commune: onomatopoeia
2003 mixed media installation Sean O'Toole writes: "commune: onomatopoeia is the second in Wim Botha's commune trilogy. Described as an exhibit that asks questions about ceremony and the states of nationhood, this mixed media installation is not that easily summarised. Awkward, weighty in its physical form, lascivious, clinically unsettling, geometrically precise, vaguely domestic, inscrutable but concerned with icons, nostalgic; it is difficult to give meaning to his work beyond this imprecise cluster of words. And yet there is a lot that connects commune: onomatopoeia with the artist's output to date. The lead frame windows, the circular wooden picture frames, the faux antiquity, the varied and refined details characteristic of Afrikaans pioneer homes, all these elements connect this work to Botha's greater oeuvre, one that has shown an abiding interest in deconstructing the icons of the home, Afrikanerdom, and indeed South African life generally."
The work is included on the major survey exhibition Africa Remix, touring Düsseldorf, London, Paris and Tokyo until 2006.
Click here for an installation view of the work at the Museum kunst palast in Düsseldorf.
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