4 minute read
A reflection on light
Strijdom van der Merwe
Like many visiting artists and photographers, internationally acclaimed land artist Strijdom van der Merwe waxes lyrical about the quality of the light in Namibia. He used mirrors to quite literally reflect on the light in some of the artworks he completed during a visit to Klein-Aus Vista Lodge last year.
Says Strijdom about the photos he took of the artworks, “I am fascinated by how light changes here in one day – and I also tried to capture something of the passage of time in relation to light and the larger landscape.”
Strijdom’s creations inadvertently reminded me of how mirrors were used by colonial signalmen when the resistance struggle against German rule began in 1890. The first Schutztruppe soldiers had arrived in 1888. The Herero people revolted against the colonial administration, followed by the Nama uprising. The Schutztruppe, as the colonial troops in the African territories of imperial Germany were known, used heliography (sunlight reflected by movable mirrors) for communicating over vast distances.
When the conflict of the First World War spilled over to the colony of German South West Africa in September 1914, the Schutztruppe also used heliographs to relay messages from one mountain top to the next through light signals “flashing back and forth”. That is how Spiegelberg (mirror mountain) near the Fish River Canyon got its name. Another heliograph station was operated on top of Dikke Willem mountain (also known as Garub- Berg or Dicker Wilhelm), not too far from where Strijdom worked at Klein-Aus. Rising more than 1496 metres above the Namib Desert, signallers on the mountain top could see far and wide in the clear desert air.
With all the digital toys and the lighting speed that modern communication offers, it is hard to go back in time and imagine signallers arduously making their way up a mountain in order to relay a message in morse code with a mirror device. But Namibian history is full of fascinating titbits just waiting to be unearthed.
Operating close to the frontline troops, the signaller communicated information about enemy movements and targets. Isolated on mountain outcrops, many signallers were targeted by enemy forces and died lonely far away from home. The best description I could find about how a heliograph worked back then comes from the online archives of the Worcestershire Regiment. “A device known as the heliograph was also used for signalling to a distant point. It consisted of a wooden tripod of which each leg was adjustable. The mirror assembly for this device was usually kept safely packed in a stout leather or wooden box. A highly polished mirror fitted into a heavy brass ring about six inches across, with pins at each side mounted in an inverted U of brass that could swivel on its stem, allowed the mirror to nod on its pivots. The back of the mirror was covered by a brass plate with a brass stump and pivot that connected to the Morse key via a brass tube, the insides of which had been tapped at each end with an opposite thread.”
Back to the present day. Albeit in a very different context, one can clearly see the reflection of the mirrors in the sand
in Strijdom’s artwork – both in single and multiple images nestled in the larger landscape. There is no message in morse code being signalled in these artworks – just the opportunity to reflect and appreciate the magnificence of the changing light in a time of peace as it illuminates a timeless landscape. A gentle reminder via a slant of light that this landscape basks in Namibia’s divine light with every new break of day, regardless of the struggles and challenges of every epoch.
Identification of photos
These artworks were constructed in June 2018 in the Klein- Aus Vista area. Strijdom experimented with the reflection of light and dark by using mirrors. It was the clarity of the light that inspired him to use mirrors to juxtapose light and darker reflections.
In two of the landscape photos you will see round mirrors in the early afternoon and then again later in the afternoon when the mountains were dark grey. Of specific interest was that the light emitted from the setting sun reflects very clearly, while the mountains are already cloaked in darkness: thus a reflection on both time and light. While the landscape stays the same, the light is constantly changing.
Linda de Jager
