Breaking the line of the water’s edge with a stone, a broken shell during the incoming tide
Sunset Beach, West Coast of the Western Cape, South Africa
2015
Limited edition photographic prints on art paper.
Editions: 3 (2 editions available for each artwork)
Size: 30 x 54 cm (includes white border)
This artwork symbolises our ability as humans to stop or resist the tide coming in the years ahead. Collectively we have managed to cause anthropomorphic climate change through our ceaseless burning of fossil fuels, abuse of resources, deforestation and greenhouse gases caused by our consumption. We have caused irreversible damage to the quality of life of our future generations, and even if we manage to change our ways, we’ve already reached or passed the tipping point.
At the same time, however, when we compare our existence as a species on this planet to the time that the earth has existed, we realize that our lives are quite inconsequential. The impact we leave will not last for hundreds of thousands of years into the future. We endlessly resist the tide of time that is entwined with nature’s essence in our daily lives, but eventually we cannot resist or impede nature’s cycles, growth and transformation any more than the broken shell temporarily resists the line of the water from the incoming tide before being washed away completely.