Ilené Bothma, 1981
Grave Threat
About:
Ilené Bothma was born in Port Elizabeth. She received a BFA (with distinction)
in 2003 and an MFA in 2007, both degrees from Stellenbosch University.
She received a second MFA (with distinction) in 2011 from Northumbria
University in the United Kingdom.
Leda and the Swan, I + II
Slippery Slope.
Triple Threat
In discussing her work, Bothma explains: ‘My artistic questions the ambivalence
that I experience towards the domestic. It is in this state of questioning,
of feeling vulnerable and exposed, that I explore the comfortable
and the awkward, the controlled and uncontrolled, the familiar and the
strange, exteriority and interiority. It is at the meeting point of these dualities,
where the pairings slip and merge, that I situate my work. It is in this
space that ambiguity opens up, where hesitation, confusion, misunderstandings
and mistakes materialise. It is a faltering point, which is sometimes
unknowable and unspeakable.’