Dead Insects in my Parents Pool

28 Mars - 20 May 2012 in Brussels

Sam Hopkins

At first glance they seem almost like scientific specimens, removed from any obvious environment, carefully and obviously composed. However, when contextualised by the title, the idea is that they start to tell a story, to document, albeit somewhat obliquely, the context of having water in a country where many people do not. It is both tragic, but also absurd, that in Kenya many people do not have enough water to drink yet some have enough to fill swimming pools with. However, rather than tell this story through images of drought and opulence, I focussed on drowned insects in a swimming pool. The idea is to acknowledge this wealth chasm using strategies of irony and scale; the insects, but to also acknowledge my own presence within the context; the title.