The Distance Narrows

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The Distance Narrows
Charcoal on Paper
60cm x 100cm


There is a lot of space in Namibia.

So much space that it can be difficult to describe.

The landscape stretches away beneath enormous skies, and the animals can seem almost insignificant within it.

When I made this drawing, I wanted to hold on to that feeling.

But I didn't want to draw the landscape.

Instead, I wanted to create it through the space around the animals.

I deliberately allowed large areas of the paper to remain empty.

Or perhaps empty isn't quite the right word.

The space is the landscape.

It is the sky.

The distance.

The vastness of the Namib-Naukluft.

The zebras occupy only a small part of it, and yet their presence changes everything.

I found myself thinking about how differently we experience distance when we are standing in a landscape like this.

Something can be physically close and still feel impossibly far away.

A herd can be visible across a valley, yet the space between us is enormous.

And then, sometimes, the animals move.

A few steps.

A change of direction.

One animal draws closer to another.

The vastness remains, but the distance between them narrows.

That is what I wanted to explore in this drawing.

Not the shapes of the mountains.

Not a literal representation of the landscape.

But the feeling of being surrounded by space.

As I worked, I became increasingly aware that I could say more by drawing less.

The white of the paper could become sky.

The space between the marks could become distance.

The absence of detail could suggest something much larger than I could ever describe.

And somewhere within all that space, there are the zebras.

Small.

Present.

Connected to one another and to the landscape around them.

For me, that is part of the beauty of this place.

The land is enormous.

The animals are small within it.

And yet, somehow, they belong completely.

The distance narrows.


Continue exploring


Collected Moments of Survival
Explore the drawings, stories and book behind the project.
[Explore the project ]


Original artwork
Original works from the series are available to reserve ahead of the December exhibition.
[View available works ]


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The Next Step

Location: Namibia

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