Artist's Statement
Listening to the silent voices of life’s landscape, I imagine a future legacy and enjoy seeing what’s left behind and what lies ahead. My images aim to thrust one to a subconscious core, prompting memories of our chosen voyage, while looking back towards a future in progress.
When present in life’s quiet places, I listen to the whispers of trees, veld, soil and bones, and share their stories in my images. In sensing the undertones of the soil that we walk on do we sometimes reconnect with our inner soul. My works invite the viewer to remember their innermost pieces gone astray.
We live in a time of immense social and environmental upheaval, fundamental change, deep-seated fears and fragmented structures. And we bear witness to some of the environmental penalties of our distracted human goals and short-term economic achievements.
We live in societies where collective paradigms often define our life paths and sometimes inhibit our capacity to be intellectually free to take the fearful decisions that may lead to achieving our true potential.
Using paradoxical symbols of life and death, destruction and rejuvenation, and sometimes acting as a medium for the places that we inhabit, I depict the simultaneous beauty and disgust in life’s experiences. Synchronizing the pleasure and pain of life’s choices and chains, my works ignite a subconscious repulsion and connection to common associations that tie us together.
My work shares a perspective that is drawn from a deep connection with my ancient heritage, and a grounded conduit to the core that binds us. They are the mirror that is left behind when the imprint of our footsteps remain.
I record the human trail; so that we may look at ourselves and remember who we are.
Chain of Command
Photographic print
The Green House I
Photographic print
Milk for Dust
Milk for Dust ©
Like rain to sand
He bought blood from my veins, with shameful notes
but saw only refuse in the costume of my body;
Attracted and repulsed, he strangled my throat
And threw me aside to the gutter of the road.
Lifeless and stained, I picked up the chalice of my name
and grabbed pennies in the mud
But it was not enough to buy food for flesh
So tomorrow again, I will sell milk for dust.
In the tedious quest of pleasure for refuge,
Magnetising the infinite, eternal lure of feminine,
Risking the ceaseless sewer of repugnance,
I fill my chalice with sand for blood
And live on empty veins of lust.
Tanisha Bhana (for Nasreen)
Graceland
Photographic print
Milk for Dust
Photographic print