BOYTCHIE | Righteous Orders

"There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism."

— Walter Benjamin

We live in the consequences of history because it continues to repeat itself.

With his eighth solo exhibition, Boytchie expands his KA$H OUT series by grappling with one particular question: what are righteous orders? This body of work brings forth, in visual form, the political contradictions that have come to define our collective experience. Amidst an escalation of global instability, Boytchie dissects the symptoms of power, which at the core are greed and inhumanity. As the artist states, “global superpowers are unabashedly colonial.”

The idea of good politics has become a false doctrine. We have all, at some point, fallen victim to Western media along with its propaganda and deceptive retelling of history. The artist’s intentions with this offering incite us to break away from the excessive justifications of evil-doings that have constantly and actively been repeated. In Boytchie’s world and context, phrases such as “Never Again” have lost their strength and purpose against forces that render us powerless in global and unhumanitarian proceedings.

Boytchie applied himself differently to the production of this offering, working at a pace that exceeded his usual rhythm, moving from one artwork to the next. When asked about this approach to creating the body of work, the artist responded, 

“I was inspired by the increasing rate of conflict in the world, I wanted to paint everything I saw so I kept producing new works quite rapidly.” Throughout RIGHTEOUS ORDERS, Boytchie expands upon the dystopian visual language already established in his KA$H OUT series. The inclusion of abstract artworks is no mere showcasing of form. The looseness and abstractual elements directly mirror the artist's view on the state of global politics. The world is becoming difficult to process, to the point where our attempts to make sense of certain moments are interrupted by the next, and the result? A sense of incompleteness.

This exhibition showcases the wide range of the visual identity and language of KA$H OUT. “There’s a shift towards loose abstraction. I’ve been playing with colour, mark-making, gestures, and line work,” Boytchie says. Artworks such as DOWN WITH THE CLIQUE carry the unique visual identity that intrinsically belongs to KA$H OUT. Newer paintings such as RISK and THE DEVIL IS WHITE OR MAYBE PINK showcase the visual expansion of the artist’s language. The paintings present themselves almost unfinished compared to most paintings that have formed the success of this series.

Boytchie touches on that, saying, “the work I’ve produced this year has been a lot more loose and abstract. I’ve brought back the drawing element to my practice.”

KA$H OUT is “a very nihilistic mirror of our world,” the artist has previously stated, as he spoke about creating a world that lives within the extremities of societal collapse. Boytchie’s practice is undoubtedly influenced and informed by the ongoing wars, resource extraction, conflicts, environmental destruction, and the widespread resurgence of right-wing ideologies that have shaped our collective discontent. The subjects in Boytchie’s work have mainly focused on the discarded individual, and how societal and systematic failure can push one into a violent struggle of survival. This new collection of artworks turns the focus onto the oppressor, while managing to stay true to the realities of those affected by politically abusive forces. “I included military iconography to give a better sense of a war-ridden world. Police caps, weapons, vans, executions, guns, uniforms and bodies,” Boytchie says. “I wanted the exhibition to feel like a document of what’s happening right now,” he continues.

It is important to note that much of Boytchie’s motivation to speak on the cyclical events of history is due to his research methods. The artist took inspiration from books documenting the globe's historical relationship to war and violence. Two books that stand out in particular are: WORLD PRESS PHOTO COMPETITION 09, a publication covering some of the world’s most significant examples of visual reportage, and The World of Guns by Richard Akehurst, a book on the history of the gun itself, and its use in warfare and the West. Looking at these images, Boytchie would see the repetitive nature of history and how images that were taken to capture a moment in time are repeated in so many ways. Much like the earth’s rotation, history continues its cycle, shaping the greater human experience.

RIGHTEOUS ORDERS is a standout offering in Boytchie’s practice so far. Boytchie positions himself untethered from the many guises of morality. Existing within its awareness of the present, this exhibition does not root itself only in memory but also in the limitations of the future. The focus is not merely political violence itself; rather, this body of work critiques the necessity of violence. Boytchie achieves this by use of satire, symbolic imagery, and a postmodernist view. This collection is a reminder that the leaders that promise to keep us from the pains of the past fail by dragging us through what will be tomorrow’s history lesson. Boytchie begs us to not sit but to take this information in stride, questioning at the very least, “How the hell is this still our reality?”

- Nirel Sithole

For any further enquiries please contact gallery@everard.co.za