Archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper
Photo credit : Tony Meintjes
The photography is extracted from Berni Searle's last series called “Seeking Refuge”. Commissioned by the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, the Seeking Refuge series focuses on ideas around migration. Shot on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, the video and related photographs situate the artist within a stark, beautiful landscape that is manifestly inhospitable, yet within which people have found ways to survive. Searle wanders barefoot, finding shelter in shallow cavities in the soil, among the vines, in a stranded boat. The elements specific to Lanzarote’s landscape – the black volcanic soil, the red cochineal dye staining her feet and hands – are of critical importance; in walking and pausing she embraces them, bearing the physical and emotional traces impressed on her along the way.
