Landfill Meditation

Internationally acclaimed South African artist Faith47 and ‘Larney Jou Poes’ director Dane Dodds have released Landfill Meditation, a collaborative video inspired by her street paste series of broken down cars.

Landfill Meditation doesn’t chronicle the creation of the murals but rather contextualises them, linking Faith47’s abandoned cars to other objects and spaces once loved and desired, then later discarded.

“This project is reflecting on the notion of progress and the waste that it leaves behind,” says Faith47. “This is about integrating the worst parts of ourselves and acknowledging the damage we do to the planet as a whole.”

Landfill Meditation makes for uncomfortable viewing: rather than the usual postcard view of Cape Town or Johannesburg, Dane’s camera lingers on unsettling imagery of rats and rubbish, decomposing birds and derelict, hijacked buildings.

“We cannot separate ourselves clean and perfect from the trash we dump out back,” says the video’s voiceover, adapted from Native American author Gerald Vizenor’s short story collection, Landfill Meditation. “Being clean is a delusion.”

Credits:
Director: Dane Dodds
Assistant director and artist: Faith47
Music: Sylvan Aztok
Co-editor: Marte Aasen
Male voice: Nigel Penn
Female voice: Nkuli Mlangeni
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