ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

(Pic: “Blood Money” by Conrad Botes, 2010. Oil-based paint on reverse glass, powder-coated steel frame, lead)

Exhibition by Conrad Botes at KZNSA.

In association with Michael Stevenson Gallery, the KZNSA will present a survey exhibition by Conrad Botes titled On Earth as it is in Heaven. 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 it is strongly referenced within 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. The first works in this trajectory reflect on the origins of violence as depicted in the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, a return to the very first tale of murder as related in the Bible and Qu’ran, an allegory of rivalry, jealousy, aggression, corruption and lust which forms the point of departure for many of the works on this show. Included in this exhibition will be the series of 41 painted glass panels depicting the artist’s rendering of this story, a body of work Botes recently extended for the Sydney Biennale. This will be the first occasion the full set is seen in South Africa.

A second series of works uses the prism of Judas’ relationship to Jesus to explore love, betrayal and its consequences (among them suicide). These New Testament narratives provide Botes with a point of departure for his allegories of the human condition that are open to interpretation, personal and political. With the Judas figure cast as an archetypal outsider, a scapegoat in a script beyond his understanding or control, there comes an invariable wrestling with moral conundrums. Botes layers these with the realities of gender and race that underlie many of the debates in South Africa.

The artist will be showing a number of large-format reverse-glass paintings, a medium he has made distinctively his own through translating the graphic immediacy of his drawn comics into paint. He will also be painting a large wall drawing in-situ in the gallery, akin to the installation he recently produced for Peekabo, at the Helsinki Art Museum.

Botes’ (born 1969) work is included in Peekabo, at the Helsinki Art Museum until January 2011, and was been selected for the 17th Biennale of Sydney (May 12 - August 1). His work for Bitterkomix was included on The Graphic Unconscious, the central exhibition of Philagrafika 2010, an international festival celebrating print in contemporary art, in Philadelphia, USA. Other recent group exhibitions include the third Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008); Apartheid: The South African Mirror at the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (2007); Africa Comics at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2007); Turbulence at Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria (2007); and the ninth Havana Biennale, Cuba (2006). He has recently had solo shows with Michael Stevenson, Cape Town; Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg; and FRED, London.

On Earth as it is in Heaven runs at the KZNSA from October 12 at 18h00 to October 31. The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1703, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za