Art Portfolio

Ann Gadd — Project Statement

A Meeting of Minds

Graffiti art sprayed on street walls and ancient Khoisan images scratched into rock equally excites me.

Some of the earliest examples of creativity combined with contemporary expression seemed destined to meet through my lenses in diverse but well-traveled landscapes. Both were and are used to express (very different) environments. The same areas in the bushveld of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, where I disappear for weeks to capture wildlife images, are the same territories once used by the Khoisan to catch their prey. I saw the connection between those ancient tribes recoding their quests and our need to record our lives, as depicted via street art. Recording these diverse forms of public personal expression makes the past an intrinsic part of the present. 

As a photographer and artist, it occurred to me that this combination of ancient and modern art would form a dynamic documentary for my form of expression—wildlife photography.

Each work becomes a filtered view into the past and present, and my proposed work completes the triangle of history, present, and future observer. Graffiti art sprayed on street walls and ancient Khoisan images scratched into rocks in the wild excite me equally. As a photographer and artist, I seek to record and combine these forms of public personal expression with my own. Thus, history is revealed through contemporary photography and graffiti, making the past an intrinsic part of the present. Like the books I write, it involves adapting and editing – a constant process of evolving until the result feels (almost) balanced.

I work to build up a painting adding layers and more symbols each time, only to then start the process of slowly stripping away. This creates a new ‘landscape’ that can bear little resemblance to the underlying image.