• Full Title The lemon to the left is genetically modified
• Date Completed 30 April 2021
• Dimensions 50 x 50cm (round)
• Medium Oil on canvas
• Ground Gesso primed canvas
• Ground Support 5cm deep wooden stretcher
• Framing Unframed
• Authentication Signed (XTN) side right
• Authentication date Not dated
• Series Not Applicable
• Sub-Series Not Applicable
• Copyright Owner Corné Eksteen Artist
• Publications None

• Availability Sold
• Current Location Private Collection | South Africa
• Agent State of the Art Gallery

• 2021 Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Art Award Exhibition | Hermanus FynArts | Hermanus | South Africa

My conceptual response to the theme of Biomimicry: the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems, came from a slightly different perspective.

Biomimicry has always been part of human endeavor. From ancient cultures to modern technology, the way we construct, design and structure our civilizations and inventions can always be traced back or compared to a natural forms, patterns or processes. Perhaps our sense of urgency in facing the environmental crises of the early 21st century has made biomimicry a preferred design ethos as we as a civilization desperately try to re-align ourselves with nature in the face of a pending environmental collapse.

Our attempts at mimicking nature have undoubtedly always led to a disruption of the natural processes on which we have based our designs and constructs. It is from the perspective of this disruption that I created the piece.

Visually the piece consists of a traditional still life, something that has often been used to celebrate nature and its abundance. The circular form (or Tondo) plays into the idea of a sustained process or cycle – something that is found in every cycle in nature from the carbon cycle to the water cycle. A continuous, uninterrupted flow with no beginning and no end. This is juxtaposed by the suggested table or surface on which the objects are painted within the image and represents human thinking. Human thinking is of a much more linear nature, for us everything must have a beginning and an end. The additional distortion of the image is suggestive of the decay of natural systems and processes and represents our direct influence on the natural world – in this case, as the title suggests, genetic tampering.

The work ponders the influence and impact of our linear thinking on the natural world. A world which is built on cyclical processes and thought, beckoning us to not just emulate nature, but to align with it for the sake of our own survival.