Emme Pretorius

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

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E s t r a n g e d

“…environment is no longer simply the context for human agency, but the arena for the production of the entirety of both ‘natural’ and ‘social’ worlds. There is nothing beyond environment, and nothing (for instance, humans and their diverse cultures) excluded from it.” (Fox & Alldred, 2020: 123)

Considering this quote, if there is truly ‘nothing beyond environment, and nothing excluded from it’, if we are part of this ever evolving environment, why do we cause it so much harm? I believe, at the very core of our environmental crises, lies a wilful and unwilful distancing, a conscious and unconscious estrangement to the natural world. Finding no connection to it that cannot contain capital gain or, at the very least, a dominance of some sort. Denying the very fact that we come from, and are constantly connected to the natural world.

Despite its connection to the general state of the human/nature divide, this is quite a personal and reflective body of work. Accordingly, I feel it necessary to provide some background. I was born at the foot of the Outeniqua Mountains, in the heart of the Garden Route of South Africa, where I have also resided for the great majority of my life. My interaction with ‘non-human’ nature, has subsequently been greatly shaped by the indigenous forest environment of the general Garden Route that exist(ed) in abundance. While I also have a great love for every other terrestrial biome, nothing is quite as close to my heart as South African indigenous forests. When one walks in these forests, there is no denying that these majestically massive Podicarpus Latifolius (real yellowwood) trees, among so many others, possess a power greater than one could imagine. Perhaps this belief is merely a by-product of my upbringing, as my father never walks past one without tipping his hat and saying, “Dit is ‘n eer Ou Grote” (roughly translated to, “It’s an honour Old Mighty One”), but it has nonetheless, at the very least, instilled a great appreciation of the forest and its trees as equal beings to that of humankind on this earth.

In these forests, I am small and overwhelmingly, and undeniably, surrounded by a ‘non-human nature’ presence, majesty and power. By my feet, my sides and above me, there is nothing around me but forest.

Accordingly, while there are countless environmental concerns to address in relation to the human/nature psychological divide, one of the forest is of closest concern to me. This is especially true, as South Africa only has 7% of terrestrial environment suitable for its indigenous forest biomes (Pooley, 2012: 57). Furthermore, of this less than 1% is currently still forested (Pooley, 2012: 57). This is largely due to invasive alien tree species being regarded as possessing a higher value than indigenous forests because of the capital they can produce (Zengaya. et. al: 2017).

Considering this, how estranged have we become in order to not recognise this daunting path of capital pursuit at the expense of the environment, at the expense of us all? How estranged have I become? In an attempt to both document the little indigenous forests we have left and make apparent its fragmentation and our estrangement to these forests and the natural world, I photograph it. Using the formats of analogue photography available to me (35mm, 120mm & 4x5inch), I also allude to the looking at the forest through a historical lens, as though it is a ghost from the past. I spend weeks exploring forests, mostly around the Garden Route, and once I have decided on a specific location, I return with a camera. The forest scene is then broken up into various shots, and after developing the film, I try to reconstruct this piece of forest which I deconstructed by sewing it back together. Thereafter I return to the darkroom and handprint each individual shot onto expired paper, using exhausted chemicals, which allows for the fogged nature of my work. I then once more sew these fragmented pieces of forest back together in a well intentioned, yet quite estranged, attempt to metaphorically fix the forest and simultaneously expose its current fragmented state.

Donna Harraway (1992: 65), however, iterates that: “We must find another relationship to nature besides reification, possession, appropriation and nostalgia. No longer able to sustain the fictions of being either subjects or objects, all the partners in the potent conversations that constitute nature must find a new ground for making meanings together”

While my process aims to have a mutual conversation with the forest, my estrangement is still apparent in Estranged and its notion towards control and agency over the destruction/ deconstruction and repair of the forest, to only once more deconstruct to reconstruct. Although I allow for a new representation, I am too often the deciding agent in my process, rather than making meaning together. My initial aim might have been to make an estranged relationship to nature apparent, like an estranged family member, yet the process of my artistic practice only unveiled my own estrangement.

I know that I am part of ‘environment’, part of ‘nature’, yet I wilfully and unwilfully distance, consciously and unconsciously form an estranged relationship to the natural world, the forest, just as we all are.

Ultimately, I am estranged.

I mourn my loss.

And now that I know I am estranged,

I need to repair the relationship,

But,

Will I?

 

Fox, N.J. & Alldred, P. 2020. Sustainability, feminist posthumanism and the unusual capacities of (post)humans. Environmental

Sociology. 6(2): 121-131. DOI: 10.1080/23251042.2019.1704480

Haraway, D. 1992. Otherworldly conversations; terran topics; local terms. Science as Culture. 3(1): 64-95. DOI:

10.1080/09505439209526336

Pooley, S. 2012. Recovering the Lost History of Fire in South Africa’s Fynbos. Environmental History. 17(1): 55-83. Available:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23212616.pdf [2020, July 15]

Zengeya,T., Ivey, P., Woodford, D.J., Weyl, O., Novoa, A., Shackleton, R., Richardson, D. & van Wilgen, B. 2017. Managing

Conflict-Generating Invasive Species in South Africa: Challenges and trade-offs. Bothalia. 47(2). Available: https://doi.

org/10.4102/abc.v47i2.2160 [2020, July 20]