"Artproof Grant Finland 2019, Aapo Huhta"
May 5, 2019
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Description
“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this anxiety to run away from your life, or the feeling that you can’t stay in your surroundings any longer, but I got this unbearable need to disappear. I eventually found myself in Namibia, a place as far away as I could go.”
Omatandangole is a photo book project, consisting of photographs shot in Namibian desert between 2016-2018. The work lays a dreary trail across a scene of nature. Omatandangole is a term in the Oshiwambo language that is native to this part of Namibia. It refers to a kind of mirage that appears in heated air. The title reflects to a photographic pursuit of illusion that is rooted in actuality. As actual as the escape was, the desert turns into an interior landscape where familiar becomes unknown. Even though our surroundings are chaotic and broken it is possible to create photographs that show them as complete and pristine, so unlike what they are in reality. And yet – in that brief moment that is captured by the camera, wasn’t that sense of completeness true for a fleeting moment? An elusive bliss that can dissolve as fast as it emerged. The work will be published as a book later this year.
