Title: Balance/unbalance, anima and animus, the city
Medium: Video
Date: 2002

This work was part of an exhibition where I wanted to look at the city, Cape Town, I live in, in terms of Jungian theory of the Animus (masculine) and Anima (feminine). To investigate the psyche of a city. In traditional analytical psychology the psyche is always trying to create balance and health in the individual. I wanted to see how this would relate to a city. In this case Cape Town, a city that in many cases is extremely unbalanced. There is huge disparity between rich and poor. Areas where violence is occurring regularly, to other areas which are relatively safe. In many ways since the first free elections in 1994 the city has been trying to establish a new model for it’s self. A post apartheid identity. I wanted to look at the struggle of a city in trying to deal with it’s past and how it tries to move towards a more whole, balanced and integrated future. The work then is essentially about healing.

In this work the grid structure of the video elements relates to the grid structure of a city. The images relate to Jungian dream analysis. Water in a dream usually has reference to the subconscious. A house or home usually is in reference to the self. If in a dream some houses are shacks, while others are well developed first world buildings the psyche would be trying to communicate that there is deep in balances in this psyche and these imbalances urgently need to be dealt with to restore health and balance. A car in Jungian dream analysis refers to issues of power, status, vitality and sexuality. In this work the car/road image is meant to question the psyche health and vitally of Cape Town.