Racist in South Africa

Willem Boshoff, Racist in South Africa, 2011
Anodised aluminium panel, engraved and filled with ink
120 x 120 x 0.3 cm
Courtesy the artist, photograph Andrea Avezzù

In 2012, a small crop of medals at the London
Olympics placed South Africa 23rd on the medals
table. In the same year, we were 9th on the list of
countries with the most homicides—31 per 100
000. There are few South Africans unaffected by
violent crime, and many, including me, have lost
family or friends to murder. We have the worst rape
statistics of any country—in 2010, only the USA,
a country with a population six times larger, had
more reported rapes than South Africa. The average
South African girl stands a far better chance of being
raped than of learning to read or write. I thought
we were a democracy, but it turns out we are a
veritable phallocracy. And to judge by the depth and
seriousness of corruption in our government, we
are also a kleptocracy—a country ruled by a gang
of thieves. The idea of discrimination against others
deeply offends me. But then, my artwork says I am
proud to be labelled a racist, not that I am proud
to be one. I and others have been labelled thus for
objecting to the terrible crime wave that has our
country in its grip.

Willem Boshoff was born in 1951 and grew up in Vanderbijlpark,
south of Johannesburg. He lives and works in Johannesburg. His
father was a carpenter and Boshoff grew up with a love for wood
and a respect for technical expertise. He decided not to exhibit
his artwork in a public gallery until he was thirty years old, when
he had his first exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. His
major works include KYKAFRIKAANS, an anthology of concrete
poetry (1980), Blind Alphabet (1995), Writing in the Sand (2001)
and Garden of Words (in progress since 1982). His work has
been shown in South Africa and internationally, notably at the
Johannesburg, São Paulo, Venice and Havana biennales; the
National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC; the Triennale für Kleinplastik in Stuttgart
(where he was awarded the Ludwig Gies Prize); Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen, Rotterdam; White Box Gallery, New York; Museum
van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp; Galerie Asbæk, Copenhagen;
Sonsbeek Internationaal, Arnhem; and Art Unlimited at the
Basel Art Fair. He won a Golden Loerie in cooperation with Ogilvie
International for his artwork Abamfusa Lawula (1997).
Boshoff was head of the Department of Fine Art of the
Technikon Witwatersrand (now University of Johannesburg) and
has an honorary doctorate from the University of Johannesburg.
He has delivered lectures on the interaction of the visual and audio
arts at various universities and has published numerous essays
and articles. He has an extensive collection of avant-garde music,
Gregorian chant and ethnic music and spends much of his time
compiling dictionaries (his first, A Dictionary of Colour, was written
in 1977). He regularly visits major gardens in the world to do
research for his Garden of Words and Big Druid projects.