Lot 23.

Experimental mapping project: “Letters from the Landscape (part 1) by Craig McClenaghan”
(Price Guide: R 129,000)

Letters from the Landscape, is an an experimental mapping project, explored across multiple scales of place and time, in which landscape and artefact are interchangeable; and recorded in fragments, imprints and residues. Conceptualised as materials that hold memory, paper and water were explored here as media through which landscape was recorded and translated.

The atlas comprises sixteen sheets (495 x 660mm) of handmade paper, embossed with the two-and-a-half billion year-old markings on the Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements Archeological Site in the Northern Cape. The installation was commissioned by and exhibited at the 18th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, The Laboratory of the Future, in the Curator's Special Project, Mnemonic, in 2023 and again at the Re-Imagining Heritage, Archives and Museums conference in Cape Town in February 2024.The project was a collaborative multi-disciplinary effort between architects, artists, paper-makers, archaeologists, heritage practitioners, indigenous oral-history storytellers and students.

The artist, Craig McClenaghan, is an award-winning architect, artist and educator. Recent accolades include the Desmond Tutu 'Truth to Power' Exhibition at the Old Granary in Cape Town, a top-three finalist in the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission Memorial Competition for the Company Gardens, the award-winning Nelson Mandela Capture Site Museum Exhibition and the Gold of Mapungubwe exhibition at the Javett Art Centre in Pretoria. Before establishing his eponymous architectural studio, Craig McClenaghan Architecture, he worked on several high profile cultural narrative architectural projects including the Apartheid Museum, Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum, Origins Centre, Liliesleaf Liberation Centre, Freedom Park and Golden Gate Dinosaur Museum.

Re-Imagining Heritage, Archives and Museums, Cape Town, 2024 The Laboratory of the Future, The 18th International Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2023 Award of Merit, South African Institute of Architects, for Pathways through Time, 2018 Pathways through Time, Africa Architecture Awards, 2017 Maropeng Acts 1 & 2, Istanbul Design Biennale, 2016

Email: craig@cmarchitecture.co.za