Rituals of the Living
- Constitution Hill, Johannesburg

There is a room found at the end of a long corridor entered through a trap door in the ground. Despite the languorous heat of the midsummer afternoon sun the room at the end of the winding corridor is cool. The otherwise oppressive heat does not reach it deep under the ramparts of Constitution Hill. In order to get to it you walk into the door on the side of the man made hill, past the rooms on the ground floor and down into a trapdoor at the beginning of a corridor. Once under the trap door there is another corridor, this one has a floor that is at a slight slope. As one walks further along the corridor there is a descent taking you deeper into the ground. At the end the room sits still, dark and cool, insulated from the afternoon heat by the earth to the sides, below and above it.
Here, there is no daylight. The room has a kind of stillness that feels like it has not been interrupted for a long time. These rooms, so far underground and out of sight, seem undisturbed since a time when they were used for things that needed to be kept far form the sight of people in the world above. The walls are dull and the floor has a thick layer of dust mixed with the carcass of tiny animals and insects. There is a doorframe in the entrance to the room that looks like it once held a heavy metal door. In the stillness a woman appears. She moves about cleaning the room.

Ground floor installation composed of surveillance security monitors, T.V. monitors, and brick from the old prison building.
Ground floor installation composed of surveillance security monitors, T.V. monitors, and brick from the old prison building.
Ground floor installation composed of surveillance security monitors, T.V. monitors, and brick from the old prison building.
Ground floor installation composed of surveillance security monitors, T.V. monitors, and brick from the old prison building.
Ground floor installation composed of surveillance security monitors, T.V. monitors, and brick from the old prison building.
Passage leading away from the first installation space towards the trap door that lead to the second installation room.
Passage under the trap door leading towards the second installation space vissible in the distance.
Passage approaching the second installation space.
Second installation space consisting of the projected video By and by some trace remains. This is accompanied by a glass display box containing the dirt collected from the room when I was performing the cleaning ritual seen in the video above.
Detail of the glass display box containing the dirt collected from the room when I was performing the cleaning ritual seen in the video above.
Image of projection By and by some trace remains.
Image of projection By and by some trace remains.
Image of projection By and by some trace remains.
Long shot of full insatllation in hte second room below the trapdoor.