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Enfold
2008
Berni Searle
Photography
112 x 154 cm
Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper
Photo credit : Tony Meintjes
The photography is extracted from Berni Searle's last series called “Seeking Refuge”. Commissioned by the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, the Seeking Refuge series focuses on ideas around migration. Shot on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, the video and related photographs situate the artist within a stark, beautiful landscape that is manifestly inhospitable, yet within which people have found ways to survive. Searle wanders barefoot, finding shelter in shallow cavities in the soil, among the vines, in a stranded boat. The elements specific to Lanzarote’s landscape – the black volcanic soil, the red cochineal dye staining her feet and hands – are of critical importance; in walking and pausing she embraces them, bearing the physical and emotional traces impressed on her along the way.
Photo credit : Tony Meintjes
The photography is extracted from Berni Searle's last series called “Seeking Refuge”. Commissioned by the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, the Seeking Refuge series focuses on ideas around migration. Shot on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, the video and related photographs situate the artist within a stark, beautiful landscape that is manifestly inhospitable, yet within which people have found ways to survive. Searle wanders barefoot, finding shelter in shallow cavities in the soil, among the vines, in a stranded boat. The elements specific to Lanzarote’s landscape – the black volcanic soil, the red cochineal dye staining her feet and hands – are of critical importance; in walking and pausing she embraces them, bearing the physical and emotional traces impressed on her along the way.
Berni Searle
South Africa
Born in 1964
Born in Cape Town, South Africa,
where she continues to live and work.
Questions of racial and sexual identity are central to the work of this most visible contemporary South-African artist. Her own body is her preferred subject and she uses camera to record her “performances” in which her skin may be clad in aromatic spices, dyes and other coloured substances that simulate wounds. This series on emigration shows Berni Searle wandering barefoot across a grandiose but desolate landscape. She trudges through this inhospitable environment. The physical and emotional effort demanded by this painful journey was faithfully recorded by the artist, while the black volcanic soil formed a symbolic contrast with her hennaed feet.
where she continues to live and work.
Questions of racial and sexual identity are central to the work of this most visible contemporary South-African artist. Her own body is her preferred subject and she uses camera to record her “performances” in which her skin may be clad in aromatic spices, dyes and other coloured substances that simulate wounds. This series on emigration shows Berni Searle wandering barefoot across a grandiose but desolate landscape. She trudges through this inhospitable environment. The physical and emotional effort demanded by this painful journey was faithfully recorded by the artist, while the black volcanic soil formed a symbolic contrast with her hennaed feet.
Artwork of
Berni Searle
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