And then there was one. Dan was my best friend at camp this summer. He's still in Scotland until November 1st where today they had a snowstorm! Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe or Zim as he calls it), he went to school in Cape Town, South Africa where he currently lives and works on his art. Dan's work usually involves the idea of the immigrant or displaced person, himself included. For a show in South Africa this summer during the World Cup he created a piece called Shifting the Goalposts where we went in and took a goal post from a football (soccer) field in South Africa and exchanged it with another post in Zimbabwe.
For his work in Scotland, Dan returned to a material he has used before, the Chinese laundry bag, variously called other immigrant baggage titles around the world. Using the pattern of the plastic bag, he commissioned a local mill to weave him a bolt of tartan in this pattern. He then created another bag out of the fabric as well as dressing himself up with it in a great kilt, which I then photographed him wearing out in front of the clock tower in Dufftown. He also positioned over a thousand barrels and painted the tops in the same pattern. Which, again I photographed with him from a cherry picker over 60 feet in the air on a very cold, windy, wet morning.
I already miss you Dan and all the great grilling (on the braai), the roast potatoes, our top 40 music early evening listening parties, pantsula and generally just messing about. Hopefully I'll be seeing you in South Africa next year Brah!
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