WIM BOTHA

Busts2 0 0 3 – 2 0 1 2

Botha works in multiple media, with sculptures, prints, paintings and drawings all form-ing part of his intricate installations. These reflect on and subvert the symbolic imagery of power, religion and art history. By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decoration, the artist offers questions related to the underlying implications of systems and structures that attempt to define who we are. In several of his installations this subversion alludes to the systemic decay inherent in symbolic representations related to power. This is coupled with a reconstructive desire, simulating found imagery in an altered way that allows the possibility of a revision of our assumptions.

His solo exhibition at Michael Stevenson features new work that continues and expands on this process, again fusing imagery based on Western precedent with local resonance, but also incorporating elements of the meta-reality present in popular science fiction and Japanese anime. The works attempt a larger scope, referring to global concerns and the effects of ideologies on individuals and groups in conflict. The title of the exhibition, Cold Fusion, refers to the holy grail of present-day electrochemistry, a fiercely debated and much researched technique of inexhaustible energy creation. Not unlike thet works on show, it entails the combination of certain elements resulting in a chain reaction where the end is more than the sum of the parts.

Key works include a simulated pressed lead ceiling, fragmented and exploding; a violent sculpture of a young Leda and the Swan made out of bone meal and epoxy resin; small, painstakingly detailed bronze sculptures of a satyr annihilating the god Bacchus, and Isaac turning on Abraham; photographs of clouds made up of a myriad puzzle pieces and a pastel stained-glass window of a nuclear mushroom cloud.

The title of Botha’s exhibition is a neologism formed by combining ‘apocalypse’ and ‘agnosia’. Botha notes that ‘apocalypse’ is generally understood to mean the end of the world, but in fact literally means revelation or unveiling (of knowledge), while agnosia is a neurological condition which, according to one definition, results in ‘an inability to know, to name, to identify, and to extract meaning from visual, audito-ry, or tactile impressions’. The word thus implies our inability to truly possess knowledge about the world even as it reveals itself to us.

This tension between knowledge revealed and our inability to com-prehend it has consequences for the viewer of Botha’s work who, while reading the artistic language of signs and materials, is aware that the artist’s intentions can never be fully grasped. The existence of multiple inherent contradictions is a central theme of the exhibition. Another is the polarity between life and death.

The works include Apocalumbilicus, a life-size linoprint depicting a skeleton adult and baby, their pose echoing that of the mythological figure Silenus tenderly cradling the baby Bacchus in a sculpture in the collection of the Vatican Museum. In the central installation, Sublima-tion, two carved wooden skulls face each other at either end of strips of parquet flooring which erupt towards the centre, pushed upwards by, on the one side, marble dust and, on the other, maize meal. In the middle, a burnt wooden chandelier rotates slowly, suggesting both the mill that grinds a substance into a finer form and the continuation of

For his first solo show in Johannesburg since his Standard Bank Young Artist exhibition in 2006, Wim Botha presents a new sculptural installation, large and small individual drawings and recent large-scale prints.

The exhibition is primarily concerned with the passage of time, its origins and implica-tions. The works make use of visual elements that have their origin in the languages of natural history, art history and ancient mythology, and are presented in a semi-struc-tured constellation that seems to suggest a non-linear timeline.

Saturn, or Kronos as the god of time forms a central theme, and links with various other motifs related to traditional depictions of time, or of the god of time himself. This is extended with references to evolution, origin and artificial or induced mutation.

Using as source motif the standard illustrated depiction of time as a sequence of events consecutively arranged according to a linear model, the main installation adapts and perverts this format in three-dimensional space. By means of a suspended construction of hexagonal air-conditioning ducting the flow and passage of time, as well as the depic-tions of time - often serpent-like - is represented according to various time-line theo-ries: infintite, circular, spiral etc. Turning back on itself, this sequence with its various elements suggests a type of system, a volatile organism with high entropic possibility. The movement of air along an undulating, spiraling and forking path becomes a metaphor for the passage of time itself.

In the two-dimensional works, skeletal studies of human and animal figures in animated poses subject the assumed finality of death as end of time to a longer timeframe. How-ever, in ignorance of possible spiritual dimensions, these works remain in the material realm, hinting at another form of continuity. Two large lino prints subject the original moment depicted in two respective historical artworks to the reality of the intervening

Named for its place of origin, Joburg Altarpiece is the culmination of a se-ries of large lino prints, some of which have been exhibited individually in the past two years. In the Altarpiece eight panels are combined to complete the project. The component images, sourced from historical paintings and sculptures, are skeletonised and stripped of their original meaning. The resulting danse macabre suggests its own mythology, with fluid identities and indeterminate intent.

In the lower central panel of the Altarpiece, Botha has introduced the forms of the Platonic or regular solids which have entranced - and frus-trated - man through the ages. These forms reappear in the installation Amazing Things from Other Places, in which a number of sculptural pieces are suspended in a coherent but fragmented and multi-faceted arrange-ment. The Platonic solids are unique in that the faces, edges and angles of each form are congruent; the name of each figure is derived from its num-ber of faces, respectively 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20. Plato associated them with the four classical elements, to which Aristotle added a fifth. Leonardo Da Vinci illustrated the solids for Luca Pacioli’s book The Divine Proportion, while the German astronomer Johannes Kepler used them to propose a model for the movements of the known planets in the solar system.

This perpetual deliberation over these aesthetically seductive forms in the assumption that they must offer templates for elements of the universe is the premise of the five sculptures at the core of Botha’s installation. Where-as previously his imagery often related to the Greek and Christian gods, in this series he abstracts the wrestling between man and gods into a constella-tion of figurative and pure geometric forms. Entering the dynamic between these elements and a sequence of portrait-studies carved in paper, viewers are inevitably drawn to position themselves as yet another component in this disconcerting spatial universe.

The first group is relatively dark, dense and heavy. Composite figurative sculptures are carved from bibles, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and wood, in a continuing evo-lution of the paper busts for which Botha is known. These are suspended in space, fragmenting and morphing. While the elements of traditional portraiture suggest some kind of coherent identity, in this case nothing more concrete is delivered than a sense of flux and transition.

The second installation, titled Solipsis, is carved from polystyrene and incorpo-rates a cluster of fluorescent tubes. This is an epic figurative group in the tradition of scenes of battle and conflict, as depicted in paintings and sculpture through the ages. Though the subject matter is violent, the brightness and lightness of the mate-rials bring an almost otherworldly atmosphere to the installation, imbuing it with a dream-like quality. This is supported by the fragility of the material and the sense of delicacy and ephemerality that it creates.

Botha describes his use of this unusual sculptural material:

Polystyrene has a very specific character; it is lightweight, fragile and pristinely pure. From a distance it could resemble freshly carved marble, or snow. Using heavy gauge power tools, like chainsaws and grinders, this soft material allows for a very spon-taneous and gestural way of sculpting, an approach that is normally very difficult to achieve in sculpture due to its physicality and technical restraints.

aa

Botha works in multiple media, with sculptures, prints, paintings and drawings all form-ing part of his intricate installations. These reflect on and subvert the symbolic imagery of power, religion and art history. By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decoration, the artist offers questions related to the underlying implications of systems and structures that attempt to define who we are. In several of his installations this subversion alludes to the systemic decay inherent in symbolic representations related to power. This is coupled with a reconstructive desire, simulating found imagery in an altered way that allows the possibility of a revision of our assumptions.

His solo exhibition at Michael Stevenson features new work that continues and expands on this process, again fusing imagery based on Western precedent with local resonance, but also incorporating elements of the meta-reality present in popular science fiction and Japanese anime. The works attempt a larger scope, referring to global concerns and the effects of ideologies on individuals and groups in conflict. The title of the exhibi-tion, Cold Fusion, refers to the holy grail of present-day electrochemistry, a fiercely debated and much researched technique of inexhaustible energy creation. Not unlike thet works on show, it entails the combination of certain elements resulting in a chain reaction where the end is more than the sum of the parts.

Key works include a simulated pressed lead ceiling, fragmented and exploding; a vio-lent sculpture of a young Leda and the Swan made out of bone meal and epoxy resin; small, painstakingly detailed bronze sculptures of a satyr annihilating the god Bacchus, and Isaac turning on Abraham; photographs of clouds made up of a myriad puzzle

pieces and a pastel stained-glass window of a nuclear mushroom cloud.

The title of Botha’s exhibition is a neologism formed by combining ‘apocalypse’ and ‘agnosia’. Botha notes that ‘apocalypse’ is generally understood to mean the end of the world, but in fact literally means revelation or unveiling (of knowledge), while agnosia is a neurological condition which, according to one definition, results in ‘an inability to know, to name, to identify, and to extract meaning from visual, audito-ry, or tactile impressions’. The word thus implies our inability to truly possess knowledge about the world even as it reveals itself to us.

This tension between knowledge revealed and our inability to com-prehend it has consequences for the viewer of Botha’s work who, while reading the artistic language of signs and materials, is aware that the artist’s intentions can never be fully grasped. The existence of multiple inherent contradictions is a central theme of the exhibition. Another is the polarity between life and death.

The works include Apocalumbilicus, a life-size linoprint depicting a skeleton adult and baby, their pose echoing that of the mythological figure Silenus tenderly cradling the baby Bacchus in a sculpture in the collection of the Vatican Museum. In the central installation, Sublima-tion, two carved wooden skulls face each other at either end of strips of parquet flooring which erupt towards the centre, pushed upwards by, on the one side, marble dust and, on the other, maize meal. In the middle, a burnt wooden chandelier rotates slowly, suggesting both the mill that grinds a substance into a finer form and the continuation of

For his first solo show in Johannesburg since his Standard Bank Young Artist exhibition in 2006, Wim Botha presents a new sculptural installation, large and small individual drawings and recent large-scale prints.

The exhibition is primarily concerned with the passage of time, its origins and implica-tions. The works make use of visual elements that have their origin in the languages of natural history, art history and ancient mythology, and are presented in a semi-struc-tured constellation that seems to suggest a non-linear timeline.

Saturn, or Kronos as the god of time forms a central theme, and links with various other motifs related to traditional depictions of time, or of the god of time himself. This is extended with references to evolution, origin and artificial or induced mutation.

Using as source motif the standard illustrated depiction of time as a sequence of events consecutively arranged according to a linear model, the main installation adapts and perverts this format in three-dimensional space. By means of a suspended construction of hexagonal air-conditioning ducting the flow and passage of time, as well as the depic-tions of time - often serpent-like - is represented according to various time-line theo-ries: infintite, circular, spiral etc. Turning back on itself, this sequence with its various elements suggests a type of system, a volatile organism with high entropic possibility. The movement of air along an undulating, spiraling and forking path becomes a metaphor for the passage of time itself.

In the two-dimensional works, skeletal studies of human and animal figures in animated poses subject the assumed finality of death as end of time to a longer timeframe. How-ever, in ignorance of possible spiritual dimensions, these works remain in the material realm, hinting at another form of continuity. Two large lino prints subject the original moment depicted in two respective historical artworks to the reality of the intervening

Named for its place of ori-gin, Joburg Altarpiece is the culmination of a series of large lino prints, some of which have been exhibited individually in the past two years. In the Altarpiece eight panels are combined to complete the project. The component images, sourced from historical paintings and sculptures, are skeletonised and stripped of their original meaning. The resulting danse macabre suggests its own mythology, with fluid identities and indeterminate intent.

In the lower central panel of the Altarpiece, Botha has introduced the forms of the Platonic or regular solids which have entranced - and frustrated - man through the ages. These forms reappear in the installation Amazing Things from Other Places, in which a number of sculptural pieces are suspended in a coherent but fragmented and multi-faceted arrangement. The Platonic solids are unique in that the faces, edges and angles of each form are congruent; the name of each figure is derived from its number of faces, respec-tively 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20. Plato associated them with the four classical elements, to which Aristotle added a fifth. Leonardo Da Vinci illustrated the solids for Luca Pacioli’s book The Divine Proportion, while the German astronomer Johannes Kepler used them to propose a model for the movements of the known plan-ets in the solar system.

This perpetual deliberation over these aesthetically seductive forms in the assumption that they must offer templates for ele-ments of the universe is the premise of the five sculptures at the core of Botha’s installation. Whereas previously his imagery often related to the Greek and Christian gods, in this series

The first group is relatively dark, dense and heavy. Composite figurative sculptures are carved from bibles, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and wood, in a continuing evo-lution of the paper busts for which Botha is known. These are suspended in space, fragmenting and morphing. While the elements of traditional portraiture suggest some kind of coherent identity, in this case nothing more concrete is delivered than a sense of flux and transition.

The second installation, titled Solipsis, is carved from polystyrene and incorpo-rates a cluster of fluorescent tubes. This is an epic figurative group in the tradition of scenes of battle and conflict, as depicted in paintings and sculpture through the ages. Though the subject matter is violent, the brightness and lightness of the mate-rials bring an almost otherworldly atmosphere to the installation, imbuing it with a dream-like quality. This is supported by the fragility of the material and the sense of delicacy and ephemerality that it creates.

Botha describes his use of this unusual sculptural material:

Polystyrene has a very specific character; it is lightweight, fragile and pristinely pure. From a distance it could resemble freshly carved marble, or snow. Using heavy gauge power tools, like chainsaws and grinders, this soft material allows for a very spon-taneous and gestural way of sculpting, an approach that is normally very difficult to achieve in sculpture due to its physicality and technical restraints.

In the first installation, Botha fragments traditional baroque sculptural planes to convey a complexity of forms, creating three-dimensional sketches of light and lightness in space. A cacophony of wings, carved from polystyrene, and a serpentine arrangement of fluorescent tubes present a chaotic struggle. In what could be a contemporary retelling of the archetypal life-and-death struggle of the eagle and the serpent, the dualistic conflict of heaven and earth is played out. Metaphorically, the serpent is bound to the earth and the eagle is released from that bond-age. When the two come together in heated conflict, there is a metamorphosis, and a mag-nificent, chaos-infused dragon, a hybrid serpent with wings, is born, a symbol of division, disintegration, strength and transformation.

The artist first explored dramatic monumental sculpture through the materiality of poly-styrene in his last solo exhibition in Cape Town in 2010, and continued this exploration in his installations in Berlin and the Göteborg Biennial in 2011. Botha is drawn to this unusual sculptural material ‘because of its very specific character; it is lightweight, fragile and pristinely pure. In its refractive whiteness it resembles freshly carved marble or snow.’ Using a hot-wire cutter, forms are created by cutting deep inside a block, and become visible only after cuts are completed and the redundant material falls away. The inherent limitations of using a straight-line implement of this nature ensure a level of separation between the intentional gesture of the artist and the resultant form.

The brightness and lightness of the materials bring an almost otherworldly atmosphere to the installation, imbuing it with a dream-like quality. The title, Solipsis, refers to the philosophical view that existence of the self is the only reality that can be verified; the world and all it contains is created by the observer’s mind as s/he passes through life. In-deed, the ethereality of the materials, the fluorescent light and the constructivist presen-tation suggest a fleeting existence that could evaporate or transmutate in a moment.

In the second installation Botha returns to the creation of a ‘room within a room’, an allegorical space within the abstracted volume of a gallery, a theme which he has con-

tinuously explored since his 2003 installation commune: onomatopoeia. The construct of defined space will be conveyed by a single black wooden strip that will snake geometrically through the space, suggesting the outline of walls, doors and furniture. This notional space is inhabited by an assortment of figurative fragments, suggestive of both human and animal forms. These sculptures are carved from rough laminated pine which Botha has formed, in his words:

... with aggressive motions and an avoidance of refined form and labored detail, looking instead for accidental marks and spontaneous expressiveness. Some of these forms are spo-radically painted or smeared with white paint, creating a partial skin that contrasts with and conceals the raw and rough surfaces of the wood.As in the Solipsis installation, this illusory space is situated in the realm of the immaterial. For the artist this is a world:

... the nature of which is indeterminate - situated somewhere between a parallel meta-reality that mimics our own, and an internal mind-space, an entirely imaginary world that is private and obscure.Our impulse to construct specific meaning for this installation is ultimately undermined by the artist’s working process which embraces the possibility of multiple contradictory arguments. After Botha conceived the conceptual environment as defined by the black lines, the figurative forms have gradually evolved in his studio, without an overarching narrative or singular objective, leaving the space metaphorically open for us to see some-thing that is at once intensely personal and indeterminate.

The word Speculum refers to ‘a medical instrument for dilating the opening of a bodyvity in order to examine the interior.’ Serving as a common thread between the many facets of the works, it implies a process of invasion, scrutiny, inspection and introspection.Botha’s installations - which incorporate sculptures, paintings and prints - reflect on the individual’s absorption into the encompassing hierarchical structures of statehood and society. By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decora-tion, he offers comment on the distorted and ephemeral nature of grandeur and tradition. In several of his installations this subversion of symbolic imagery alludes to the slow but inevitable decay that edifices to authority and self-importance are bound to undergo.

Upon viewing Wim Botha’s art, one is drawn into an environment of seductive yet ambiguous signals where art historical references and types create a sombre tension. The viewer’s share in this experience is one of almost involuntary association where-by the various elements displayed acquire a personal meaning. If all of this sounds too serious, it needs to be mentioned that the work - both in terms of medium and imagery - is not void of humour or irony. These are in fact consciously considered adjuncts that often provide immediate access for uncovering rich seems of mean-ing.a`

The word Spec-ulum refers to ‘a medical instru-ment for dilat-ing the opening of a body cavity in order to exam-ine the interior.’ Serving as a common thread between the many facets of the works, it implies a process of

invasion, scrutiny, inspection and intro-spection.Botha’s in-stallations - which in-corporate sculptures, paintings and prints - reflect on the indi-vidual’s absorption into the encom-passing hi-erarchical structures of state-hood and society. By visually interfering with vener-ated forms

wim textbust G.indd 1 2012/11/13 1:12 PM

Generic Self-Portrait as a Common Ancestor, 2003, Afrikaans-English dictionaries, stainless steel, 67 x 44 x 29cm

4

Generic Self-Portrait as a Statesman, Magnate, Landowner, Hero, Anti-Hero,

2003, artificial marble, velvet, 74 x 41 x 25cm each

Untitled (Body Double), 2005, anthracite, epoxy resin, artificial marble, wood, approx 170 x 40 x 25cm

8

Self-Portrait as a Distinguished Man, Partially Decayed, 2003, jacaranda wood, 74 x 41 x 25cm

10

Generic Self-Portrait as a Charlatan, 2006, artificial marble, rosewood, 70.5 x 45 x 25cm

12

Generic Self-Portrait as an Impersonator, 2006, artificial marble, rosewood, approx 70 x 35 x 25cm

13

commune: onomatopoeia, installation view, Africa Remix, Pompidou Centre, Paris, 2005

14

Detail from commune: onomatopoeia, 2005, Afrikaans-English dictionaries, stainless steel, wood, approx 90 x 40 x 35cm

15

Memento Mori, 2005, artificial marble, imbuia, stainless steel, neon,

bust: 95 x 75 x 35cm, installation dimensions variable

Five Authentic Discoveries, 2006, artificial marble, anthracite, epoxy resin, webbing, dimensions variable

18

Four Classical Distortions, 2006, artificial marble, epoxy resin, webbing, dimensions variable

20

Generic Self-Portrait as an Inflammatory Word (After Houdon), 2007, Afrikaans-English dictionaries, approx 55 x 38 x 20cm

Untitled (Double God Vitrine), 2008, Afrikaans-English dictionaries, stainless steel, installation dimensions variable

22

Generic Self-Portrait as a Heretic (foreground) and Generic Self-Portrait as an Exile, installation view,

Disguise: The Art of Attracting and Deflecting Attention, 2008, Stevenson, Cape Town

24

Generic Self-Portrait as an Exile, 2008, Learner’s Dictionaries (Afrikaans, English, isiZulu, Sesotho), stainless steel, 46 x 32 x 27cm

26

Generic Self-Portrait as a Heretic, 2008, bibles in South African indigenous languages, stainless steel, 53 x 37 x 23cm

27

Detail from Vanitas Toilette, 2008, bibles in South African official languages, wood, stainless steel, 101 x 38 x 30cm

28

Detail from Quadrate Choir, 2008, bibles (rejects and misprints) in South African official languages, stainless steel, 120 x 30 x 28cm

29

Detail from Time Machine, 2008, bibles in South African official languages, wood, stainless steel, dimensions variable

30

Portrait IV, 2009, bibles, wood, stainless steel, 39 x 22 x 30cm

32

Portrait III, 2009, bibles, wood, stainless steel, 32 x 15 x 28cm

34

Portrait II (Patriot), 2009, Afrikaans dictionaries and vocabulary books, wood, stainless steel, 34 x 15 x 27cm

35

Portrait V, 2009, Rhodesian teak parquet blocks, gold leaf, stainless steel, 90 x 45 x 44cm

36

Portrait I (Skull), 2009, crossword dictionaries, wood, stainless steel, 48 x 18 x 24.5cm

38

Detail from Mnemonic Reconstruction, 2009, Afrikaans-English dictionaries, wood, stainless steel, 95 x 22 x 30cm

39

Portrait VI, 2009, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 125 x 33 x 33cm

40

Portrait Bust (Daughter), 2010, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, approx 125 x 38 x 33cm

42

Portrait Bust (Mother), 2010, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, approx 118 x 35 x 38cm

43

All This, 2011, installation view,

Stevenson, Cape Town

Untitled, 2011, World Books, SA Yearbooks (1983-1991), wood, stainless steel, 98 x 150 x 85cm

46

47

Untitled, 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, fluorescent tubes, approx 255 x 190 x 80cm

48

Untitled (Ecstasy series I), 2010, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 159 x 36 x 40cm

50

Untitled (Ecstasy series II), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 56 x 37 x 43cm

51

Untitled (Witness series I), 2011, African Encyclopedias, wood, stainless steel, 45 x 21 x 22cm

52

Untitled (Witness series II), 2011, encyclopedias, wood, stainless steel, 32.5 x 19 x 21cm

53

Untitled (Witness series IV), 2011, World Books, wood, stainless steel, 54 x 119 x 42cm

55

Untitled (Witness series V), 2011, dictionaries, wood, stainless steel, 52 x 22.5 x 26cm

56

Untitled (Witness series III), 2011, encyclopedias, wood, stainless steel, 44 x 31 x 28cm

57

Untitled (Ecstasy series III), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 162 x 40 x 65cm

58

Untitled (Ecstasy series IV), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 48 x 60 x 100cm

60

Untitled (Ecstasy series V), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 36 x 42 x 102cm

61

Untitled (Ecstasy series VI), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, fluorescent tubes, 36 x 46 x 102cm

63

Untitled, 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, fluorescent tubes, dimensions variable

64

Untitled (Ecstasy series VII), 2011, Afrikaans bibles, wood, stainless steel, 90 x 35 x 50cm

66

Untitled (Witness series X), 2012, Michaelis Collection catalogues, wood, stainless steel, 46 x 23 x 28cm

Untitled (Witness series V), 2011, Michaelis Collection catalogues, wood, stainless steel, 50 x 30 x 27cm

68

Untitled (Witness series IX), 2012, Michaelis Collection catalogues, wood, stainless steel, 54 x 26 x 22cm

Untitled (Witness series VI), 2011, Michaelis Collection catalogues, wood, stainless steel, approx 50 x 28 x 25cm

69

Untitled (Witness series VII), 2011, Michaelis Collection catalogues, ink, wood, stainless steel, 50 x 24 x 24cm

70

72

Untitled (Witness series VIII), 2012, South African Statutes (2000 edition), ink, wood, stainless steel, 59 x 23 x 25cm

73

Composite Self-Portrait I, 2010, dictionaries, ink, wood, 57 x 27 x 27cm

74

Composite Self-Portrait II, 2010, dictionaries, ink, wood, 58.5 x 26 x 23cm

75

Fuse, 2011, charred fire-resistant pine, wood, lacquer, 204 x 61 x 54cm

76

Study for Head of an Outraged Youth I & II, 2011, Rhodesian teak parquet blocks, approx 24 x 25 x 47cm each

78

Study for Portrait of a Dispute I & II, 2011, Rhodesian teak parquet blocks, approx 48 x 29cm each

79

Portrait of an Outraged Youth, 2011, encyclopedias, wood, stainless steel, 197 x 98 x 97cm

80

Prism I and II, 2011, bronze, wood, approx 175 x 70 x 55cm each

Prism III and IV, 2012, bronze, wood, left: 203 x 73 x 71cm, right: 199 x 41 x 48cm

A Thousand Things Part 8, diptych, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, left: 183 x 49 x 32cm, right: 166 x 65 x 28cm

86

87

A Thousand Things Part 2, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 186 x 62 x 38cm

88

A Thousand Things Part 1, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 196 x 47 x 32cm

89

90

A Thousand Things Part 4, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 145 x 39 x 39cm

91

A Thousand Things Part 11, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 225 x 80 x 132cm

92

A Thousand Things, 2012, installation view,

Stevenson, Johannesburg

A Thousand Things Part 14, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 121 x 15 x 42cm

96

A Thousand Things Part 3, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 174 x 23 x 31cm

97

A Thousand Things Part 5, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 138 x 34 x 27cm

98

A Thousand Things Part 7, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 122 x 26 x 28cm

100

A Thousand Things Part 6, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 124 x 33 x 34cm

101

A Thousand Things Part 38, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 48 x 28 x 24cm

102

A Thousand Things Part 9, 2012, treated pine, acrylic enamel paint, 176 x 15 x 25cm

104

WIM BOTHA

Botha was born in Pretoria in 1974, graduated from the University of Pretoria

with a BA (Visual Art) in 1996, and lives in Cape Town. He has received a number

of prestigious awards, including the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2005,

accompanied by a national touring exhibition, and the first Tollman Award in 2003.

He has held seven solo shows at Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg, between

2003 and 2012, and two at Galerie Jette Rudolph, Berlin (2008 and 2011). His work

has featured on international group exhibitions including The Rainbow Nation,

Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague (2012); the Göteborg Biennial, Sweden (2011);

Memories of the Future: The Olbricht Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris (2011); the

11th Triennale für Kleinplastik, Fellbach, Germany (2010); Peekaboo: Current South

Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki (2010); Olvida Quien Soy – Erase me from

who I am, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2006);

the seventh edition of Dak’Art, the Dakar Biennale (2006); and the touring exhibition

Africa Remix (2004-2007). Botha’s busts are in the collections of the South African

Reserve Bank, Johannesburg; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town;

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth; Sanlam, Cape Town;

Gordon Schachat Collection, Johannesburg; Sammlung Stahlberg, Germany;

and the Olbricht Collection, Germany; among others.

JOHANNESBURG

62 Juta Street

Braamfontein 2001

Postnet Suite 281

Private Bag x9

Melville 2109

T +27 (0)11 326 0034/41

F +27 (0)86 275 1918

CAPE TOWN

Buchanan Building

160 Sir Lowry Road

Woodstock 7925

PO Box 616

Green Point 8051

T +27 (0)21 462 1500

F +27 (0)21 462 1501

info@stevenson.info

www.stevenson.info

Catalogue 66 | November 2012

© 2012 for works by Wim Botha: the artist

Photographers Mario Todeschini, Anthea Pokroy, Wim Botha,

Kathy Skead, Lepkowski Studios, Till Budde, Nick Ash,

George Mahashe, Jolanda Meyer

Editor Sophie Perryer

Design Gabrielle Guy

Image repro Mario Todeschini

Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town

–

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

A Thousand Things at Stevenson, Johannesburg

27 September – 2 November 2012

–