read these roads. Kai Lossgott. 2009 – 2010. Single channel SD DV PAL, stereo. 03 min 59 sec.
The evaporating water animations hint at the living systemic relationship between Table Mountain’s hydrology systems, the City of Cape Town’s water system and the biological systems of the human body. This is a video poem of unfulfilled desire for a personal bond with the natural world. The soundtrack of the video is taken from Adderley Street in the Cape Town CBD, above the underground storm water drain where the now forgotten Varsterivier, among others, (3 million cubic tons of untapped fresh spring water) runs into the sea daily. Fresh water is one of South Africa’s scarcest resources.
“Only the felt language of empathy can re-claim our intrinsic worth as life-forms within the built environment.”
Kai Lossgott, in
On the Denial of Non-Anthropocentric Inter-Subjectivity in Urban Spaces : Reflecting on the video poem installation ‘read these roads’, in Dreyer, Elfriede. (ed). 2013. METROMUSINGS, Exhibition Catalogue. Visual Arts Department of the University of Pretoria. (Commissioned artist’s essay.)
This project draws on the original research by interdisciplinary South African water heritage scholar Caron von Zeil (Reclaim Camissa).