(collaboration with Nina Barnett)
According to physicist Niels Bohr's theory of complementarity, the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles is always in relation to, or affected by, the instruments through which they are observed. Observing mechanisms and observable phenomena are entangled - the nature of an object is interconnected with whom or what is looking.
In the exhibition Between the Ballast and the Pine, Barnett and Bolen apply Bohr's logic to comprehend colonial terraforming. This process has given rise to a "new natural" that is in a constant state of evolution as flora, objects, and phenomena traverse through time and space. However, these remain inexorably linked to their origins in a dissonant reality. The artists probe contexts such as the prolific and water-thirsty pine trees of Cape Town, the merchant and slave-ship ballast rocks of Savannah, Georgia, and the mine dust of Johannesburg. Working with analogue and digital projection in an immersive installation Bolen and Barnett work sensorially to enable viewers a more somatic encounter giving weight and experience to these material flows. In considering the impacts of material displacements and invasions, they indicate the impossibility of objective observation without implication.
