Beitbridge, Zimbabwe (original goalpost) 2009
Beitbridge, Zimbabwe (original goalpost) 2009 Photographic Lambda print
90 x 130 cm (image by Adam Davies)
Double Entry
22°11’38.30”S 29°59’19.10”E 2009
22°11’38.30”S 29°59’19.10”E 2009 Photographic Lambda print
90 x 130 cm (Google map)
Beitbridge, Zimbabwe (South African goalpost) 2009
Beitbridge, Zimbabwe (South African goalpost) 2009 Photographic Lambda print
90 x 130 cm (image by Adam Davies)
22°11’38.30”S 29°59’19.10”E 2009
22°11’38.30”S 29°59’19.10”E 2009 Photographic Lambda print
90 x 130 cm (Google satellite image)
Beitbridge Moonwalk 2010
Inspired by a story told to me by a Zimbabwean immigrant in Cape Town. He related to me how when crossing the border illegally from Zimbabwe into South Africa his group walked backwards to avoid detection by the border police. In doing so they deployed a military tactic of leaving footprints facing in the opposite direction to throw off pursuit. He also pointed out that they could change direction in an instant.
Untitled (Baboons crossing into Zimbabwe from South Africa) 2009
Untitled (Baboons crossing the border fence) 2009 Photographic Lambda print
130 x 90 cm
Kure Ndokusina Kwachiri Unofa Wasvika 2009
Kure Ndokusina Kwachiri Unofa Wasvika 2009 Razor-wire fence cut from the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa
137 x 60 cm
1:1 Border 2010
1:1 Border 2010 ink-jet print, tyre-prints from cross-border traffic
126 x 144 cm
This section of print is the result of enlarging a Google satellite photograph of the actual border-line between Zimbabwe and South Africa, demarcated in red, to a scale of 1:1 with the reality on the ground. The border cuts through the middle of the Limpopo River and bisects two bridges spanning the river at Beitbridge. At the point where the border-line crosses the bridges these large-scale prints were laid out to correspond with their correct geographical locations. So that if someone were to look at the prints in situ from the Google satellite, they would appear invisible. At this scale each pixel on the original image was increased to about 20 cm in size on the print. Cross-border traffic left its marks on the final work.
The idea comes from Jorge Luis Borge’s idea of 1:1 maps in his story ‘On Exactitute in Science’, which describes an empire whose cartographic skills had developed to the point that only full-scale maps would suffice. This story, in turn derives from English writer Lewis Caroll’s Sylvie and Bruno Concluded in which a map had a scale of a mile to a mile, and it is noted “we now use the country itself as its own map, and I assure you, it does nearly as well.”
[Thanks to Rodan Kane Hart and Steph Venter]
Google Satellite image showing the border bisecting the two bridges at the Beitbridge border between Zimbabwe and South Africa
Google Satellite image showing the border bisecting the two bridges at the Beitbridge border between Zimbabwe and South Africa
One of the prints in situ
One of the prints in situ. The print was torn by passing traffic.
image by Steph Venter
When The Bag Tears The Shoulders Get a Rest 2010
When The Bag Tears The Shoulders Get a Rest 2010 Found plastic-weave bag filled with Zimbabwean Dollars
Dimensions variable
work in progress
work in progress
One project that shaped out quite differently in its final form, involved 225km of red yarn. This is equivalent in length to the distance of the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Initially this length of yarn was unravelled along a road used by the South African Army to patrol the border. Although in its final incarnation this work became V.I.P Border. Images by Steph Venter
V.I.P Border 2010
V.I.P Border 2010 225km of red yarn, equivalent in length to the distance of the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa custom-made into a Velvet rope 94.64m long, gold stanchions
V.I.P Border installation view 1 2010
V.I.P Border installation view 2 2010
