Lost in Dark II

Title: Lost in Dark II
Medium: Two colour lithograph and relief print
Paper size: 75 x 60 cm
Edition size: 25

"I decided to ponder South Africa at the time when no maps yet charted its vast territories. I was drawn to the idea that without maps and today’s GPS one might always be uncertain of where one is. To be lost, especially in a desert, with no hope of others looking for one, must be one of the most terrifying human experiences. Because of this, I decided to make the impression of an open book on the ground in sandy materials, a substance as fugitive as our very existence – ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes’.  

I looked for words that might describe the experience of being lost in the desert. One might, for example, feel that one has no future and so the word ‘futureless’ was ‘written’ down in the sand. Because no-one might be looking for one, one might feel that one’s name and very existence would be forgotten, and so I selected the word ‘nameless’.

I also realised that this experience of being lost is not only applicable to a far-away desert. One can be lost in a crowd or at home, in fact, anywhere and at any time. I made a long list of words describing in some way to me the things that might mill around in a lost individual’s head and from this list I selected the fourteen words listed above." Willem Boshoff