South African artist Lien Botha’s thirteenth solo exhibition titled Lost in Translation, where she revisits a childhood narrative Boet & Saartjie, will be presented at Barnard from 13 April – with the official opening on Saturday 17th.
For this series, initiated in 2018, the artist has created digitally constructed photographic images with accompanying embroidered ‘second titles.’ The first titles are in English and inscribed on the actual photographic work and the second titles (in her mother tongue; Afrikaans) acts as a subtext artefact/curio. Image and text, besides activating a ‘re-reading’ of this particular primary school textbook (familiar to many South Africans of especially Botha’s generation), has prevailed in much of her output over the past two decades.
The artist notes, “It is a curious thing to reflect on the ‘static’ content of your youth fifty years after the event. And so, in search of a past / present continuum I have merged the individual characters of the young protagonists Saartjie and her brother Boet, their father, mother and dog Buks, into the recent South African landscape. Re-framing the past into a comic-style genre allows for playful undertones whilst referencing current issues such as the notion of ‘home’ in a fragile social and natural environment.
The naive figures of Boet and Saartjie, juxtaposed with mostly external landscapes, results in a tension between the seemingly playful characters, gradually being usurped by the very landscapes they inhabit ̶ alluding to the futility of reminiscence when grafting the figments of a colonial past. ‘Translation’, besides its literal configuration, implies relocation / shift / movement. This in itself is an activator for the historical stasis.
Request the exhibition portfolio
WHERE: BARNARD, 55 Main St Newlands, Cape Town 7700
WHEN: 13 April – 18 May 2021. Opening Saturday 17 April at 10:00 Opening Hours: Mon – Fri 10:00 – 14:00 Sat 10:00 – 12:00
INFO: T +27 021 671 1553 | E gallery@barnardgallery.com | visit
PHOTO: The Perks of being a Wallflower. Digital construction on Hahnemühle paper, 42 x 59 cm, Edition of 5
The WHAT, WHY & WHERE of the
arts scene in around Cape Town
see the
arts + crafts map
