Blue Burning' by Janet Solomon

Blue Burning exhibition and video documentary is a response to the state’s intention to “maximise” utilisation of South African offshore petroleum potential.

Fine Art PhD candidate Janet Solomon’s Blue Burning exhibition and video documentary is a response to the state’s intention to “maximise” utilisation of South African offshore petroleum potential. Filmed between 2019 and 2024, Blue Burning chronicles the grassroots refusal of consent to offshore oil and gas development that has been called the largest environmental campaign in South Africa’s history. Experimental in form, the documentary exposes the theatre of ‘mitigation’ and ‘public consultation’ in the state’s push for thirty new offshore oil and gas wells by 2030. The film offers a haunting aesthetic of irreconcilable worlds, peeling back a state imaginary to reveal a storied and remarkable ocean at the heart of ongoing resistance. Solomon worked with interested and affected parties for four years,to shape the visually poetic, emotionally poignant, and politically bold Blue Burning documentary. Exhibition on until 31 October 2024

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