Land of cranes

2024, Airbrushed acrylic on glass with handmade wood frame, 62 W x 100 H cm, edges finished.

On the remnants of an ancient civilisation lie sedimentary fields, flooded with a thin layer of murky water and surrounded by a reddish-pink moat. In the dilapidated huts, mined salt sand is stored. Salt seeps out, overflows, turns grey and rusty—the proud salt is the mistress of this land. Rare people engage in strange, unseen activities; on the edges, the skeletons of machines that once worked for the happiness and prosperity of an unknown civilisation slowly dissolve. There are more cranes here than people; they circle in flocks high in the sky, like totems of this place, swooping behind the trees and stepping on the murky water. Cranes—echo, cranes—mirage.