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project description End of the World (Cape Point), 2004

Cape Point, at the southern tip of South Africa, was once believed to be the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. It is one of those places that reminds us of our transience. End of the World (Cape Point) is a visual echo of that exchange. At Cape Point, I sensed, in a moment of intense spiritual awareness, the meeting between mortality and immortality.

The end of the world, like a thief in the night, can come at any moment. It cannot be owned or known yet, paradoxically, it is solid, ever-present, for the end is included in ‘now and forever’. There can be no doubt that the end of anything has an attraction and beauty of its own; a calm inevitability, or the promise of renewal.

Sea of Glass
Sandton, South Africa
Duratrans
305 x 340 cm
2005



“Also before the throne, what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal”1
This description of the sublime, heavenly realm on which God’s throne stands is taken from the Book of Revelation. It forms part of a longer visual metaphor describing the heavenly abode. The majesty and beauty of this place remain ultimately incomprehensible to the human mind, so the sea of glass is a mysterious, elusive phenomenon, a beautiful clue.

Sea of Glass (Sandton, Johannesburg) is a visual allusion to the metaphor. Occurring in the real world, in a Johannesburg dumpster replete with cigarette butts, cans and assorted debris, this “sea” of shattered glass drew my attention, recalling the magnificent vision of Revelation, but also reminding me of the double-edged sword of material existence, where spirit and matter are bound to each other. Ordinary, yet somehow mystical, this glittering, transparent substance is also volatile: it can cut, slice, sever. It is expressive both of an unearthly beauty and a fragile mortality.