:: 2009 :: 500cm x 130cm :: Single Edition Digital Print on Canvas ::
This work maps in a fairly proportional timelines the history of human artistic expression and symbolic cognition since its emergence in Southern Africa in the Middle Palaeolithic up to the present day. The trail through such a vast treasure trove is represented by fotprints which fade in and out in line with finds or gaps in the archaeological record. Beginning with the Blombos Red Ochre Artefact from South Africa and the Taforalt beads from Morocco, we move through line glyphs on rock from Africa and the emergence of female statuary in Europe as well as rock art from Australia. We then proceed through the heyday of Palaeolithic Art - the Aurignacian and Magdalenian periods - before arriving at the Neolithic some three quarters of the way along the piece. Much of the artistic endeavours of the high civilisations from the Bronze Age onwards can be seen at the far right of the piece, and one can even recognise the reawakening of the Renaissance some five hundred years ago close to the bottom right. Thus, we gain a sense of the vast expanse of time that humanity has been a symbolic creature, an expanse which dwarves the post-Renaissance, post-Classical or post-Palaeolithic views of art history that are generally found in academic texts.
