Sweeping Maputo, 1998

30 day performance. Single channel video projection on a loop 9'x 12'. Installation dimensions variable. This work has been performed in seven different locations.

Extract from a conference paper delivered at The National Museum of Film, Photography and Television, Bradford, UK, 2001.

In this performance-based work, the viewer is confronted with a complex spatial tableau that oscillates between erasure and creation, negating identity and constructing new spatial meanings. Sweeping, often perceived as a mundane or meaningless endeavor, is elevated to a meditative practice that simultaneously obliterates footprints while inscribing new textures into the sand, effectively delineating a line along the coastline.

This seemingly simple gesture is fraught with manifold implications, most saliently, raising questions concerning spatial neutrality and the elusive quest for cultural impartiality. While the act of sweeping might initially be interpreted as an act of erasure, a symbolic annihilation of identity, it concurrently serves as an act of spatial production. The performance posits a state of intermediacy, a liminal space perpetually in flux, a grey area that resists easy categorization. It is a cathartic manipulation of the landscape involving cleaning, wiping, and sweeping, which serve as literal and metaphorical gestures.

In executing this work, I aim to unveil the fragile components of a culture rife with contradictions and complexities. I am particularly intrigued by the overlapping cultural norms and the stratification of influences permeating our lived experiences. As our individual and collective histories increasingly intersect in an era inundated with unprecedented volumes of information and modes of exchange, new vectors of cultural overlap emerge. This interstitial space captivates my artistic interest—a nexus where identities meld, become pluralistic and give rise to an ambiguous space that resonates with the intricate layers of historical complexity and implies a form of complicity. This space is emotionally charged, and its contours are not always clearly defined, even to myself. In moments of such uncertainty, cleaning, wiping, and sweeping serve as both a personal and artistic coping mechanism, a way to navigate the complexities of identity and space.