2003
Floor piece
Sand-blasted contours of England, South Africa and Greece, superimposed on glass and granite
Pebbles from Greece, Wales, Scotland and from the old South african provinces of Northern Cape and Natal
1300mm (width) X 1500mm (length) X 100mm (height)
Psephocracy
Psephocracy is a form of government decided by elections. The Greeks 'invented' the ballot box when they voted with the psephos or 'pebble' in ceramic urns. Psephology is the study of elections and voting, and a psephologist is an electoial scientist or analyst. The title of the work, PSEPHOCRACY, is subversively chosen to rhyme with Democracy, but when it is said fast, it sound like Afrikaans 'se fokrasie'.
Pebbles were collected in the following places:
1. The Greek islands to reresent Greece as the beginning of democracy and voting
2. Aberystwyth - Wales, and Eyemouth - Scotland so that a line drawn from these two places will run through and cancel out England, Scotland and Wales
3. Rietfontein, Northern Cape and Shaka's Rock, Natal so that a line drawn from these two places will run through and cancel out the old South african provinces of Cape, Transvaal, Free State and Natal.Pebbles are assembled on the granite base in the form of a voters cross, linking the coordinates of the places where the pebbles were collected reminding us that when one votes, one confirms new hopes or as much as one cancels out old ones.
The overlapping of the three different sets of contours create an entanglement of lines and suggests that the voting process as a key to disentanglement can lead to surprising losses and gains of power and claims to land.