Snake Eagle Thinking Path PART 3 (interviews)
Channel: Site_Specific
Date: 2015-09-04

The Karoo Geoglyphs Project

In 2009 Anni Snyman & friends headed for the Tankwa AfrikaBurn event where they mapped out a large land art drawing of the Earth Siren meander, inviting everyone to walk it and contemplate the dire need for intervention in how we approach and treat our only home - earth. The Earth Siren was an alarm call, and the hope was to create a permanent version of her in the Karoo to call attention to the environmentally destructive development projects unfolding there.

http://annisnyman.co.za/2010/content/artGallery/siren00.html

Once again in 2012, the Site_Specific team headed for the Richmond book festival, drawing out a small symbolic meander of the highly endangered Riverine Rabbit, also in the hope of actualising a large permanent version in the Karoo.

http://goo.gl/R4HwS7

#SnakeEagleThinkingPath

After 5 years of planning, the Site_Specific team has created their first permanent Karoo Geoglyph: the Snake Eagle Thinking Path in honour of a breeding pair resident in the Matjiesfontein area. The motivation behind the geoglyph is to attract global attention via Google Earth to the precarious semi-arid biome of the Karoo, encouraging tourists to visit the town of Matjiesfontein and walk the meander.

Artist’s statement:

The Snake Eagle Thinking Path celebrates the unity of specie and habitat. The heart of the eagle is formed by two intertwining shapes that symbolise not only the food of the eagle, but also the flow of water in the nearby river, and the air currents that keep it aloft. It is impossible to split the essence of an eagle from the wide expanse of sky that it inhabits, nor should a snake be imagined without the ground, vegetation and water of its home.

The geoglyph consists of one continuous line - a footpath that will lead the walker back to where s/he started, allowing the experience of wide open karoo veld and sky to soak in.

Tip to tip the drawing is 178 x 58 metres, and the continuous footpath covers a distance of about 1,5 kilometres, a casual 25 minute walk. The drawing was created by the Site_Specific land art collective of artists, volunteers, and supporters.  Started in September 2014 it took four five day trips to complete by March 2015 and was officially launched in September 2015.

Thank you for the generous support of the Lord Milner Hotel (Matjiesfontein), ClemenGold and Umvoto Africa earth sciences consultancy – as well as the Matjiesfontein community and every artist and volunteer’s time, energy, passion and hard work.

~ Anni Snyman

http://www.matjiesfontein.com/
http://www.umvoto.com/
http://www.clemengold.com/
&
http://sitespecific.org.za/karoo-geoglyph/

Follow our Karro Geoglyphs project on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/karoo.geoglyphs

Aerial footage captured on a GoPro camera through the generous support of Aerial Film & Photography (fluidaerial@gmail.com).

PART 1 filmed on a Samsung tablet: http://youtu.be/BMZBY8VNp4g

PART 2 filmed on a Nikon Coolpix: https://youtu.be/_rkg6EiylCk

Filmed & edited by: 
katty vandenberghe of [•]squareDot.co.za Media (Site_Specific’s web media co-ordinator)