The weekly round-up of South Africa’s creative community and projects by Between 10and5 includes Cape Town artist Dillon Marsh.
For What it’s Worth by Dillon Marsh
“Whether they are active or long dormant, mines speak of a combination of sacrifice and gain. Their features are crude, unsightly scars on the landscape – unlikely feats of hard labour and specialised engineering, constructed to extract value from the earth but also exacting a price,” says photographer Dillon Marsh.
In the first set of a broader series of images dealing with the extraction of precious metals, stones and possibly coal, Marsh presents five images that examine the first mining operations in South Africa, namely removing copper from the arid Namaqualand region.
His striking images combine photography and computer-generated elements in an effort to visualise the output of a mine. He says: “The CGI objects represent a scale model of the materials removed from the mine, a solid mass occupying a scene which shows the ground from which it was extracted.”
via Mail & Guardian
Editor’s Note: Dillon Marsh is one of two South Africans whose work is included in the current show at the Saatchi Gallery in London. The show PANGAEA: NEW ART FROM AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA also includes work by South African artist David Koloane.
