Flotsam and Jetsam 2020

Artist Statement – Flotsam and Jetsam

I have always been fascinated by the bits and pieces that wash up along the shore. Exquisite, uniquely created bits of coral, shells, etc. Discarded in what is, essentially, the ocean's waste disposal system. 

It occurred to me that there are many people like that - babies thrown away on rubbish dumps, the penniless rural grannies looking after AIDS orphans, people used and discarded in prostitution and human trafficking, Lenin's 'useful idiots' who are manipulated by politicians... the list is endless. Yet each of these people are individually and uniquely created.

I recently came across a quote by Martin Luther King Jr: 'I refuse to believe that man is mere flotsam and jetsam on the river of life'.

This series of digital coral works in our 11 official languages, plus a little Khoisan, is dedicated to every overlooked, ignored, used, manipulated or discarded person in our country.