‘ZZZZ’ is an onomatopoeia for sleeping or snoring, originally found in comics and often used as shorthand in messaging and on social media. The artist uses ‘ZZZZ’ to contrast the physiological rest periods of sleep, during which consciousness is suspended and metabolic rate is decreased, with the poetic or euphemistic referral to death. To what extent is being in the state of sleep equivalent to our absence of attention?

Alan Alborough divides his time between his studio in Woodstock, Cape Town and his work at the Craft and Design Institute. Born in Durban with degrees in fine art from Goldsmiths College University of London and the University of the Witwatersrand (1991), Alborough was previously Associate Professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Stellenbosch, and part-time lecturer at the Technikon Witwatersrand. He has worked as the exhibitions officer at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and was awarded the First National Bank Vita Art Prize in 2002.