Leeu

2007

Mixed Media

David Jacobson: “The second picture that we’re coming to is “Leeu”. “Leeu” is an Afrikaans word for “lion”. The king of the jungle, or in this case the desert. Now, on this particular print there is an image of camelthorn trees, (Kameeldoring in Afrikaans) which you find in abundance in Namibia. Real camelthorns pierce through the photograph of the camelthorn. And repeated images of a baby, a friend of mine’s child only moments after she (Amelia) was born. And she is crying and very, very, loudly obviously. The idea that the baby’s roar – rather than the lion’s roar – was what I thought was important. And also it references the fairy tale about the lion getting a thorn in it’s paw and is then rescued by some other small animal, and whereas on the one hand we would like them then to be friends, it is more than likely the lion eats the small animal after it’s rescued him. “Nature red in tooth and claw”, as the expression goes. Also in this image there is a weaverbird nest, there are weaverbird nests in this particular camelthorn tree and they’re all coloured. The reason for this is that the weaverbird is a very particular bird: The male makes a nest, the female destroys it; the male makes another nest, the female comes and destroys it; the male makes another nest, the female comes … It struck me as quite pertinent to our lives as well! I am of course being sardonic.”

© David Jacobson