Notes

Both Vanish in the Years and Resonance Index feature traditional African clay pots from Slingsby’s personal collection. Slingsby regularly included cultural and ethnographic objects. They serve not only as references to the geometry of Africa’s creative legacy which deeply inspired him, but as subject featuring in his art. Both aspects represent a cornerstone of his art.

This, in turn, relates to a second cornerstone in his art, to discover and learn more about traditional communities and their art. Slingsby undertook extensive field trips throughout Africa, journeying to some of the most remote and often harsh regions on the African continent.

Slingsby’s journey started with the Nama people along the Orange River in the Richtersveld, which led to the Himba, along the Kunene in Namibia, and finally, the Mursi, Suri and Kara along the Omo River in the Omo Valley. These three rivers are represented over four decades of field work, observing and photographically recording the art of both the ancient and contemporary traditional communities as sites of Anthropogenic impact on ancestral land. His interest in ancient man’s mark making on rock found continuity in the creativity of the descendants of ancient artists, as expressed in Vanish in the Years and Resonance Index.