I was born and grew up in Windhoek, South West Africa,
(formerly German South West Africa), the capital of
Namibia.
A country more than double the size of the United Kingdom,
population
just over 1,000,000, there was a lot of space. But not
enough!
SWA was ruled by South Africa under the abhorent apartheid
system.
There was no such thing as a South West African passport.
The space was explained by the shifting dunes of the Namib
desert,
a dramatic and constantly changing landscape. Bone dry,
sandy, river
beds that became ranging torrents for five days out of 365
or, might not
have any water for three years.
A lunar landscape, caves, with extraordinary paintings and
marks on
stone. Flat rock surfaces the size of a tennis court with
spoor picked
or carved into them. Boulders with chevrons, circles,
grids, and
mythical man beasts engraved all around them.
Rhineland castles appeared in the middle of the desert next
to mud huts.
Cardboard and corrugated iron shanty towns grew next to
19th century
German, Colonial or Cape Dutch style architecture.
After working as a reporter, chicken farmer, actor and
director in Africa,
Australia, Israel and Europe, I came in 1973 to London to
study sculpture
at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts.
The art paradigm of the seventies included minimilism,
conceptual art,
performance and installation. Galleries were large white
spaces with as
little as possible in them. Artists took journeys into
deserts to record
their presence, made land art and site specific sculpture.
I moved from the desert.