Chris Fallows

This exhibition, ‘The Eleventh Hour’ represents a crossroads at which we as humanity currently stand. Do we choose to conserve that which is wild, or will we be left with only archives upon which to reflect?

Just 25 years ago I discovered the famous breaching great white sharks in South Africa. Now, in the evolutionary blink of an eye, they are gone, decimated by over-fishing and prey depletion. I see the same situation being replicated across all realms of wildlife, be it Ocean, Air or Earth.

The collection comprises twelve works representing the hours of a clock. Eleven of the works are monochrome, reflecting what I have witnessed and photographed during the past twenty-five years, from being at arm’s length from 45kg tusker elephants; spending thousands of days in the company of the most celebrated sharks on the planet, to having 3.5 metre-long wandering albatross wings draped over me as they engage in a mating ritual.

The twelfth work represents the final hour and is celebrated in colour. It symbolises hope and the need to change our ways if we are to share this planet with anything other than our own kind. For this work, titled ‘The Fig and Elephant,’ I chose a stately bull elephant standing peacefully under a huge fig tree. These two monumental symbols of the natural world both face enormous pressures, from poachers’ guns to drought and global warming.

Yet, for this brief moment in time, they stand alongside each other at peace, a poignant reflection of what we stand to lose.

The choice is ours to make. The clock is ticking …