JOBURG ALTARPIECE & A M A Z I N G T H I N G S FROM OTHER PLACES WIM BOTHA MICHAEL STEVENSON CAPE TOWN 8 AUGUST - 26 SEPTEMBER 2009

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1 JOBURG ALTARPIECE & A M A Z I N G T H I N G S FROM OTHER PLACES WIM BOTHA MICHAEL STEVENSON CAPE TOWN 8 AUGUST - 26 SEPTEMBER 2009

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3 Michael Stevenson is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Wim Botha. On show are a monumental print work, and an installation of mixed-media sculptural pieces. Named for its place of origin, 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 form of the tetrahedron, one 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, 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. Whereas previously his imagery often related to the Greek and Christian gods, in this series he abstracts the wrestling between man and gods into a constellation 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. This is Botha s fourth solo exhibition at Michael Stevenson, following Apocalagnosia (2007), Cold Fusion: gods, heroes and martyrs (2005) and Speculum (2003). In 2008 he had solo shows at Brodie/Stevenson in Johannesburg and Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin. Recent group exhibitions include Self/Not-self at Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg (2009); Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention at Michael Stevenson (2008); Political Iconography at Jette Rudolph (2007); Olvida quien soy Erase me from who I am at the Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas (2006); the seventh Dakar Biennale (2006); Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in South African Art at the Museum for African Art and the Cathedral church of St. John the Divine in New York City (2005); and the travelling exhibition Africa Remix ( ). Botha was the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art in Upcoming projects include the Triennial for Small Sculpture in Fellbach, concurrent with a solo exhibition at Galerie Jette Rudolph in Berlin; a solo exhibition at Brodie/Stevenson in Johannesburg and a large sculpture commission for Nedbank, Johannesburg.

4 JOBURG ALTARPIECE

5 Joburg Altarpiece 2009 Installation with eight linoprints Overall dimensions 397 x 527cm Edition of 3

6 Joburg Altarpiece 2009 Installation view

7 Untitled (After Bernini) 2009 Linoprint on tea-stained paper 197 x 85cm (unframed) Edition of 12

8 Apocalumbilicus 2006 Linoprint on tea-stained paper x 80.5cm (unframed) Edition of 12

9 Untitled (After Rubens) 2008 Linoprint on tea-stained paper x 80.5cm (unframed) Edition of 12

10 Rorschach (After Velazquez) 2007 Linoprints on tea-stained paper 178 x 95cm each (unframed) Edition of 12

11 Untitled (After Rubens) 2009 Linoprint on tea-stained paper 150 x 185cm (unframed) Edition of 12

12 A M A Z I N G T H I N G S FROM OTHER PLACES

13 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Wood, gold leaf, blackboard paint Installation with five sculptural elements Installation dimensions variable

14 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view

15 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view

16 Portrait III 2009 Carved Bibles, wood, stainless steel 32 x 15 x 28cm

17 Portrait III

18 Portrait I 2009 Carved crossword dictionaries, wood, stainless steel 48 x 18 x 24.5cm

19 Portrait I

20 Portrait IV 2009 Carved Bibles, wood, stainless steel 39 x 22 x 30cm

21 Portrait IV

22 Portrait II 2009 Carved Afrikaans dictionaries and vocabulary books, wood, stainless steel 34 x 15 x 27cm

23 Portrait II

24 Installation detail (Hexahedron) 84 x 266 x 84cm

25 Detail (Hexahedron)

26 Detail (Hexahedron)

27 Installation detail (Tetrahedron) 95 x 207 x 90cm

28 Detail (Tetrahedron)

29 Installation detail (Icosahedron) 105 x 215 x 94cm

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31 Installation detail (Octahedron) 125 x 145 x 105cm overall

32 Installation detail (Black Egret) 32 x 56 x 44cm

33 Installation detail (Dodecahedron) 146cm diameter 260 x 146 x 146cm overall

34 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view

35 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view

36 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view

37 Amazing Things from Other Places 2009 Installation view PHOTOGRAPHY: MARIO TODESCHINI & WIM BOTHA WIM BOTHA 2009