‘The Nuba Survival’ is found in the middle of a remote field, next to a collapsed barn in South Oxfordshire and standing at around 15ft, shows two skeletons embracing. The artist John Buckley, most known for his sculpture of a shark sticking out of a roof in Headington, Oxford, created it in order to shed light on the strength and the struggle of the citizens of South Sudan. He was inspired by a visit to the Nuba Mountains in South Sudan in 2000. “Thirty years of fighting has left the indigenous tribes living in the Nuba Mountains on the edge of survival, what some relief groups are calling an ethnic genocide.”(1)
The resiliance of the people inspired Buckley to show more people their bravery and the seriousness of the threat to thier lives. “He witnessed first hand a mass attempt to wipe out a cultural identity through ethnic cleansing, slavery and fierce attacks on the traditional homelands.”(2) The collapsed barn in the background adds to the sculpture’s atmosphere of hopelessness and the empty field gives the feeling of loneliness. The Idea of the statues being skeletons shows the risk to life that the people of this tribe must live with and how they lean on each other for safety.
Reference list
1.Atlas Obscura. (n.d.). “The Nuba Survival.” [online] Available at: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nuba-survival-sculpture [Accessed 9 Mar. 2021].
2.Derelict Places. (n.d.). The Nuba Survival, Checkendon April 2016. [online] Available at: https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/threads/the-nuba-survival-checkendon-april-2016.33002/ [Accessed 9 Mar. 2021].