In his latest body of work Conrad Botes takes the title of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s famous novel as a starting point to explore the intricacies of guilt and complicity and their relationship to violence.
These are recurrent obsessions for Botes, whose previous solo show, Cain and Abel (at Michael Stevenson in January 2009), reflected on the origins of violence by invoking the very first tale of murder as related in the Bible and Qu’ran. Botes uses archetypal stories embedded in the psyche as a framework or prism through which to explore political and social issues that are of relevance today. These allegorical works convey a pervasive sense of horror, a feeling the artist has described as ‘like shrapnel under the skin’. Works on the exhibition will take the form of wall drawings, large-scale reverse glass paintings, sculpture and installation.
The exhibition runs from 13 August – 5 September 2009
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Tags: Brodie/Stevenson, Conrad Botes
