In Johannesburg, there are trees that are not trees. Hans Wilschut turns his camera towards gsm towers disguised as crowns, trunks, and needles, as if technology can only be tolerated when it imitates a natural form. This becomes all the more charged in a city known for its vast man made green mass.
Johannesburg rose on grassland, not in a forest, and for that very reason each artificial tree takes on a double meaning: it connects to an urban myth while simultaneously undermining it. These towers belong to a desire to conceal digital infrastructure, yet in their awkward mimicry they draw attention to themselves. They resemble poor copies of nature, while at the same time making visible how, in this city, the distinction between growth and construction, between landscape and technology, is becoming increasingly blurred.