Strauss & co - 4 June 2018, Johannesburg

167 212 Conrad Botes SOUTH AFRICAN 1969– The Law signed with the artist’s initials and dated 13 acrylic on canvas 145,5 by 145 cm R30 000 – 40 000 The emblematic nature is reinforced by the graphic, largely linear depiction of figures. These emblems resemble the stock images available in tattoo parlours in any harbour around the world. They are ready for inking on the body. Some of Botes’s self-portraits contain detailed, full-bodied tattoos. Ashraf Jamal calls this a ‘cargo cult’, a culture mooring at every shore and adopted makeshift by indigenous peoples. 1 On South African shores, the cargo culture could be religious dogma or a skewed, biased legal system of the past. 1 Ashraf Jamal (2017). In The World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art , Milan: Skira, pages 246–247. Continued frompage166