as a child i often spent time in the library at the school where my mother taught. since we didn’t have access to that many magazines at home, it was always a pleasure to engage with the different worlds of national geographic, most of which were as celestially foreign to me as udon. the iconic imagery from those yellow backed issues remain with me still and when i came across the work of caroline alkire i was amazed at how relevant her collages are to the contemporary arts scene and even more amazed at the fact that she is only 16 years old. as a parent i find that one can so often choose to be aghast or admiring of children’s unexpected insights, in my case it is usually the former. as i studied the works, i came across so many of the old images that i remembered and if that was not enough, i chanced upon the one that features a johannesburg skyline on a lunar horizon; it echoed my sentiments of the city in such a way that i felt compelled to order a print.
alkire’s work may yet mature but i certainly prefer the simple sensitivity in which she translates and combines images to create new cosmic landscapes to build a perspective and a sense of place.
