Floods are rapidly becoming a part of our currently reality. When cyclone Freddy hit Malawi in 2023 and I experienced the distress it caused, I started to track flooding across the globe. Water is a powerful substance with the capacity to transform a place unrecognisably. In the aftermath of its raging, settled water has the ability to dissolve sound. It is this quality of stillness after a catastrophe that I found most compelling about floods. For me these moments are steeped with beauty and with grief; with immense awe and the devastation of loss.

The paintings in this series are made with river clay that I collected in Worcester (South Africa) where my maternal ancestry farmed. It is a substance that I know intimately and that has much meaning for me. My choice of burnt plant material has a long history in my practice. It stems from my work with indigenous fynbos of the Cape which has to burn in order to propagate. Thus, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, burnt plant material represents hope and rebirth in my work.