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Lot description
Wim Botha (South African 1974-) UNTITLED (ECSTASY II) Afrikaans bibles, wood and steel height: 56cm Wim Botha’s ECSTASY II was part of an exhibition held at Michael Stevenson in 2011 titled All This.The artist creates composite figurative sculptures often made from bibles, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and wood. This sculpture is only one example of an on-going evolution of paper busts for which Wim Botha is renowned. His works are more often obscure and steeped in connotation. Liese van der Watt (2005:5) notes that “despite the seeming accessibility of his vocabulary, interpretation (of Wim Botha’s artwork) is challenged by a radical act of translation and displacement that typically removes content from context and renders his work strange, ambiguous and only vaguely familiar”. The sculpture is suspended in space, fragmented and could almost be considered to be in a state of transfiguration. While the artwork does contain elements of traditional portraiture that may suggest some sort of rationalised identity, in this case, the artwork delivers nothing concrete and rather leaves the reader with a sense of flux and transition. His artworks often suggest concepts of weight and weightlessness, as he juxtaposes heavy paper and wood sculptures with polystyrene suspended in mid-air or mounted and grounded on plinths. Wim Botha was born in 1974. During his career so far he has presented a prolific amount of solo shows at Michael Stevenson, as well as participating in several group shows both locally and abroad. In 2010 he was awarded the commission for a public sculpture at the headquarters of Nedbank in Johannesburg, producing four monumental, abstracted trees constructed from metal and wood. CSReferences:• Michael Stevenson. 2010. WIM BOTHA. [O]ACCESSED on the 27/01/2017http://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/botha/index2011.htm• Van der Watt, L. 2005. Wim Botha: Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2005. Michael Stevenson, Cape Town.