Attend the exhibition opening and book launch of Broken Land by Daylin Paul in the Main Gallery at the KZNSA Gallery
on September 3, 2019, at 17h30 for 18h00. All are welcome, and entrance is free
The project explores the other side of power. Set in Mpumalanga, home of
46% of South Africa’s arable soils, it is also the backdrop to where nine
power-burning coal stations are active. Daylin Paul is the fifth winner of the
Ernest Cole Award. The exhibition will also launch his book published by Jacana
Press.
Paul’s work explores the direct impact of fuel burning coal stations on
the local economy, population, farming community and more broadly climate
change. As he says, “These power stations, while providing electricity for an
energy desperate South Africa, also have a devastating and lasting impact on
the environment and the health of local people. Vast tracts of fertile, arable
land are being ripped up, the landscape scarred with the black pits of coal
mines while coal-burning power stations, are one of the biggest greenhouse gas
emitters in the world.” The polluting power stations not only contribute to
global climate change but through toxic sulphur effluent, also to the poisoning
of scarce water supplies for a range of communities who are dependent on these
for their survival.
The power dynamics in the area have in recent times been drawn into the
national political arena. Eskom and a conglomerate of mines owned by the Gupta
family are embroiled in corruption and nepotism scandals that have affected the
very highest echelons of the South African government and all levels of the
economy.
The aim of Paul’s project is, as he says, “to look at both the macro
issues like pollution, poverty and climate change while also personalizing the
experience of the local people who are on the front lines of this crisis. This
provides us with a glimpse of what the future could be like for the country and
indeed the SADC region.”
After spending two years documenting on the ground, Paul says, “I can
testify that the scale of destruction in Mpumalanga is wholescale. From the
highways and major roads, it is difficult to get a sense of how vast the
torn-up landscape is because it is often hidden behind tailings, piled close to
the side of the road. It’s easy to get mesmerized by the sheer size of the
mines, machines and power stations that fuel South Africa’s addiction to coal.
It’s easy to forget that this affects human beings whose stories are even more
beautiful and tragic than the landscape that mirrors their lives.”
While the impact on communities he found devastating, he was touched by
how individuals in various communities were willing to share their stories with
him. He recounts: “I spent countless hours driving around Mpumalanga, stopping
where I saw something or someone and starting a conversation. I’m still amazed
at how open and sincere almost all the people I met along this journey were.
How willing to share their lives and their feelings with a total stranger. The
amount of trust they placed in me is a tremendous act of faith. Sebastião
Salgado in conversation with John Berger once said that ‘the camera is a
microphone’. My sincere hope is that I have amplified the voices of those who
have shared their stories with me and not my own.”
His attempt to document the full scale of the problem humbled him by its
enormity. As he observed, “The situation continues to grow on a daily basis
both in Mpumalanga and across the globe as we sleepwalk ever closer toward
climate catastrophe. The reporting around climate change is often cold,
statistical and its symptoms are seemingly remote. But its true price is human
and personal and its consequences are looming ominously, even now, in the
present.”
This exhibition is simultaneously a documentation of the cost of
extracting and burning coal, an indictment against any notion of “clean coal”
and a testimony to the reality of those living close to coal mines. The project,
he concludes, “is also a portent into the terrifying future we face as a planet
as climate change and the cumulative effect of decades of pollution adds up and
demands a reckoning. It is an invaluable interrogation from the frontline of
the battle to save the earth and, perhaps, our own humanity.”
Broken Land runs at the KZNSA
from September 3 to 28. The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road,
Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1705 or cell 082 220 0368 or
visit www.kznsa.co.za
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