My Friend Leon Botha's Exhibition Opening 13th Jan. 2010 Who am I ? Transgressions

On the 13th of January 2010 I went to an exhibition opening for my friend Leon Botha. He and Gordon Clark have completed the first phase of a great project the two have been working on for some time. It was nice to see the images Leon and Gordon had been talking about for a while; I had only seen a few of them small and low res on the net. The images were powerful and captivating, I look forward to seeing more of their work especially the canvas images Leon has painted over. Here are a few film images I took at the opening, the last two images are from this angle I was getting of all my DJ bru’s outside (this drunk guy helping me could not get the flash right so I was a bit over shooting it). Respect to Leon, Big up. Enjoy-






Here is some more info from the press release...

Leon Botha is one of the longest living persons with Progeria, Greek for rapid aging. Born in Cape Town, he is 24 years old, an artist and musician.

This body of work is a collaborative and artistic adventure for two artists, two strangers, two very different people, who, in the meeting of spirit, beyond the parody of flesh, discover a commonality.Through them we learn not to lament Leon’s life and journey, but to celebrate them.

The key theme which runs through Who Am I?-Transgressions is mortality and immortality and how we live our lives within the time we have, which, Leon argues, is in any event, transient for all of us.How shall we be judged? How shall we judge?

The two artists empathetically dare, and dare us to transgress and disrupt the order and comfort of life and explore the idea of what it means to be human.
And examine the most important question - the condition of mankind?
What is normal…and what is not? What does dark mean? How near am I to it and from it?

“I want to show reality, not hide it “ says Clark “and Leon is the perfect metaphor for doing this. He shows up both the fragility, the light and the dark, of which we are all part, and of which, we are all made”

All these images are shot on medium format and 4x5 film

Visit Sunday Times article by Lin Sampson

http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/article151275.ece