watching
for a story … I feel that the story is the wind’.
Concept and design: Tessa Graaff and Philip Todres
Text: Janette Deacon, Philip Todres
and Irene Staehelin
Photographs: Craig Foster,
Roman Ndeja,
Shadley Lombard,
Strijdom van der Merwe
Audio Visual & Camera: Shadley Lombard
Post production & editing: Robert Hofmeyr
Producers & directors: Tessa Graaff and Philip Todres
Trainee curators: Roman Ndeja, Johan
Vaalbooi and Kondino Samba
All photographs will be for sale, with proceeds going to ensure
the sustainability of the project.
The photographs are archival pigment
prints on cotton rag paper.
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