vision - lemoene

ever since those physics lectures on thermodynamics i tried to picture the interaction and progress of a myriad tiny particles in a closed system under the influence of 'chance'

introduced to the mandelbrot set and chaos theory later, i pursued the subject photographically - how do those patterns in the clouds and floating on water form?

quantum physics set me off further into the realm of the imagination. here nothing was real, or for very very short scenes only, physical entities through mathematical statistics

bubble chamber glimpses show subatomic traces cut at the speed of light, like frozen bubblet streams in a glass of sparkling. but these travel alone and the equations work

some systems were clearly intelligent: on the farm i observed flocks of sheep and from airplanes cities on the move. ever watched those big swarms of birds and insects, or schools of fish, all simultaneously changing direction in a flash?

i don't know all the motives for finally advancing to doing the experiment - the afrikaans proverb stille waters diepe grond, onder dwaal die duiwels rond, literally deep currents run quiet, submersed the devils wander, comes to mind

i wanted to find out. experiments done by the cape town city council releasing dye via sewerage outlets in false bay to track the effluent at sea planted a seed

fortunate to live in hangklip, literally almost on the maasbaai beach, i would many mornings go out on the dune in front to stretch, wake up and scan the shoreline for anything interesting washed up during the night

how it came about

never the same, water, sand and kelp in light, sometimes bright, pastel hues of blue and green. once there was a tired penguin, seals a few times, a dead big shark de-finned by a callous fishermen

3 very bright oranges
immediately caught my attention one morning. the visual contrast to the surrounds was phenomenal. i had found my medium, we were going to release lots of oranges in the bay and track them!

it did not gel immediately. in retrospect maybe because just gooing oranges into the sea would've been like starting in the middle of a story

my neighbour is koeka, video artist of note, and she works closely with hot camera person cathy winter. i did not think the idea would attract any more attention than ja ja we know there are some screws loose under your bonnet boet. then koeka told me about her dream...

dream - koeka

long ago, stressed out by my matric physics-exam of the next day. i had a dream. i dreamt i was guiding a blind friend across hangklip beach

the foot of the hangklip mountain was somehow advanced right onto the edge of the dunes. the rock face slippery with moss

across the bay, radiating from the center of a shimmering rising orange sun, a hundred choirs sang amazing grace

the music floated towards us in a hazy orange glow, lightly rolling off my face as we stepped onto the beach from hoogwaterhuis

grains of sand moving under my toes touched me individually. the splashing waves burst into tiny mercuric particles as they rolled off the rocks

gesturing to the ocean in unison, nike of samothrace-like statues stood on the beach in a huge grid, casting long diagonal shadows over the shiny sand where the sea pulls back

as if in slow motion we moved forward through the choirs' song and sat down in front of the central statue as the music ended, taking on its prayerful gaze across the bay

and then i woke up

however oblique, this led her to suggest that we start with a grid. the script was set!