Current Review(s)
SWAT
Willem Boshoff at Goodman GalleryIn many ways the work of a critic is easy, we risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.
But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.
But there are times when the critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the ‘new’. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.
- Anton Ego
18 August 2011 - 24 September 2011
Feeling the Presence of the Druid
Willem Boshoff at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWNWhen I took on the task of reviewing Willem Boshoff’s latest offering, ‘Big Druid in his Cubicle’, at SMAC gallery in Cape Town, I don’t think I had fully realised what I’d signed up for. Not because the show is dense and warrants vigorous, even exhaustive interpretation - although, this being Boshoff, that’s certainly the case - but because over the course of three decades as a practising artist, his reviewers are now too numerous to count. And as the artist himself puts it, 'Writing stinks, because... once [a text is]written, the thing stays written.' It’s unsurprising, then, that in attempting to locate this particular show in the artist’s overarching creative narrative, I found myself adrift in the words of every writer before me and, at first, rather at a loss for some of my own.
07 November 2013 - 07 December 2013
Listings(s)
Penelope and the Cosmos
Karel Nel and Willem Boshoff at Circa on JellicoeThis is the inaugaral exhibition at Circa on Jellicoe, the Everard-Read Gallery's answer to a project room, and features large painterly panels by Karel Nel and monoliths and text assemblages by Willem Boshoff.
On Wednesday November 25 from 4pm to 5pm Dr Jean-Pierre de la Porte, the author of the first book-length study of Nel, will give a walkabout of Nel's work.
10 November 2009 - 12 December 2009
'SWAT'
Willem Boshoff at Goodman GalleryBy far South Africa's most consistently interesting conceptual artist, Willem Boshoff returns to the Goodman Gallery Johannesburg with a show of work under the title 'SWAT'. Taking swipes at capitalism, religious text, exploitation, globalisation and imperialism, Boshoff amps up the social critique and comes out blasting from both barrels. Included is a work that incorporates human hair into handmade paper: hippy purists, you have been warned.
18 August 2011 - 24 September 2011
'Big Druid in His Cubicle'
Willem Boshoff at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWNDRUID: The name ‘druid’ derives from an old Greek source, drus
meaning tree. A dryad, as found in folklore and Greek mythology,
is a nymph inhabiting a forest, or tree, especially an oak tree
and also derives from drus. The Druid is also a “traditional seer,
an elder with special discernment in the wellbeing of individuals
and society… griot, priest, shaman, sangoma, inyanga… one who
shares charms and talismans”.
Willem Boshoff, one of South Africa’s foremost artists known for
his conceptual artworks and installations, will be enacting the
continuous live performance of 'Big Druid in His Cubicle' at SMAC
Art Gallery in Cape Town from November until early December
2013.
In his late thirties Boshoff suffered a near-death experience and
subsequently endured a two-decade period of intense physical
pain and discomfort - the process of dealing with and adapting to
this reality, allowed the concept of the artist as a contemporary
Druid to develop and manifest itself. Boshoff discovered that
facing near-death and returning to life is a commonality, which
he shared with the Druid. His lifestyle has always been similar to
that of a Druid - spartan, meditative - immersed in study, nature,
the arts and the universe. The notion of the Druid as Boshoff’s
second-self and the abstract concept of the artist/Druid as one
being, gradually became more prevalent in the artist’s work and
synonymous with his persona.
An immersion in nature and languages, combined with a new
fervent lease on life, sparked fresh energy in the artist, as he
became entranced by the act of seeing things anew through his
Druid performances and Druid Walks.
Boshoff the Druid, like the artist, trains himself to look and exposes himself to nature and the urban world. Druid Walks are not of a normal rhythm, they stop and start sporadically as the artist tries to capture the ‘visual spectacle’ of the landscape. The landscape for the Druid is what he looks down upon, specifically the
pavement, the gutters and the dust as the artist attempts to see
more, to scrutinize and to ‘sense a certain essence’ or to discover
the ‘nymph’ that inhabits these areas. The Druid Walks are where
the Druid captures images of things he really looks at, and that he
senses most people would not such as; dirt, broken tape, holes,
lines, paint and scuffs on surfaces. The Druid strives to look, see
and discover that which others miss or avoid.
The SMAC Cape Town gallery space plays host to the Druid for five
weeks. Boshoff is also exhibiting a new body of work, showing his
versatility in employing a variety of materials and media, ranging
from wood to rocks, hand-made paper, dice, alphabet beads,
braille, cloth and sand as well as numerous interest-piquing granite
works, emphasising his engagement with nature and languages.
The gallery serves as the artist’s permanent residence during
this period and is equipped with the artist’s bedding, wooden
work stations, clothing, antique storage cabinets, walking sticks,
woodworking paraphernalia and hundreds of artefacts from the
Druid’s own studio.
Scheduled Druid Walks will be taking place on Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays, departing from the gallery at 9am and returning
at 11am. The walks will include explorations to areas such as
the harbour, Woodstock, coastal expanses, and decaying urban
environments. The Druid’s aim is to uncover places and to see
things in Cape Town that others would hesitate to explore. The
Druid prefers ‘solivagant walks’, to walk alone, however, members
of the public are welcome to follow and attend.
Back at the ‘Cubicle’ the artist will be creating and displaying maps
of the walks, collected data, imagery and art works. The Druid and
his assistant will also be working in the gallery with his collection
of druidic objects and instruments of divination, scales, tools,
stones and other materials that reflect his insights and multivagent
itinerary. The Druid will also be holding discussions surrounding
his work and his views on the world and life in general whilst
documenting his experiences. Visitors are welcome to make use of
this opportunity to visit and engage with the Druid during gallery
hours.
07 November 2013 - 07 December 2013
'Ampersand' - A Dialogue of Contemporary Art from South Africa and the Daimler Art Collection
Athi Patra-Ruga, Dineo Bopape, Lerato Shadi, Willem Boshoff, Zander Blom and Michael MacGarry at Daimler ContemporaryIn the year of the Soccer World Cup in our country, the Daimler Art Collection aims to continue its lengthy history of addressing and promoting South Africa’s cultural development with an international contemporary art exhibition in Berlin. This presentation is arranged in dialogue form, juxtaposing current performative, conceptual and abstract tendencies in contemporary South African art with selected works from the Daimler Art Collection. At this event in Berlin, the Daimler Art Collection (which concentrates on abstract, avant-garde movements and reduced conceptual tendencies from Bauhaus to current contemporary art) presents mainly new acquisitions in the field of international contemporary art for the first time.
The presentation of the ‘Ampersand’ exhibition includes site-specific installations and video art as well as paintings, drawings and photography. About 60 works are shown. While the
exhibition does feature selected predecessors, its main thrust is directed at current works from recent years by younger artists (most of whom are between 30 and 40 years old). Works by fourteen international artists from the Daimler Art Collection are shown in a dialogue with sixteen South African artists.
Artists on show include Zander Blom, Dineo Bopape, Willem Boshoff, Kay Hassan, Nicholas Hlobo, Abrie Fourie, Lawrence Lemaoana, Michael MacGarry, Nandipha Mntambo, Athi-Patra Ruga, Lerato Shadie, Rowan Smith, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Mikhael Subotzky, Sue Williamson and James Webb.
10 June 2010 - 10 October 2010
'Richard Long: Works on Paper and Willem Boshoff: Text Works'
Willem Boshoff and Richard Long at SMAC ART GALLERY STELLENBOSCHSMAC Art Gallery presents 'Richard Long: Works on Paper' (organised in collaboration with Haunch of Venison, London) and 'Willem Boshoff: Text Works'.
These concurrent exhibitions present work by two artists of international acclaim. Britain’s Richard Long, one of the world’s most renowned and established land artists, exhibits alongside Willem Boshoff, one of South Africa’s foremost conceptual artists. Richard Long and Willem Boshoff work in distinctly different visual languages. However, their central context and inspiration is synonymous: nature and the nature of things. The exhibitions reveal how the artists uniquely engage with the natural and social world.
Affiliated with Land Art, a movement inextricably linking art and the environment, Long is interested in the earth’s surface and the experience of the natural environment. In 1967, Long started his walk-works, initially repeating the organic, impermanent act of walking in a single line until a trail was made. This notion became his point of departure for walks that have taken him to Mongolia, Bolivia, Canada, India, Nepal, Finland, Iceland, and in 2004 and 2011, South Africa.
The marks that Long leaves are dialogues with nature, delicate deliberations and meditations that resonate with a serene simplicity. Finger prints, muddy hand prints, stone sculptures, a line of sticks and old animal bones, Long’s works are not documentations but extensions, even translations of his outdoor experiences.
Boshoff combines his fascination with words and language with an astute awareness of the natural world and socio-political discourses. Working in a number of modes and media, from monumental stone and wood works, to ephemeral works from sand, to ‘concrete poetry’ (his own dictionaries and taxonomies), it is the world’s texts and textures that inspire Boshoff. Boshoff’s almost obsessive ethic and painstaking approach, in conjunction with a convergence of craft and concept has garnered his art extensive local and international recognition. Working with southern Africa’s textures, Boshoff handles sand, stone and especially wood with impressive skill and intimate intricacy.
14 June 2012 - 02 September 2012
'Viewing room 1, 2, 3'
Ed Young, Uwe Wittwer, Jake Aikman, Kate Gottgens, Abrie Fourie, Peter Eastman, Simon Stone, Willem Boshoff, Sandile Zulu and Georgina Gratrix at SMAC ART GALLERY CAPE TOWNSMAC Art Gallery | Cape Town presents a trilogy of viewing room showings curated around the themes of Typography, Architecture and Landscape.
Viewing room 1 | Typography | 15.07.14 – 02.08.14
- Willem Boshoff
- Georgina Gratrix
- Simon Stone
- Ed Young
Viewing room 2 | Architecture | 05.08.14 – 23.08.14
- Abrie Fourie
- Kate Gottgens
- Helen A Pritchard
- Sandile Zulu
Viewing room 3 | Landscape | 26.08.14 – 13.09.14
- Jake Aikman
- Ruann Coleman
- Peter Eastman
- Uwe Wittwer
15 July 2014 - 13 September 2014
