- The third and last journey documents the nesting beaches of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta-Caretta) in the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to Crete to Peloponissos and finally ôï Zakynthos. How did this last journey come about?
- The parallel here is not new; animal rights issues are really human rights issues. A concern for the ecology, and as a continuation of 330nM, if the turtles art to survive AND BREED, they must rise above sea level … I also saw the turtle as a cycle of life, however cliché this may sound, which is this relationship of human nature to Íature, this mirror-like relationship in which humanity is trying to remake nature in its own image. I then wondered how ‘natural’ were my births. This then briefly took me into the tools of intervention so to speak. So the answer is not so simple but has multiple layers.
-So this last journey begins with the series of four gynaecological tools, photographs in light boxes mounted on the ceiling among a forest of plastic tubes. Are these images an emblematic metaphor for human interventions to aid labours?
- The idea was to use the light to catch reflections of the water sachets just below them, pushing the viewers glance to the floor. You have to work to see the images that hang above the plastic tubing of ‘the forest’ of water sachets. By adding visual barriers it’s like different viewing experiences and require people to physically participate with the space and perhaps not just be an observer. These tools are used in natural births. They are basic ordinary, ‘classic’ everyday simple gynaecologists tools, low-priced, run-of-the-mill. I liked their good clear non-designer functional purity that reminds common hardware tools.
- The nest images confront a vision of the worst-case scenario while others seduce with their appeal of the best parts of the Mediterranean and of the human efforts to preserve nature. The most obvious ones can be seen in photos taken from Limni and Lara, both in Cyprus. The photograph from Limni shows two protected nests with a set of car tracks running between them, this in contrast to Lara bay, in the Akamas peninsula, where it is now a paradise sanctuary that is strictly preserved and monitored.
- I should note here that the ‘paradise photo’ is only at Lara, the rest of Akamas is still healing from the
British Military exercises that were carried out for decades within a 25 square km area at the NÅ tip of Akamas utilizing live ammunition (thousands of bombs in sea and earth) that have resulted in extensive damages to the fragile ecosystem of Akamas. Akamas Peninsula needless to say is a Biosphere Reserve National Park area. Fires had left extensive areas scorched. Within the firing ranges there were bare patches reminiscent of lunar landscape. Most of the area, including the surrounding sea, was littered with both spent and live ammunition and chemicals can still be found. Even though this has stopped since 2003, years may to pass before this nature is to be healed. It is significant to note that within this area there are 16 main archaeological and historical sites (including over 300 churches). Ironically, since then, the British made other arrangements for their military exercises, they are “using” another natural area near Kornos village.
- In this series for the first time people appear. Was it now a conscious decision?
-Yes, the turtles lay their eggs at the peak of summer holidays and prefer the same sandy beaches as humans. I wanted to show this ‘co-existence’ between people and wildlife..…
- These turtles mainly nest in the above places and migrate thousands of miles to return to the same beaches where they themselves hatched. It is a wonder that they seem to remember where they were born and that they have the extraordinary ability to find these places again. Perhaps their story is parallel to mine, however far I go I keep coming back to the place I was born.