Dust to dust

Title: 'Dust to dust'
Bronze and steel
18cm x 13cm x 7cm
Limited edition: /11

Dust to dust speaks of the poetry in death. Death is the grand leveler. It disregards gender, race, social class, wealth, weight, and fame. It is both the thief and the bringer of meaning. Its potency infiltrates all our lives. Death is closely linked with the earth element. It is our flesh and bones which surrender to death’s decay, and to the earth that our flesh and bones return.

This piece was created from a dried bouquet collected from the wild grassland outside my home. It is a plant called imphepho, which is a variety of African sage. It is the most widely-used medicinal herb in South Africa. From a spiritual perspective, it is important to harvest it intentionally and sustainably.

Across millennia and cultures, the four natural elements appear and re-appear in our most sacred prayers and rituals. They go beyond the form of the ceremonial rites designed by each culture to reach something deep within us. They are access points to the infinite. Creating a bridge between us and the world that embraces us, these elements evoke the general in the specific. Bronze, itself a child of all four elements, is the perfect medium for this series which begs to be touched and held as the viewer contemplates the divine through the tangible.