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 The Other 150
(And Nothing To
Do With Dr Livingstone)
This intriguing
headline is the title of an exhibition that goes on show in
Livingstone from Saturday 30 July to Tuesday 2 August, the Farmer’s
day long weekend, at Maramba River Lodge (see Wot’s Happening for
details).
Painter, Quentin
Allen, and nature photographer, Stephen Robinson, have teamed up
once again to produce this exhibition of their new work, centred
around the landscape and prehistory of the
Victoria Falls and Batoka Gorge region.
But where did
that title come from?
The artists
explain: “There’s been a lot of tourism promotion and hype about
2005 being the 100th anniversary of the founding of
Livingstone town, and the 150th anniversary of David
Livingstone’s first sight of the
Victoria Falls.”
“But more
important than all that is the fact that the geology that created
the Victoria Falls and the Batoka Gorge was laid down some 150
MILLION years ago – hence “The Other 150 (and nothing to do
with Dr Livingstone)”.
“To look from the
air down river over the
Victoria Falls and down the gorges below is to look back through
150 million years of history.”
“But it’s
something of a freak of nature that the Zambezi River changed its
generally E-W course to take a N-S route through this particular
small area of volcanic basalt. This turned the Zambezi to cut
across the E-W fissures in the basalt, leading to the formation of
the Victoria Falls and its gorges.”
“So, in
geological terms the
Victoria Falls is a short and very temporary accident of nature.
It’s a lucky coincidence that it’s there at all and a real fluke
that we humans happen to exist at the time it’s around.”
The artists
explain that this geology is the essence of the scenes we all look
and wonder at, as well as being the essence of the landscape that
they paint and photograph. So they say: why not celebrate this
bigger 150 too?
Continuing with
this theme of the region’s prehistory, the exhibition will also
feature their paintings and photographs of prehistoric African rock
art of the Stone Age and Iron Age periods from Zambia and the
region. Much of the Zambian rock art of these periods is confined
to remote areas; is hard to find; and is, nowadays, rarely seen.
The exhibition is
intended to play its part in the 2005 celebrations of Livingstone
and the Victoria Falls and to show something of this larger
dimension:
“In
human terms, the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls may seem
eternal, but in the bigger picture they’re not – and our human
species is just an insignificant blip in all that history.”
For all us
insignificant blips, this is an exhibition that promises to give a
very different view of
Zambia’s
No.1 attraction.
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July 2005