CO

NR

AD

BO

TE

ST

HE

TE

MP

TAT

ION

TO

EX

IST

2

3

Emil Cioran, whose book of essays lends its title to Conrad Botes’ new body

of work, was a philosopher and writer who grappled with ideas of suicide,

loss of faith, misotheism and tragic history. He was particularly adept at

aphorisms, such as: ‘When we cannot be delivered from ourselves, we

delight in devouring ourselves.’ ‘The temptation to exist’ is an expression of

Cioran’s despair at the world, yet paradoxical desire to live.

In Christian mythology, ‘temptation’ is accorded a singular power. The

very nature of the word suggests a continual battle between desire and

repression. It points not only to the conflict between spiritual purity and

earthly dirt central to Christianity, but also to the interaction of our reptilian

id with our rational ego. Temptation is built into our psyches. The negative

connotation of the word positions desire as bad and repression as holy.

The title of Botes’ exhibition implies that existence itself is improper,

something to be repressed. However, the titular work consists of 16 self-

portraits, an artistic self-affirmation. These paintings on canvas and

reverse-glass roundels, some clustered against a mural, are rendered

in a distinctive brushstroke – a graphic linearity so particular to Botes, it

reinforces self-identity in the portraits. Behind each head, glowing lines MA

RT

YR

S A

ND

OT

HE

R M

ON

ST

ER

SC

HA

D R

OS

SO

UW

4

Page 1

The Stolen Shadow

Installation detail

Pages 2 & 3

The Temptation to Exist

2011

Oil-based paint on reverse glass roundels

80cm diameter each

The Trouble With Being Born

2011

Acrylic on canvas

130 x 90cm

5

radiate like a halo. The skin of each portrait crawls with comic-like figures

who stab, dismember, shit and burn. While performing feats of violence

and grossness, they are drawn with a loving glee. These maggoty figures,

willingly placed across a self-portrait, remind me of the tale of St Simeon.

Simeon was a stylite, an ascetic who sat on a pillar for 37 years. When the

bugs and mites infesting his filthy body fell off, he would pick them up and

let them burrow back into his skin. His radical self-denial made him holy,

a saint – but also an insufferable show-off. Such rejection can only stem

from either self-hate or pride; both emotions put the self on a pedestal, so

to speak. St Simeon could be seen, then, as not only an ascetic but also a

cynic. He withdraws from the world while living out his own existential crisis.

Botes’ work is marked by cynicism, but its nature is different from the

selfishness of St Simeon. In The Critique of Cynical Reason (1983),

German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk considers cynicism as a dominant

mode of contemporary life. He defines cynicism as ’enlightened false

consciousness’. By this he means that particular modes and ideologies have

been proven false, and yet one sticks to the form. One no longer believes

in the purposefulness of authority, but still supports it. In daily life, one is

indifferent, miserable and hopeless. An example would be the priest who

no longer believes in the tenability of God, yet continues to preach. Or the

graduate working in advertising while understanding Marx. Western society

has grown up on a diet of God’s word as absolute, yet the critique of this

since the Enlightenment has rocked its foundations. Even worse is the

growing suspicion that the world’s leaders in industry and politics are the

greatest cynics of all. They are reaping a bitter harvest of money and power,

and have a vested interest in the status quo. In contradiction to this futility,

Botes’ cynicism is tinged with melancholy and humour.

In the large painting Origin, Botes presents a God-like figure squatting over

his creation of a violent populace pounding each other into the ground.

God is shown as the Great Shitter, who bears a blasphemous resemblance

to Botes himself. His nastiness glows with a holy light. The pleasure here in

obscenity is reminiscent of the Greek Diogenes, founder of the Cynic school

of philosophy. Believing that most society was hypocritical and prevented

6

Communist II

2011

Oil-based paint on reverse glass

80cm diameter

7

us from attaining happiness, Diogenes refused to partake in it. He slept in

a barrel and never worked. His beard grew wild and his clothes were rags.

He dismissed all authority. Decency itself was a product of the dominant

ideology, and so Diogenes shat in the theatre, masturbated in the market

and pissed on passersby. As Sloterdijk suggests, Diogenes’ eschewal of

theory for action, however inconsequential that action may be, is a far cry

from the indifference of contemporary cynicism. This joyful, critical and

self-reflexive cynicism is closer to Botes’ spirit.

In Botes’ work religious authority is continually put under fire. The diptych

entitled Communist and Socialist portrays Jesus next to Osama bin Laden.

Each has a glowing background and a web of writhing facial tattoos. While

upending accepted views of these religious figures, giving them secular,

political designations, it also equates the horrors perpetrated in their

names. Cioran has a maxim which says it best: ’The fanatic is incorruptible:

if he kills for an idea, he can just as well get himself killed for one; in either

case, tyrant or martyr, he is a monster.’

The play between tyrant and martyr is illustrated in a more ambiguous way

in the large sculptural installation The Stolen Shadow. The work comprises

almost normal domestic items: a wall, a cupboard, a chair, a tub. These

objects are marred by black paint and scrawled creatures. The bucket

contains a severed hand, the cupboard a disembodied penis. Gazing out

from this uncanny environment is a life-size figure in a grey smock. He

wears a black dog mask, with glaring blank eyes. Riding on his shoulders is

a twisty little homunculus. It is unclear who is demon and who is victim. The

work is cloaked in a shadowy, encircling despair. Cracks of light, however,

break through. Scattered on the floor are stubs of chalk, like little signals of

the positive act of creation.

Far from sinking into a bitter and vengeful depression, Botes’ work finds

redemption in action, and specifically in art-making. Through self-awareness

and expression, cynicism can turn from its futile nature into an act of

criticism. Indifference is replaced with vitality. Emil Cioran, after all, lived to

the ripe old age of 84.

8

Communist and Socialist

2011

Diptych

Acrylic on canvas

350 x 170cm each

9

10

The Temptation to Exist I

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 130cm

11

The Temptation to Exist III

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 120cm

12

The Temptation to Exist II

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 120cm

13

The Temptation to Exist V

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 130cm

14

The Temptation to Exist IV

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 150cm

15

The Temptation to Exist VI

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 145cm

16

17

18

The Temptation to Exist

2011

Installation view, wall painting with roundels

Dimensions variable

19

20

Ocean of Shit I

2011

Oil-based paint on reverse glass

104cm diameter

21

Ocean of Shit II

2011

Oil-based paint on reverse glass

104cm diameter

22

The Proximity of Obscenity

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 145cm

23

Pilgrim

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 130cm

24

Origin

2011

Acrylic on canvas

200 x 350cm

25

26

Terrorist and Anarchist

2011

Diptych

Acrylic on canvas

250 x 140cm each

27

28

29

30

Lovesick

2011

Acrylic on canvas

165 x 250cm

31

32

The Fiscal Agent

2011

Enamel paint, jelutong, meranti, zinc

Approx 120 x 123 x 74.5cm

33

34

The Stolen Shadow

2009-11

Mixed-media installation

Figure: enamel paint, jelutong, obeche,

approx 177cm high

Installation dimensions variable

35

CAPE TOWN

Buchanan Building

160 Sir Lowry Road

Woodstock 7925

PO Box 616

Green Point 8051

T +27 (0)21 462 1500

F +27 (0)21 462 1501

JOHANNESBURG

62 Juta Street

Braamfontein 2001

Postnet Suite 281

Private Bag x9

Melville 2109

T +27 (0)11 326 0034/41

F +27 (0)86 275 1918

info@stevenson.info

www.stevenson.info

Catalogue 58

September 2011

Cover Communist and Socialist,

2011, details

Editor Sophie Perryer

Design Gabrielle Guy

Photography Mario Todeschini

Printing Hansa Print, Cape Town

CONRAD BOTES

Born Ladismith, Western Cape, 1969; lives and

works in Cape Town

RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010 On Earth as It is in Heaven, KZNSA

Gallery, Durban

House of Judas, Fred, London

2009 Crime and Punishment, Brodie/

Stevenson, Johannesburg

Hostile Territory, Aardklop arts festival,

Potchefstroom

Cain and Abel, Michael Stevenson,

Cape Town

2007 Satan’s Choir at the Gates of Heaven,

Michael Stevenson, Cape Town

2005 Conrad Botes, Absa Gallery,

Johannesburg

Notes from Underground, Gallery

Momo, Johannesburg

Devil’s Bullets, Erdmann Contemporary,

Cape Town

RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011 Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to

Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York

2010 Glanzlichter: Reverse glass paintings in

contemporary art, Museum Villa Rot,

Burgrieden-Rot, Germany

Peekaboo: Current South Africa, Tennis

Palace Art Museum, Helsinki

Ti Piment festival, Nancy, France

Rio Loco festival, Tolouse, France

... for those who live in it: Pop culture,

politics and strong voices, MU

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

The Beauty of Distance: Songs of

survival in a precarious age, 17th

Biennale of Sydney, Australia

The Graphic Unconscious, Philagrafika

2010, Philadelphia, USA

2009 Cyclone BD festival, Reunion

Self/Not-self, Brodie/Stevenson,

Johannesburg

Conrad Botes, Anton Kannemeyer

& Henning Wagenbreth: Recent

prints and drawings, Gallery AOP,

Johannesburg

Bitterkomix: Un certain regard

sur l’Afrique du Sud, Angoulême

International Comics Festival, France

2008 Farewell to Post-Colonialism, Third

Guangzhou Triennial, China

2007 Apartheid: The South African Mirror,

Centro de Cultura Contemporania de

Barcelona, Spain

South African Art: Modern art and

cultural development in a changing

society, Danubiana Meulensteen Art

Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia

Turbulence, Hangar-7, Salzburg,

Germany

2006 Bitterkomix, Michael Stevenson,

Cape Town

Africa Comics, Studio Museum in

Harlem, New York

Ninth Havana Biennale, Cuba

New Painting, KZNSA Gallery, Durban;

Johannesburg Art Gallery