Salt Creep Telling Stories

 Desertification and the impact of biodiversity loss is the biggest problem of the earth today. The growing salt creep spreading through once vibrant landscapes is a direct result of human activities. Salt exposes the ecological vulnerability and fragility of the natural world and its interconnectedness. The land is affected by the climate and the climate is affected by the land. Ironically as animals we crave salt, yet our salt mining and farming has created huge environmental damage. We need courage to acknowledge the scale of human impact, to see the imperialised landscapes of the past for the battered remnants that they are now. By attempting to restore the natural balance, by preserving ecosystems, conserving the salinity of certain landscapes and restoring others we accept the damage we have inflicted. 

Salinity and desertification acts for me as a metaphor for the imbalance in archived desert histories from a predominantly male perspective. Deserts are historically  depicted as bleak, places of despair, barren unworthy, unimportant landscapes. Yet I have always found them to be places of bounty and benevolence. Their obvious cornucopia is so contrary to the way we have chosen to represent isolated arid interiors, (as historically painted by male explorers). What needs to be reclaimed is a fiercely female perspective, largely underrepresented and unexplored. I want to correct this imbalance and paint salt pink.