Wim Botha

Busts 2003-2012

In 2003, Wim Botha's first solo exhibition at Stevenson, Speculum, included the paper bust Self-portrait as a Common Ancestor. Text accompanying the exhibition stated: 'Botha's installations 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 decoration, he offers comment on the distorted and ephemeral nature of grandeur and tradition.' He has subsequently continued to produce busts carved from stacks of bibles, dictionaries and encyclopedias, from wood - as in his 2012 exhibition, A Thousand Things - and, increasingly abstracted, cast in bronze. All of these are reproduced here, tracing the development of Botha's distinctive artform over the course of almost a decade.

Published by Stevenson | Catalogue 66, November 2012
Softcover, 108 pages | R200
Hardcover, 108 pages | R400
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