I read about the plastic pellets that had washed up on the beaches in Galicia. I am very interested in environmental issues and this in particular made me think about how the world’s oceans are connected and what happens in Galicia (the ship losing containers filled with plastic pellets) could affect an area much larger than the local shoreline. Previously I have researched the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt which is a global circulation system in the oceans. With global temperatures rising there is the potential that ocean currents’ flow will be disrupted and consequently the water (and what it carries with it) will no longer follow established routes.

There is the beginning of an idea connecting this to the pilgrimage routes (the proximity closeness to Santiago de Compostela) that have been followed for centuries, and the notion of the sea and how water travels within the ocean. Before the residency at Casa Artistica Do Picho, I took part in at a global conference focussed on Antarctic research. It is inevitable that Antarctica, a major driver in global currents, will be referenced in this project. I would like to draw a connection between Antarctica via the Atlantic Ocean, to the coast of Galicia. The Atlantic also connects my home-town, Cape Town, with the Galician coast. While I want to recognise the specificity of Galicia I am also thinking about its position globally.

My artwork is photographic. I have brought some existing artwork with me to Do Picho, art that I made in Antarctica, photographed with an ice lens. My plan is that the residency work will relate to and build on the ideas present in the existing images.

I listened to a radio interview with Alfredo Conde in which he talks about the magical quality of Galicia and the transformative power of the elements to shift what we think we see. In this project I plan to investigate abstraction as a way to reference this transformative experience, and relate the residency images to my Antarctic project.

Most importantly the residency artwork will develop during the time I spend at Do Picho, influenced by the experience of being immersed in the environment.