The Blind Alphabet, a series of wooden sculptures inside boxes with braille on the lids to describe each piece

Blind Alphabet interpretation DURING the exhibition's run, every Wednesday at lunchtime, a blind Standard Bank employee will be available to interpret the Blind Alphabet for the sighted. RELATED LINKS: Russia finds its place at Origins Centre FROM a magnificent wire map which traces human migration to Perspex signs signifying the fragmentation of language and shamanic Bushman images, the artists responsible for the Origins Centre touch the soul of all in search of their African origins. Read more The bank that's really an art gallery YOU'LL have to remind yourself when you walk into Absa Towers North in Main Street in downtown Joburg that it's actually a bank, not an art gallery - you'll be overwhelmed by the spectacular original art in the building. Read more Art galleries COSMOPOLITAN Johannesburg has a thriving art scene; there are numerous galleries and dealers trading in extremely varied work, from cutting-edge contemporary to naοve "township art" and more traditional South African landscapes and wildlife paintings. Read more What's hot STUCK for something to do? Our guide points you in the right direction for a party, among other jols. Read more What to do this week LUCILLE Davie rounds up the best things to do this week in the city of gold. Read more

Willem Boshoff in his tidy workshop, in his home in Kensington

Boshoff sets himself no limits Willem Boshoff discovered art when he was just five, while watching his father, a master carpenter, at work. Now an exhibition, Word Forms and Language Shapes, 1975-2007, traces the work of this extraordinary artist. September 27, 2007 By Lucille Davie THERE are not many artists who would draw a hand as a self-portrait; but for Willem Boshoff, this is the perfect expression of who and what he is – a modest person who produces extraordinary works, using multiple media. His exhibition, Willem Boshoff – Word Forms and Language Shapes, 1975-2007, opens at the Standard Bank Gallery in the Joburg CBD this week, and it provides a valuable insight into this amazing artist's mind and modus operandi. "From my very early years I was constantly working with my hands," he says. Boshoff has no limit to his vision – he creates large installations, visual poetry and sculpture, using wood, found objects, and graphic and mixed media. The dictionaries His vision includes creating fantastical dictionaries, like the Dictionary of Colour; the Dictionary of Manias and Phobias; the Dictionary of Morphology; the Dictionary of -ologies and -isms; the Dictionary of Beasts and Demons; the Dictionary of Winds; the Dictionary of Obscure Financial Terms; Unmentionabilia; the Oh No! Dictionary; and Beyond the Epiglottis, a dictionary of extraordinary terms of rhetoric. And another - 10 years of researching 200 dictionaries resulted in a dictionary of perplexing English. Willem Boshoff lying among his meticulously worked pieces of his 370 Day Project His work is characterised by meticulousness, patience and discipline. Boshoff's interests are vast: botanical gardens, medieval and early music, avant-garde music, ecology, and language systems that subvert traditional thinking. He is a morphologist – someone who studies the form and shape of objects – whose objects take the shape of a variety of things: pebbles, discarded library cards, toys, sand, jigsaw puzzle pieces, scrap paper and words. And his wooden works are almost otherworldly in their ingenuity. Explaining that he discovered art when he was five years old, Boshoff watched his carpenter father work lovingly with wood. "By the time I was about six years old I knew that wood could be crafted and formed into objects of great beauty," he says in the catalogue produced for the exhibition. The artist also says that he grew up valuing "beautiful things". "It was from my mom and dad that I learned my love of plants and trees." Humble beginnings Curator Warren Siebrits, who compiled the catalogue, talks of Boshoff's humble beginnings, his master carpenter father and nature-loving mother. "Little did they know that their son would go on to become one of the most significant and influential artists of his generation, or that his work would remain focused on the things he loved so dearly as a child." Boshoff started picking up art awards in 1971, and in 2005 was still receiving accolades for his work. His first exhibition was in 1981; he has subsequently exhibited around the world. He has had some major commissions, and works of his are found in universities and galleries around the country, in the Constitutional Court, and in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. He has been a teacher and lecturer, art judge and examiner, although he became a full-time artist in 1996. School scrap books The exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery illustrates his beginnings, from his birth in 1951 in Vereeniging; his art scrap books from school, cross referenced and indexed; his college projects, done twice as a learning experience; and his rewriting of school textbooks when he started teaching. It includes some of the artist's major works: the Blind Alphabet, Tafelboek, 370 Day Project, 32 000 Darling Little Nuisances, Far Far Away, Skatkissie, Bankboek, Kleinpen 1, Skynbord, Library Cards, and Abamfusa Lawula – the Purple Shall Govern. You just have to look at this tall man with his unruly, grey-flecked beard to know that he is someone close to the earth. There's nothing pretentious or egotistical about Boshoff – his quiet presence at the press opening of his exhibition this week just serves to enhance his works. But enough – go and see Boshoff's work for yourself, and be uplifted, amazed and enchanted. The exhibition runs until 1 December. The Standard Bank Gallery is on the corner of Simmonds and Frederick streets, in the CBD. It is open on Mondays to Fridays, from 8am to 4.30pm; and on Saturdays, from 9am to 1pm. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za