The Grass is Singing
The Grass is Singing 2021 Hand woven archival ink-jet prints 201 × 168 × 6 cm
This work incorporates the entire text from Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing.
The Grass is Singing (detail 1)
detail
The Grass is Singing (detail 2)
detail
The Grass is Singing (detail 3)
detail
This Was The Old Chiefs Country
This Was The Old Chief’s Country 2020 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 54 x 41.5 cm
The text from Old Chief Mshlanga by Doris Lessing on a map of the district of Banket, in the Lomagundi area of Zimbabwe.
This work has the entire text from the short story The Old Chief Mshlanga by Doris Lessing from her collection of short stories This Was the Old Chief’s Country (1952). This text is laid over a map showing an area of Zimbabwe where I believe the farm she talks about in the story is located.
This Was The Old Chiefs Country (detail)
100 Trillion Dollar Social Contract
100 Trillion Dollar Social Contract 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 165.4 x 89.9 cm
Z$100 Trillion made out of the entire text from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract.
100 Trillion Social Contract (detail)
detail
Machiavelli
Machiavelli 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 159.1 x 71.3 cm
100 000 Lira made out of the entire text from Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Machiavelli (detail)
detail
£50 Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart (£50) 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 173.5 × 103.5
£50 made out of the entire text from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
£50 Things Fall Apart (detail)
detail
R100 Things Fall Apart
R100 Things Fall Apart 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 189.5 x 89.9 cm
R100 made out of the entire text from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
R100 Things Fall Apart (detail)
detail
Heart of Darkness Dollar
Heart of Darkness 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 176 x 76 cm
US$1 made out of the entire text from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Heart of Darkness Dollar (detail)
detail
Z$100 Billion Animal Farm
Animal Farm Agro-Cheque 2021 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 141.5 x 76 cm
Z$100 Billion Agro Cheque made out of the entire text from George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
As the economic crisis in Zimbabwe began to escalate in the early 2000s the government clamped down on the freedom of press leading to the bombing of The Daily Mail in 2001. As a response the paper published Animal Farm in daily instalments. (see: https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/mail-guardian/20170203/281861528235847)
With the resulting hyperinflation the government kept printing ever-larger denominations of banknotes. In 2008 they released large denomination Special Agro (Agricultural) Cheques for farmers. With the exponential rise in food prices, these Agro Cheques made their way into general circulation. The Z$100 Billion Agro Cheque was the largest note in the second series of the Zimbabwean Dollar. It shared the record for the most number of zeroes depicted on a banknote with the Yugoslav 500 Billion Dinar note of 1993, up until 2009 when Zimbabwe issued even larger denominations.
Z$100 Billion Animal Farm (detail)
detail
The Communist Manifesto 2020
The Communist Manifesto 2020 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 150 x 77 cm
100 RMB made out of the entire text from The Communist Manifesto.
The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels is one of the world’s most influential political documents. It looks analytically at the class struggle and at capitalism. It does not however predict the future forms that communism would take.
The current form of communism practiced in China has evolved since Mao’s time. It now has what is called a socialist market economy (Socialism with Chinese Characteristics) and it embraces many forms of capitalism.
China has also been the world’s fastest growing economy for some time and it looks as if it could be on its way to take over from the US as the world’s dominant superpower.
I think that this Chinese 100 RMB note made out The Communist Manifesto sums up this story visually.
The Communist Manifest (detail)
detail
The Wretched of The Earth 2020
The Wretched of the Earth 2020 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints with the entire text from Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth 201 × 194.5 × 10 cm
Wretched of the Earth (detail)
detail
