Jan van der Merwe, Killing Time (2007)

Jan van der Merwe, Unclaimed (2006)

L O S T

9 -30 JUNE 2007

Willem Boshoff

Jan van der Merwe

Johan Conradie

Johan Conradie, Serpent and Eclipse

Willem Boshoff, Bread-and-pebble road map

Persverklaring vir Lost, Johan Conradie, Jan van der Merwe en Willem Boshoff

Johan Conradie

Johan Conradie vermoed dat sy werk altyd sal draai rondom kwessies soos verlies, afwesigheid, verwaarlosing en stilte.

Conradie ondersoek eskatologiese ruimte hoofsaaklik deur die medium van fotografie. Beelde van ‘n spookagtige donker

anderwêreld, vreemd leeg en stil is op die voorgrond. In hierdie beelde, wat strek van leë stoele tot begraafplaas ikonografie,

oorkruis skoonheid, verwaarlosing en geestelikheid vryelik. Die werk beweeg tussen die fotografiese en die skilderkunstige,

tussen die virtuele ruimte van verwysing en die materiële oppervlak, tussen hede en verlede, en dit wat is en dit wat was.

Lig was nog altyd ‘n belangrike simbool in Europese gelowige werk, vroeër ‘n element van God se grasie wat neerdaal op

die aarde en later ‘n simbool van sielkundige bewustheid, wat verwys na persoonlike verheldering. In Conradie se werk

word gebruik om vaagweg te beweeg tussen die geestelike, sielkundige en tegnologiese sonder enige uitkoms.

Jan van der Merwe

Jan van der Merwe gebruik hedendaagse gebeure, soos oorlog en energiekrisisse, vir inspirasie vir sy werk. In die

installasie, Power Failure, is stilte staties. Verder suggereer Power Failure dat alle aktiwiteit stil en gevestig word,

daardeur word dit ‘n metafoor van geestelike aftakeling of die onderbreking van ‘n soektog. Van der Merwe

impliseer dus dat nuwe tegnologie ontwerp moet word om antieke waarhede en wonders te herontdek.

Killing time verwys na magsugtige individue wat oorloë beplan vanaf die gemak van ‘n lessenaar. Verder verwys

dit na die afbrekende gedrag, gewoontes en herhalende patrone, frustrasies en obsessies wat lei tot betekenislose

persoonlike oorloë. Die hoop klein “papier” vliegtuigies is soos klein bergies van verlore kanse en oomblikke.

Willem Boshoff

Brood en klip padkaart is ‘n kaart waarvaan die kartograaf die pad na vrede heeltemal byster geraak het.

‘n Roete van klippies is neergelê in die 40 vlak witgekalkte bokse om die pad aan te dui. Dit is egter byna

onmoontlik om die klippe ui te ken van die broodjies wat tussen die klippe geplaas is. Boshoff het dus

weereens, soos vele male tevore, ‘n “kaart om mee te verdwaal” gemaak.

Die padkaart verbind twee welbekende fabels. In ‘n storie van bittere bedrog lei ‘n vader sy twee kinders,

Hansie en Grietjie, die woud in. Die vader hoop dat hulle nooit weer hulle weg huis toe sal vind nie. In die

vader se eerste poging, kry Hansie dit reg om sy pad huis toe te kry deur klippies op pad te strooi. Die

tweede roete gaan egter verlore, aangesien die voëls die broodjies, wat die pad huistoe aangedui het, opgeëet het.

Wanneer Abraham Hagar met die jong kind Ismail die woestyn instuur, gee hy haar, brood en water. Soos die

brood en water opraak, plaas Hagar die kind onder ‘n bos, om nie sy dood te hoef aanskou nie. God het egter

ander planne vir Ismail. Hy is gekies om die vader van ‘n sterk nasie te wees.

Boshoff se padkaart baan sy weg deur die woestyn soos die Jordanië rivier. Die klippe en brood is gemerk met

Arabiese name en hulle betekenisse in ‘n poging om die volle register van Arabiese name onder risiko te plaas.

Elke klip kan die vuis wat dit vashou vul, dit is groot genoeg om doel te dien as ‘n dodelike wapen.

Press release for Lost, Johan Conradie, Jan van der Merwe & Willem Boshoff

Johan Conradie

Johan Conradie suspects that his work will always resolve around issues of loss, absence, ruin and silence. In

these new works created for this show, he explores ‘eschatological space’ mainly through the photographic medium.

Images of a ghostly dark counter-world, eerily silent and strangely empty, predominate. In these images, ranging

from empty chairs to graveyard iconography, beauty, ruin and spirituality freely overlaps. The work oscillates between

the photographic and the painterly, between the virtual space of representation and the material surface, between

past and present, that which has been and that which is.

Light has been a crucial symbol in European religious art, early on as an emblem of God’s grace passing down to

earth and later as a symbol of psychological awareness, connoting personal enlightenment. In Conradie’s work light

is used, ambiguously moving between the spiritual, the psychological and the technological without resolution.    

Jan van der Merwe

Jan van der Merwe uses contemporary events, such as war and energy crises as inspiration for his work. In the

installation Power Failure silence is frozen. In addition, Power Failure suggests that all activity quietens and settles

down, thereby becoming a metaphor for spiritual breakdown or the interruption of a pursuit. Van der Merwe therefore

suggests that new technology must be developed to discover ancient truths and phenomena.

Killing time refers to power hungry players who plan wars from behind their desks. Furthermore it alludes to everyday

disruptive and destructive behaviour, habits and repetitive patterns, frustrations and compulsive behaviour that result

in meaningless personal wars. The mound of little “paper” aeroplanes is like small mountains of lost chances and lost moments.

Willem Boshoff

Bread and pebble road map is a map whose cartographer has thoroughly lost the directions of the way to peace. 

Within the 40 shallow whitewashed boxes a trail of pebbles has been laid to show the way. It is however hardly 

possible to distinguish the stones from the bread placed between them. Boshoff has constructed, as many times 

before, a ‘map to get lost by’.

The roadmap links two well-known tales. In a story of bitter betrayal by a father of his children, Hansel and Gretel 

are led into the woods. Their father hopes that they might never find their way home. At the first attempt, Hansel

 is able to retrace his steps following the pebbles. The second trail is lost because the birds have eaten the bread 

that marked it. When Ahraham sends Hagar with the infant Ishmael into the desert he gives her bread and water. 

When the water and bread are spent, Hagar places the child under a bush, not wanting to witness its death. God 

however has other plans for Ismael. He wants to make him the father of a great nation.

Like the river Jordan, Boshoff’s ‘roadmap’ winds its way through the desert. The stones and the bread are marked

with Arabic names and their meanings in an attempt to put the full register of Arabic names at risk. Each pebble may

fill the fist that holds it, big enough to be a deadly weapon

Jan van der Merwe, Power Failure

Willem Boshoff, Far, far away