Now recognized artists, Botes and Kannemeyer are exhibited all over the globe for their fine art work as well as their comics – Kannemeyer for instance is represented by no less than Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, along his representation by the Stevenson gallery in Johannesburg (the latter also represents Botes.) The duo’s collaboration has spanned over more than two decades, and as they artistically came of age in the early days of Post-Apartheid South-Africa, they emerged in a context where the division between fine arts and comics was not very clear-cut – mostly because, well, before they made their remarkable entrance on the South-African cultural stage, the latter was virtually devoid of any adult comic books culture. Joe Dog and Konradski, co-writers of the outrageous, ruthless and necessary Bitterkomix – and the Gaîté lyrique’s transversal space turned out perfect to accommodate their work within the pluridisciplinary Sharp Sharp, Johannesburg program. This kind of tension has never been an issue for transmediality veterans such as Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes, a.k.a. At the core of the matter lie many (still) unresolved binary oppositions of ‘serious vs. On the other hand, exhibit comic books in a museum, and you will hear rants against such fetishization of the medium – or on the contrary, complaints that the works appear too ‘illustrative’ or ‘narrative’ in comparison to the other artworks displayed nearby. When promoted within the expected contexts of the bookstore or the library, on the one hand, their visual impact tends to be lessened – and one wishes for more proper institutional recognition. Showing comics that are also recognized as ‘high’ art is a bit of a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t business. In the interview, the globally renowned South-African co-founders of underground comics Bitterkomix discuss their artistic training and influences, their current and earlier work, its international reception and the controversies it has spawned, as well as the delicate matter of making political art – among many other things. Upon the occasion of Sharp Sharp Johannesburg, the fourth edition of a yearly series of exhibitions and events organized by the Gaîté lyrique in Paris and focusing on a particular world capital – the first three editions centered on Berlin, Istanbul and Portland – the author was fortunate enough to interview Conrad Botes and Anton Kannemeyer, two luminaries in contemporary political art.
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