Willem Boshoff
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Note : The sandblasted texts are taken from the Genesis Myth (chapter 9) regarding the origin of languages. The languages (as read from top to bottom) are Ronga Randim, Estonian, Chinese, Malay, Igbo, English and Arabic. EXHIBITED Circa Gallery, Johannesburg, Penelope and the Cosmos, 3 November to 15 December 2009, illustrated in colour in the catalogue on pp.25–27. Willem Boshoff is well known as his alter ego, ‘Big Druid’, a gnostic and peripatetic character who dispenses knowledge, often to do with languages, from a performance-type space in a gallery or arts precinct. The artist’s central concern with languages is evident in this imposing work, one of a series made as the output of a residency at the Nirox Foundation, located in the Cradle of Humankind. The series, titled ‘CHILDREN OF THE STARS’, meditates, through a range of large-scale sculptural works, on the prehistory of humanity and the strange confluence of cosmic events which made the Cradle such a fertile ground for the evolution of the species. Says Boshoff, “The asteroid that fell at Vredefort made it possible for human-like beings to emerge from the mists of time. My artwork CHILDREN OF THE STARS brings homage to us as children of the stars. More specifically, I wanted to make large, liquid rocks that speak of the emergence of languages and of reason from the obscure echelons of early human consciousness. Children of the stars gave birth to the human species and in turn our human mothers give birth to each one of us, but that is not where the mother/child relationship ends. Once a mother has borne a child, she continues to give birth to his language, his manners, culture and customs. She is aided in this by others who bear out the best (and the worst) in us. At first this birth of customs and language in us depends on people and teachers who provide care and affection, but later on that delivery is extended to books, the media, experience and circumstances”. Each of the works, therefore, including this one, Clast Mar, is inscribed with a set of texts in various languages, each describing or alluding to the Genesis origin myth, and in particular the parable about the birth of languages in Babel. The work is hewn from chunks of Belfast Black granite, and polished, says Boshoff, to such a degree that the rock’s original state as a primordial, igneous, molten material is recalled. Originally the sculptures, including this one, were installed in strategic positions around the Cradle of Humankind site. James Sey TWO VIEWS OF LOT 52
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