For his upcoming solo exhibition at STEVENSON CAPE TOWN, Wim Botha will create three installations, each occupying an entire room. The show will be characterised by the complex interplay of traditional materials, such as marble, bronze, wood and oil paint, and ephemeral materials such as cardboard and polystyrene which allow him to continue a recent turn in his work towards spontaneity, improvisation and coincidence.

In the first gallery, Botha will present a large-scale bronze inspired by the Greek sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, excavated in 1506 and now on display in the Vatican. A second cast is included in the exhibition The Divine Comedy, curated by Simon Njami, which opens at the MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst) Frankfurt in late March 2014.

In the next gallery, the artist will create a hermetic world in which blackened, roughly carved wooden heads and busts carved in white Carrara marble form the portals for the installation. Further elements include a large pair of black bronze wings and one of Botha’s angular infinity forms which he terms ‘gravity machines’, surrounded by paintings of clouds on the walls.

In the third gallery Botha surprises with an installation of dramatic wing-like figures made from corrugated cardboard. The three galleries will be linked by a single black wooden line suggesting the outline of walls and doors and conveying the construct of space. Epic in scale and composition, Botha’s environments owe their powerful presence to a tension between the lightness of his sculptural forms and the weight of art history.

Opening: Wednesday 26 February, 6-8pm. 

Friday 28 February at 11am
Botha will give a walkabout in support of the Friends of the National Gallery on

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