Liberty Leading the People was my first step into the art world and my first exhibition. It was a huge success and attracted a massive turnout at the White Room (gallery at Dear Me). A lot of people missed the speech and asked me to publish it. So I’m just posting my notes from my speech below which will explain the artwork on the process behind it. I’m selling Limited edition prints of Liberty an details are here.

“Just to explain a bit of background to this work. This whole process started a year ago when I was traveling in Argentina where nobody really spoke English. Nobody really knew where Cape Town was. They’d never seen Table Mountain. They knew very little about our history, our culture, our problems. Being in this bubble so removed from everything culturally familiar really helped me to think of what contemporary South Africa really was about. So I asked myself if I could create some kind of image that would kind of summarize or distill our contemporary social and political landscape. What is South Africa like in one picture. What kind of themes I would use. Why are people striking all the time? What about all the violence. Has the idea of freedom and liberty warped into some kind of economic idea, driving our culture. People want money. Food. Luxuries. Cars. Beer. Access to things you want. This is a type of Liberty. Freedom has changed.

We have a very youthful, energetic nation full of beauty and but experiencing great growth struggles. But I think we will look back at this time one day and say that this was one of the most amazing and exciting times to live here. To be South African. This is what I’m trying to convey in a single image. All these characters symbolize different parts of our society and how they are fighting, struggling to fit together… Without giving too much away. I’m going to leave you to decide how to interpret the work.

This is my first step into the Art world. Liberty Leading the People is the first in a series of works that I want to do covering the same themes about contemporary South Africa.

Thank-you for coming and your support. I couldn’t have done this with out the support of some amazing friends: Francois, David, Fiela, Gareth my not so dead cousin, Fritz, Jon, Shaun Bond, Pieter from Photohire for the amazing Briese lights and Leica Medium Format, Graham, Justice (the chicken), Natalie and Anton, Muzz, Eden… and Ilse, Vanessa and Ronel for hosting us at this beautiful gallery. Have a great evening. ”

Thank-you to @wickedjon for taking the awesome behind the scenes pics.