Monument to Scattered Roots and Routes
Duduetsang Lamola
South Africa
There are a few intersecting themes present here, ranging from the complicating of the temporal and historical (imagining the future-past); nature and the maternal/feminine; and the nuance in encounters between individual people and communities that can have profound and long lasting echoes in history.
The work is, on one hand, inspired by the Chinese connection to Birr, specifically through the Dawn Redwood trees in the Birr Castle Garden that are originally planted from seeds gifted to the Earl of Rosse by Chinese botanist Prof Hu Hsen-Hsu. I found it fascinating that the first seeds planted of the previously considered extinct Dawn Redwood tree (metasequoia species) in Western Europe was at Birr Castle, and they were from these seeds shared by the professor.
On the other hand, I'm also considering themes relating to dominant historical narratives that do not consider the nuance and intricacy of anecdotal, simple human connection/contact. In the work, there is a figure represented by the sort of plain Asian woman with curlers in her hair, hidden in the background, but who is cradling and almost offering a cultural monument (monolithic and phallic, much like the Dawn Redwood trees...). One could say it relates to nature and the maternal, as well as women's hidden role in history making too.
Currently, I am inspired by investigations into my own family/ancestral history, identity and heritage and the almost 'hiding' away of complex human trajectories, in both the ethnic and cultural sense. Personally, I'm particularly fascinated by the presence of my Asian (Chinese, Indonesion and Malaysian) ancestors who haven't quite made it into the larger conversations around identity here in South Africa.
Duduetsang Lamola
South Africa
There are a few intersecting themes present here, ranging from the complicating of the temporal and historical (imagining the future-past); nature and the maternal/feminine; and the nuance in encounters between individual people and communities that can have profound and long lasting echoes in history.
The work is, on one hand, inspired by the Chinese connection to Birr, specifically through the Dawn Redwood trees in the Birr Castle Garden that are originally planted from seeds gifted to the Earl of Rosse by Chinese botanist Prof Hu Hsen-Hsu. I found it fascinating that the first seeds planted of the previously considered extinct Dawn Redwood tree (metasequoia species) in Western Europe was at Birr Castle, and they were from these seeds shared by the professor.
On the other hand, I'm also considering themes relating to dominant historical narratives that do not consider the nuance and intricacy of anecdotal, simple human connection/contact. In the work, there is a figure represented by the sort of plain Asian woman with curlers in her hair, hidden in the background, but who is cradling and almost offering a cultural monument (monolithic and phallic, much like the Dawn Redwood trees...). One could say it relates to nature and the maternal, as well as women's hidden role in history making too.
Currently, I am inspired by investigations into my own family/ancestral history, identity and heritage and the almost 'hiding' away of complex human trajectories, in both the ethnic and cultural sense. Personally, I'm particularly fascinated by the presence of my Asian (Chinese, Indonesion and Malaysian) ancestors who haven't quite made it into the larger conversations around identity here in South Africa.