11 Tale (11 Languages)
While studying in the UK I decided to create a work of art that would celebrate the diversity my home country, South Afrca. During a study break I had the opportunity to come back to South Africa and visit the family farm on which I grew up.
I created a temporary land art piece that echo the cultural differences within our country. Using information regarding language use in South Africa, from a census taken in 2011, I incorporated the percentage of the population speaking a language to create a scale of representation. IsiZulu has the largest percentage of mother tongue speakers and IsiNdebele the smallest. The result of 11 Tale is a series of eleven pieces of wood, placed in the earth to form a sculptural chart of language use in South Africa.
The work was created in a field on our farm, Klipfontein, and the first hand audience was minimal. When returning to the UK, the photographs taken of the work became my only reference. The secondary audience was much bigger and this opened an interesting discussion: Is the art work, placed in the earth on a farm in South Africa, or the photographs taken of the work now considered to be the artwork itself?
