About
Nina Barnett uses drawing, printmaking, photography, moving image and installation to examine
particular locations in relation to the body, deep time and vertical scale. Her work seeks
connections between the geographical, the experienced and the materiality of surfaces, and
questions the relationship between the theoretical, surmised and accidental logic.
Since returning to South Africa from the United States in 2015 Nina has been making work
about the Vredefort Dome, a meteor impact site located just south of Johannesburg. The site
itself is significantly absent - so much has been eroded over billions of years. It is difficult to
imagine the massive collision and it’s affect on the earth without impressive visual reference
points. The size of the impact does not allow for one to comprehend its scale from the ground -
only from the air can the remnants of a shape be discerned. This birds-eye view, and closely
observed geological formations, are all the evidence of it’s existence.
Nina is a South African artist currently living in Johannesburg.