Liquid Mimesis

In the series Liquid Mimesis South African photographer Zak van Biljon dedicates himself to the element of water. As the element of the source of life or as a symbol for purity, water accompanies us in its various states of matter through everyday life at home and outside. Water flows, evaporates, vaporizes and freezes. Water is both colorless and odorless and yet it is perceptible on all sensory levels. Perhaps, water calls for being photographed because of its ever- changing nature and its elusive character. In Liquid Mimesis, van Biljon places his artistic focal point on natural bodies of water. Applying the technique of infrared photography, he captures the surfaces of rivers and lakes with his camera. In the resulting photographs, van Biljon not only reflects upon the material properties of water, but also reveals a progressive process of abstraction. This process reflects nature’s ability to abstract itself in different ways.

Water and its surfaces in nature are as diverse as the possible range of emotional expressions on the human face: They can appear to be quiet, deep and smooth, or they can appear to be turbulent, dynamic and rough. Furthermore, open bodies of water are an indicator for the state of the atmosphere and they can either feel inviting or threatening to us. Water surfaces are, figuratively and literally, the mirrors of nature. As such, they possess the power to pictorially multiply their surroundings. In this respect, rivers, lakes and the sea represent a kaleidoscopic concept of multiplication. Coupled with the photographic practice, Zak van Biljon succeeds in illustrating how the mirroring surfaces of large and small bodies of water form an infinite number of new pictorial worlds that elude a conclusive classification.

The parallel worlds that exist on the water surfaces are fragmented in the photographic picture. As a viewer, we try to decipher the apparent natural forms and landscape elements of these parallel worlds, which are evidently being reflected in the mirroring surfaces of the water. We immediately realize however, that water has the ability to deceive our sense of perception — a circumstance which is being commented upon by Zak van Biljon in his photographs. Meaning, the photographs sum up the creative moment in which the mirrored forms and elements on the water’s surface are being dissolved by the movements of the liquid. In this sense, the photographs conclude how the mimetic world on the water surface is being animated and perforated through the waves and seesaws, currents, streams and drifting of the water. This fragmentation results in the creation of new, fleeting and abstracting worlds on the surface of the water. The stronger the movement of the water, the stronger the abstraction process. In the form of water, nature takes on the role of a

modernist artist who dissolves the figurative elements of the surrounding environment and reduces them to no more than a few indexical signs.

And yet, Zak van Biljon does more than make us aware of the mirroring, fragmenting and abstracting qualities of the material of water. We are also being made aware of the cultuic and political spheres in which the material operates. Evidently, this is being done in the set of water photographs that glow in a monochromatic golden color. Van Biljon achieves this extraordinary coloring via the infrared photography technique. The moment of abstraction is most pronounced in these images from the series. Looking at the golden images, we are hardly able to decipher the origins of the mirrored shapes on the water surface. In other words, we are confronted with a material transformation: Instead of water we seem to be looking at liquid gold, whose movements liquify, supersede and abstract the figurative elements on its surface.

Gold has a long-standing material tradition in the fields of the arts and culture. As a symbol for the sacred and supernatural, the use of the color gold in art signifies an opening to the spiritual realm through the image. For a long period of time, real gold was used by artists in their works. However, with the emergence of the notion of a self-contained artistic value—independent from the value of the raw materials used—this practice began to change. Leon Battista Alberti, the most distinguished architectural and art historian of the Early Renaissance praised those artists who renounced the use of real gold in their images and instead imitated the material through their skills in their respective media, with the following words:

„There are some who use much gold in their istoria. They think it gives majesty. I do not praise it. Even though one should paint Virgil’s Dido whose

quiver was of gold, her golden hair knotted with gold, and her purple robe girdled with pure gold, the reins of the horse and everything of gold, I should not wish gold to be used, for there is more admiration and praise for the painter who imitates the rays of gold with colors.“

In this respect, Zak van Biljon can be viewed as a sort of photographic alchemist who transforms water into gold in the pictorial sphere. As a master of his medium, van Biljon seems to be transforming the liquid element not only in terms of its color but also in terms of its materiality. The transformed coloring, the shining and shimmering of the gold water deceive our senses and provoke our skepticism in regards to the photographs. The material of water which was liquid at the point of being captured by the camera, now seems materially compact and tangible. The resulting

aesthetics of the gold color fascinate and repel us at the same time. If we think about the imminent value of water which seems to be close to the one of gold, the photographs can also reveal themselves to be unimposing commentators of the global political climate.

In conclusion, the photographs from the series Liquid Mimesis demonstrate how the concepts of both transformation and abstraction are essential to the notion water. The shapes and forms which are naturally copied on the water surface are dissolved by the various movements of the liquid element. Thus, in this mimesis, new, abstract worlds are being formed. And in turn, these worlds challenge our understanding of nature as an abstract artist.

Gwendolyn Faessler