- Titles Dreaming of the Dark Continent (Proper)
- Artist Ian van Coller, South Africa, born 1970
- Medium photogravure on Japanese silk tissue; black ink on BFK Rives paper; black tape
- Dimensions (folio closed) 11 1/4 x 14 in. (28.6 x 35.6 cm) (folio opened) 11 1/4 x 84 1/8 in. (28.6 x 213.7 cm) (cover) 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm)
- Credit Line Gift of Susie and Scott Robertson, 2003.41
- Work Type folio
- Classification Books
- Signature Recto of last page of folio, lower right corner, in graphite: Ian Coller B Brand
- Marks Watermark: BFK RIVES
- Inscription Recto of cover sheet, printed in black ink: Dreaming of the Dark Continent Verso of cover sheet, lower right corner, in graphite: 2003.41 Recto of insert, printed in black ink: Colophon / Dreaming of the Dark Continent [italicized], was photographed, designed, set / printed, and bound, by Ian van Coller at hi Kakkerlak Press / in Tempe, Arizona, during November of 1996. The images / were printed by the photogravure process on Japanese silk / tissue. The text by Beth Brand was handset in Baskerville Roman / & Italic and printed on Rives BFK. The grain storage structures / were photographed in Zambia earlier in the year, while the / portraits were appropriated from Das Urwald Dokumente [italicized] by / Alfred Mansfield. / Of an edition of 10, this is number 2. Verso of insert, lower right corner, in graphite: 2003.41 Interior of folio, printed in black ink: July 1847 [italicized] / Much of my youth had been spent dreaming of the dark continent. / The call of a place untamed tempted my imagination and haunted my / soul. As I pursued the qualities befitting a gentleman, and considered / generations from which I had come, who had endeavored to throw off / the yoke of ignorance and instinct, I wondered how close to heaven our / cultivated soil and minds had come. What would it be like to encoun- / ter innocence and savagery, to step as one civilised, in possession of / knowledge, wit and understanding, into a place unchanged since the / dawn of time? I had visions of myself as an angel dispensing truth and / help, bringing the hope of salvation and so accomplishing my own re- / birth. Interior of folio, printed in black ink: February 1849 [italicized] / This place is rank and foul. Nothing moves, all is still and waiting, like / a cat poised for the kill. My strength ebbs with each day spent be- / neath this unforgiving sky. The ways and manners of these people are / strange beyond reckoning/ Has God's face ever turned here? Surely / this is a place forgotten and the hand of grace has long since been / withdrawn. Magic and Witchcraft are rife. All manner of hideous cere- / monies are performed using bones of the dead and plant and animal / matter. These lost and fearful souls are held in thrall of the tribal doc- / tor who proclaims prophecies, accuses innocents and unleashes curses. / His only testing is the possible failure of his rantings to prove true, but / he is seldom held accountable for this. Interior of folio, printed in black ink: October 1849 [italicized] / How are these things which I have seen to be tested? My dreams have / long since withered into the nonsense that they were. In a place where / good and evil are matters of superstition or social economy, what is to / be said? What judgements are to be made? I wander through these / days as if a fog has descended on my mind and my soul is sorely op- / pressed. I am alone in a wilderness where shape and form have little / meaning. These people do not recognise me and I scarcely recognise / myself. The heat, the heat takes my breath away. I am sinking into a / world of stench/ How much farther must I go? Inwards and down- / wards where the light cannot reach. I am dissolved into an organ of / mere sensation, lacking all subtlety. I am lost in this place of vast dark- / ness. Recto of last page of folio, lower center, in graphite: 2/10 Back cover of folio, lower right corner, in graphite: 2003.41
- Provenance Collection of Susie and Scott Robertson, Scottsdale, Arizona; 2003 gift to the Birmingham Museum of Art
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