BOTHA VS BIGOTRY

Andries Botha to talk at St Clements on July 19.

Andries Botha will give a talk at the regular St Clements Mondays at Seven gatherings on July 19 entitled all the things I shouldn’t talk about, following the media furore over his elephant installation and the Shaka Zulu statue at the new airport.

Internationally acclaimed Botha 0 – Local Bigotry 2

In Durban, Andries Botha's public art works have continued to be plagued with difficulties over the last month. The removal of the artist's newly installed sculpture of Shaka Zulu at King Shaka Airport garnered embarrassing attention from around the world, while the fate of the artist's stone-and-gabion elephants, which were partially installed on a freeway going into the city before the ANC decided they were too reminiscent of the IFP logo is still, after all these months, undecided.

Several days after the statue of Shaka – without a spear or shield, and accompanied by a number of cows – was unveiled by President Jacob Zuma, who in his speech championed the non-militaristic revisioning of the Zulu leader, the statue was removed due to pressure from Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini. Zwelithini apparently thought that Shaka looked too weak and was unimpressed with the pastoral nature of the work. Ironically, it has subsequently been suggested that it would be more appropriate if Shaka was depicted hunting elephants. (Extract from an article written by Peter Machen)

The presentation will include slides of his recent work and a music video by Syd Kitchen, inspired by the elephants.

Meals will only be served in the garden restaurant at the back of St. Clements for this presentation as an enthusiastic response is anticipated. In order to accommodate more people, there will only be seating available within the restaurant. The presentation will take place on July 19 at St. Clements in Musgrave Road from 19h00 to 20h00.