48 hours before the entry deadline for the 2007 Spier Contemporary Art Competition, I realized the work I had been labouring on for a month was resisting construction and going to miss the boat.

Tired and disappointed I thought of something simpler and far more modest. I would have to start, travel to Joburg, complete it, and hand it in at a collection point in Johannesburg two days later. This modest creation taught me a wealth about what can speak to an audience as it climbed stalwartly up the public voting poles to win the Audience Choice Award and launch my career. 14-Kundalini turned out to be the perfect embodiment of the animate analogue in my work. It was made of simple natural materials and used a bafflingly simple mechanism to describe a motion used in Tantric philosophy to visualise the movement of a corporeal energy believed to run through our bodies. The audience identified, and over 5000 people used this fragile interactive machine, some with more respect than others! It was in tatters several times, and I had to remake it before reinstalling it at Hollard House in Johannesburg. Hollard bought it prior to the award.