'SERENGETI CROSSROADS (The Shepherd Principle Project 2011-2014)'

The explorations of inner rifts within ourselves and the environments we inhabit have been the central defining factor in Georgia Papageorge’s work for the past 20 years.  Her new body of work, entitled 'SERENGETI CROSSROADS (The Shepherd Principle Project 2011-2014)' deals with nurturing concepts with regard to threatened wildlife throughout Africa and in particular the Serengeti , where one of the greatest migrations on Earth is exposed to a commercial road that will cut directly across the migratory path.  She considers such changes in a concentrated single region as symptomatic of environmental loss throughout the world today.

The symbolic vehicle Papageorge has chosen to transform into a ‘protective/healing’ ritual is the Southern Cross Constellation.  Known as the Crux, the Southern Cross migrates across Southern Hemisphere skies and has been the traditional ‘shepherd’ to travellers over the millennia. The Southern Cross constellation is one of the most significant star systems in this whole arena and its protective efficacy stretches, East and West, South and North, can be seen from Australia to South America and beyond, is reflected on the national flags of Australia, New Zealand and Brazil, and casts its protective aura and light upon all of these regions. 

Papageorge’s decision to create an image of the Southern Cross Constellation on the vast flat surfaces of the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana was informed by the migration of zebra and wildebeest on their annual movement from the Boteti River in the West to the vast pans in the Eastern section of Botswana during the rainy season.  

Using a fallen veterinary fence to create the long arm of the cross together with blood red cloth markers, GPS readings, Google and mathematics, Papageorge and a team of collaborators created a scientifically accurate reflection of the Southern Cross upon the surface of the pans in May 2012.   Filmed and photographed from a helicopter, the cross is graphically incorporated to stand against corruption in every work made, whether it has its origins in Tanzania as with the ‘Serengeti Crossroads’ politicised mixed media works, or the more transfigured pieces done that reflect the vast light filled space of the Makgadikgadi.  

05 March - 09 April