Nina Barnett is a Johannesburg-based artist and researcher. Her creative practice uses drawings, immersive installations and experimental filmmaking to engage with questions of geography, infrastructure, materiality, and experiential knowledge. She has recently completed a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg, with a project titled “The Intra-Active Vaal Dam: Imagining Water Beyond the Hydrocolonial”.
Barnett’s artistic research regarding water and water systems has recently centred on the re-imagining of Johannesburg’s municipal water beyond the utility, with a focus on the Vaal Dam (the anthropogenic water body that supports the landlocked city) . The cycle of water extraction, purification, pollution and expulsion offers a problematic example of a water as a commodified resource in an era of climate crisis. Barnett’s work brings attention to the materialities of this system and offers alternative ways to know this water through installation, drawing and papermaking.
Contact: nina@ninabarnett.org
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