Otjizemba

2007

Mixed Media

David Jacobson: “The next that we come to is the “Otjizemba River”. I also want to add that on many of these signs of the river you will see blue waves painted underneath the road signs. I found this very amusing. First of all, the waters would be brown if they came down, but also because there hardly is any water in them anyway. I used that on many of the pieces as idea of the waves or waves of emotion, which were being repeated, that I was experiencing. On this image I am playing with the idea of original sin if you like. It references the serpent or snake in the very first image. There’s a very old man sitting in a chair I photographed in my house in London, which in turn is referenced by the photograph of a neighbour’s house in London. This image on the right hand side, I took this photograph because actually that is the reflection of a building on a wall opposite our house, not the building itself, and I was intrigued by this, and when I developed the film, I noticed what I hadn’t seen which was a bowl of apples on the table in front of this incredible shadow. I was then visited by a friend of mine, who was coming to lay carpets, who had his new apprentice with him who was ninety-three years old. I found it quite amusing that you should have an apprentice at ninety-three years old, and I decided to use him as an example of the first man. The apples are then transported to Namibia, onto the B2, and the bowl of apples next to him is empty, and it’s about his search for original sin, because I’m sure that’s what he wanted – rather than to be a carpet layers apprentice at ninety-three years old.”