PUBLIC ART COMMISSION AWARD 2007 GLASS WALL FOR THE
DEPARTMENT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CSIR BUILDING TSHWANE, SA



THE GLASS PAINTINGS ARE ECO-ALCHEMICAL PIECES INCORPORATING RELEVANT DIAMONDIFEROUS MATERIALS AND METAL OXIDES CREATE EXPLOSIONS OF COLOUR WHEN COMBINED IN THE EXTRA-ORDINARY HEAT OF THE KILN

Jeannette Unite is working with Glass for her travelling exhibition : Earthscars - A Visual Mining Exploration which showed at 157 Jan Smuts Avenue from 20 November to 18 December 2004, after exhibiting in London, Cape Town (Irma Stern), Maputu (Mozambique National Gallery) and Kimberly (William Humphreys Art Gallery) in 2005. Earthscars - A Visual Mining Exploration is a response to mining through hot fused recycled glass that contains diamondiferous minerals, sands and oxides. The glass art includes new technology learnt from visiting hot shop 'glass' factories in Scandinavia and the UK.  "Whatever happens to the earth we should take personally" - Anita Roddick, Body Shop founder Works of molten sands, metal oxides and recycled glass with mining minerals, such as titanium dioxide, manganese and gold residues, arsenic and cyanide from Johannesburg mining dumps are fused between glass at high temperatures, setting off an explosion of chemical reactions and colour. Unite explores the relationship between man and earth and the impact of mining and industrialisation on the landscape. The Earthscars project was a response to the 40-year-old diamond prospecting pits which scar the South African West Coast - paleo beaches set down hundreds of millions of years ago. Panels also incorporate particles of Kimberlite from the Big Hole, coloured by earth pigments, to create pieces that refer to the rich geology and minerals that are integral to the economy and the colonial history of South Africa. Her method of art production, in which the earth's minerals become the artist's materials, reinforces the mining theme expressively.  Shattered layers: Glass work with recycled plate glass, hot fused with diamondiferous materials and sands. Lead and copper sheet, wire, metal oxides and compounds  Ground is more than dirt and gravel elements beneath the surface of the earth's crust, you'll find that mining has something to do with just about everything we use.  Kimberlite from the Big Hole with Copper: Copper prospects to the O'Okiep deposits occurred in Simon van der Stel's time.

Meek Inheritance (the meek will inherit the earth but not its mineral rights -John Paul Getty) Magnesium and pewter and titanium. hot fused with diamondiferous materials and sands. Lead and copper sheet, wire, metal oxides and compounds  Core: Cobalt with pewter and titanium copper etc. Lead and copper sheet, wire, metal oxides and compounds  Glacial: Glacial striations are evident on the bedrock of the South African escarpment. The landscape has been shaped in a westward movement to fill the spaces left by the shifting tectonic plates of America and Africa, previously known as Gondwanaland. South American diamond deposits might be from the Kimberley region. Glass work with recycled plate glass, hot fused with diamondiferous materials and sands.  Cape Sands: Noordhoek Kaolin mines, Chapman's Peak Magnesium, Silvermines. The sand of the South Western Cape is a soft ochre West Coast Admirality Line: Form with minerals and oxides and heavy mineral sands from the Namakwaland coast South African sands sourced from specific sites: West coast / Kalahari desert / Kimberley - yellow ground near big hole / red sand from JHB and Kimberley / Goldmine sands that contain cyanide and arsenic. Sand from 9 Jameson Avenue childhood home, Minerals, metal oxides and powders, ferric silicate, kaolin, ochres, carbon black, graphite

Work in progress with Jo Faragher, Fonta Muki, Nody Nyathi in Jo Faragher and Jeannette Unite's Cape Town studio's 2006.