Eddie Botha
So Fun..
1 – 28 September 2022
Opening | Saturday 3 September 3 – 5 pm
Fox Galleries announces the exhibition opening of South African-born local-based Victorian artist Eddie Botha in a timely revelation in what is considered fun. Eddie Botha’s new mixed media series is undeniably fun, and it looks fun to make. Incorporating collage, language, mindmaps, abstract gestures and hand drawn personifications of melbourne’s street culture that is both minimal and epic; choose your own adventure.
The title of the exhibition SO FUN…is a bit of a paradox, postulating that making amusement is fun in some kind of way, even if you don’t actually find it fun. Once you find something that doesn’t seem to be of amusement, it becomes fun in the very virtue of it not being fun. This frivolous contradiction brings about the subjective concept of ‘So fun’, a pivot response to the post-pandemic world where Botha records the unpredictable, high merriment entertainment that hoovers somewhere between anticipation, imagination and moments realised.
SO FUN…has momentum and wit, whirling around the exploration of free will, questions about motivations, causations and the nature of humans control over what is pleasant, if not diverting. The symbol of the spiral and circle reappear throughout Botha’s mixed media artworks. Little summits of growth and expansion, guiding, transcending and escaping the mystery of the paradox.
If it feels a little surreal, it probably is. Just because Botha’s style cannot be simply street art, pop or geometric configurations, Botha’s funscapes ask a little more. Assuming the viewer into the role of the author, consciously, or unconsciously coalescing in the forever rewritten, fun in the moment…
Artist Statement:
“Life is a game; a balance between what’s real, and what’s not. A dream can seem real, and reality can slip into a dream-like-state. ‘So fun…’ is the blurred boundaries of reality, when things can all of a sudden feel dream-like. We are all together in this crazy dream-like world, interacting simultaneously on our own journey; so we may as well have some fun along the way. My images juxtapose playful innocence with cynical prejudice, snippets that together are united and ultimately connected on this journey together. Social circles and friendship are what makes the fun moments all the more real.”
This exhibition will be on display at the gallery, but we have the virtual exhibition for viewing HERE
EDDIE BOTHA
born in South Africa, is a well-travelled multiculturalist, dreamer, comedian, nature lover and activist whose search for cultural identity and sincere relationships is expressed through his highly detailed drawings and paintings of people and society. Using pen, paint, newspaper and collage, Eddie depicts intricate, intimate scenes filled with a cacophony of characters who colour the everyday streets, producing work that is both personal and indifferent, sentimental and light as he examines human interactions deeply.
