Conrad Botes

Current Review(s)

'House of Judas'

Conrad Botes at Fred

In his most recent exhibition at Fred gallery, London, Conrad Botes continues the trend of biting, religious satire evident in his previous solo exhibitions at Michael Stevenson;  ‘Cain and Abel’ (2009) and ‘Satan's Choir at the Gates of Heaven’ (2007). In fact, for the virgin visitor to Fred, eventually finding the minimally signposted gallery on its narrow, cobbled and somewhat industrial East London street may seem like something of a celestial reward. One has not, however, journeyed to enter ‘the gates of heaven’. This, as the title loosely painted on the wall at the entrance to the gallery reminds us, is the ‘House of Judas’.

The first piece we are confronted with, Botes’ sculpture Prophecy (which was included in the exhibition ‘Self/Not Self’ at Brodie/Stevenson in 2009), is certainly closer to a mythical conception of hell than heaven. The sculpture depicts a devilish character – complete with horns and a menacing black moustache – whose pink tongue hangs limply from his mouth to mimic the enamel-white penis hanging from his pants. Etched into the phallic devil’s chest, seemingly by his own hand, is the image of a crucified pig flanked by the words ‘lucky, lucky’. Is this the Judas of the title, ridden with guilt and serving as the scapegoat for the sins of the world?

The main room contains four large paintings on reverse glass and 35 small panels under the title Land of Judas (2010) which take the stylistic form of a comic sequence. These images draw on the same caustic wit and complex allusions to South Africa’s sociopolitical landscape for which Botes has been known since co-founding ‘Bitterkomix’ in the early 1990s with Anton Kannemeyer. The 35 panels in Land of Judas tell an allegorical story of physical, sexual and racial violence that, along with the larger paintings, seems oddly prescient in light of the recent murder of the divisive founder of the AWB, Eugene Terre’Blanche. Politically biting, this exhibition echoes with such complex notions as scapegoat status, the guilt of betrayal, the religious resonance of sin and retribution, and the haunting nature of South Africa’s violent and racially segregated past.

Botes is known for his subversive critique of the Christian Afrikaner Nationalist identity and the patriarchal forms of secular and religious authority that secured the apartheid government. Terre’Blanche can be seen as a physical symbol of such an identity and, in his death, perhaps even the embodiment of cycles of violence that are depicted within Botes’ work. For these cycles affect both victim and aggressor, their respective roles not always so easily disentangled. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu was recently quoted as saying, although it is problematic to render apartheid the constant ‘scapegoat’ for contemporary experience, we seem to forget sometimes the extent of ‘the damage that was caused. To all of us South Africans. The damage to people who implemented such an inhuman policy, as well as the damage done to the victims’.

25 March 2010 - 30 April 2010

Listings(s)

'House of Judas'

Conrad Botes at Fred

'House of Judas' comprises Botes’s newest work. He continues to explore the powerful existential ideas of a primal struggle at the root of Man’s suffering, but has moved from the strange allegories of the human condition, and the brutality and violence in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, to concentrate on the love and betrayal, and all its consequences, in Judas’s relationship with Jesus.

Cast as the archetypal outsider, and scapegoat, Judas has little understanding of the situation in which he finds himself. The moral complexities and black humour at the heart of the work are based on issues of gender and race.

He examines the challenges and tribulations of the Afrikaner male in modern, post-apartheid South Africa, as he emerges from the psychic and pathological chaos and disorder endemic in its past and present.

25 March 2010 - 30 April 2010

Bitterkomix showcased on 'The Graphic Unconscious', Philagrafika 2010

Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes at The Print Center

Philagrafika 2010 is the first presentation of what will become a recurring event in Philadelphia, celebrating the role of print in contemporary artistic practice.

Involving more than 300 artists at more than 80 venues throughout the city, Philagrafika 2010 will be one of the largest art events in the United States and the world’s most important print-related exposition. Prominent museums and cultural institutions across Philadelphia are participating in Philagrafika 2010, offering regional, national and international audiences the opportunity to see contemporary art that references printmaking in dynamic, unexpected ways and to experience the rich cultural life of the city in the process.

‘The Graphic Unconscious’, is the central exhibition of Philagrafika 2010.

29 January 2010 - 11 April 2010

'On Earth as it is in Heaven'

Conrad Botes at KZNSA Gallery

The KZNSA, in association with Michael Stevenson Gallery, is pleased to present a survey exhibition by Conrad Botes. The work on show is a document of the artist’s grappling with the primal urges at the root of suffering. His imagery is rooted in our time and our dilemmas, yet strongly references the biblical notions of sin, retribution, guilt and, ultimately, redemption. In his title for the show, 'On Earth as it is in Heaven', he reminds us how we make God in our image, and that the Christian notions of judgement are ultimately us judging ourselves.

12 October 2010 - 31 October 2010

'The Temptation to Exist'

Conrad Botes at Stevenson in Cape Town

For the first time in many years Conrad Botes returns to painting on canvas in this exhibition along with his distinctive reverse-glass paintings. The new body of work began with a series of self-portraits; as the artist humorously says, it is easiest to be one's own model. In these head-and-shoulders images, Botes overlays the image of his face with his characteristic scrawl of anarchic figures running amok. Rather than tattoos, he describes these figures as representations of the ideology and hatred that inevitably contaminate the human condition.

The title of the exhibition, The Temptation to Exist - a reference to the Romanian philosopher EM Cioran's collection of essays of the same name - is seen by Botes to suggest the possibility of a life unbounded by the constraints of Calvinistic values, and paradoxically also to question our very desire to exist in the world as we know it.

08 September 2011 - 15 October 2011

'Victims and Martyrs'

Conrad Botes at Goteborgs Konsthall

In our time, victims and martyrs have been the subject of wide media attention. We are constantly fed reports of individuals and groups suffering under oppression, injustices and conflicts—circumstances linked to victims and, in an extended sense, potentially also to martyrdom. The exhibition 'Victims and Martyrs' focuses on the concepts’ complexity and inner contradictions, which frequently leads to the break-up of the borders between victims and perpetrators. The participating artists interpret, activate and stage the landscape in which victimisation and martyrdom take place. A number of interventions focus the conditions that make it possible to maintain and reproduce the roles today.

02 December 2011 - 04 March 2012