
Kate Gottgens South Africa, b. 1965
35 3/8 x 51 1/8 in
framed: 92 x 132 x 5 cm
The small pool, slowly filling with water, evokes an amniotic sac, a fountain of life. Yet, it remains unmistakably urban, set in a mundane environment. Kate was drawn to its perfect emptiness, the quiet solitude of the moment. It speaks to a universal human experience—the fleeting, golden evening, the simple act of filling a plastic blue pool, a ritual so familiar yet so transient. The composition felt so effortlessly balanced that she didn’t want to intervene.
Embedded within the image is a sense of transition—the passing of childhood, the ephemeral glow of a summer dusk. It captures the essence of a moment slipping away, that hazy nostalgia for something you didn’t even realize was disappearing at the time.