ANCESTORS

Department of Science and Technology, Pretoria, 2006
In collaboration with Gavin Younge

click on image to enlarge

Superimposed over a stainless steel skein that references the scaffolding that was used to create the building, is a selection of 50 names. These have been sandblasted onto specially sized glass panels.

Each refers to an instance of significance for South African science and technology.

These are signposts along a road without a finite beginning or end marking significant scientific contributions by South Africans to world knowledge.

Thus “Heart transplant”, self evidently refers to South Africa’s ground breaking achievement in this field. Others less well known are still important.

Thus “IsiLimela” refers to the use of the Pleiades constellation by the Xhosa in determining the time of planting. The names are not assembled in any order either chronological or by field of endeavour. They are wilfully (dis)-ordered with spaces between that are filled with the shifting shadows cast by the structure – the stainless steel spine/skeleton and those made by the glass names themselves. The names gain new synergies when considered in these spaces and in the context of adjacent words or phrases. When considering a lesser-known plant “Xhoba” and its current commercialisation, or in thinking again about a well-known discovery, “CAT Scan” the viewer engages with scientific history in its myriad multiple manifestations. It is a site for public access and encounter. (Wilma Cruise and Gavin Younge)