TANKWA ARTSCAPE 2023
GINA VAN DER PLOEG AND JETTE MELLGREN WINDLESS SHELTERS
The expansive landscape of the Tankwa Desert is overwhelming. It makes one feel small and humble. This potent and yet fragile environment instils a sense of respect and reflection.
How can we be present, show consideration and attention, without taking over? How can we leave nature on its own terms? Do we need to be everywhere?
We felt the cracked sometimes lonely landscape preparing for life to unfold.
Is this landscape barren? Or is life here just smaller, different, slower, drier?
How do we reconcile this desert with our romantic view of nature as cultivated and lush?
How do we shape an inclusive understanding of a world of varying landscapes, delicate ecologies and international exchange?
For many thousands of years, the Tankwa was home to the indigenous San people who lived nomadically alongside animals and plants. In this vast desert landscape, some stone ‘arrangements’ have recently been found just over a ridge beside a riverbed. Whether these were temporary settlements for indigenous people or shelters for hunters or something else we do not know. They are simple, rough-hewn and built in manageable stone.
The structures are not solid or neatly executed, but they fulfil a function. We call them ‘shelters’.
The remains of these shelters are knee high. Their openings face south-east and the rounding protects against the cold wind from the north-west which rushes past as you stand above them. But, when you lie down amongst the rocks, it is silent and wind-still and you have a breath-taking view of the open landscape.
With a reference to these shelters, in a wonderful and inspiring collaboration, we built interpretations of these stone structures. In the works, we combined local history, knowledge and ideas about the lives of the San people with our experiences of being present there. Using materials primarily from the land in the Tankwa desert and techniques from our own individual artistic practices, we created shelters that fit up two people lying down. These not only provide refuge from the wind but are reminiscent of wombs, undulating structures that allow for reflection and rest, ‘fertile’ places for thoughts, imaginations and dreams.
The first shelter we built from soil and clay. These roped and sculptured pieces call to vessel-making traditions worldwide where many hands work with layers of clay or fabric, creating something to hold that which is precious to us.
The second shelter we wove using willow sticks dyed in ochre. This rests among and is hidden by the grasses in the riverbed. The orange ochre pigment, which we collected only a few hundred meters from this site, profoundly references ancient rock art paintings.
We took great care to integrate our work gently with the desert and appreciate how the shelters fall into the landscape; one humble and monumental, another ephemeral and delicate. If you come upon them, they will call you to rest, to take sanctuary, to listen, smell, look, and to be near the ground as the San once would have lain in their ancient rock shelters.
With many thanks to the Tankwa Artscape Residency
Realized with support from:
L.F. Foghts Fond
Pileforeningen
