Strauss & co - 16 February 2019, Cape Town

79 61 Willem Boshoff SOUTH AFRICAN 1951– Fallen 2-Letter Words 2005 sand, stone and concrete 122 by 144 cm R90 000 – 120 000 ITEM NOTES ‘In the two artworks Fallen 2-Letter Words and Fallen 3-Letter Words I bring paradoxical homage to a language that is wrecked. The simplest Afrikaans words, consisting of two and three letters, have had their wings melted and, like Icarus, are plummeting from the sky to become part of the seepage and slippage of the oceans – fallen, broken and washed-up. I am an artist and I know the value of things discarded, of arte povera and of abject hopelessness. I believe against belief that Afrikaans in its present state as the flotsam and jetsam of a politico-cultural disaster, stands a better chance to be ‘liberated’ as one of the world’s great languages – better than when is was self-assertive and mean.’ 1 1. Willem Boshoff. (2005) Fallen 2 & 3 Letter Words, [Online] Available: https://www. willemboshoff.com/product-page/fallen-2-3- letter-words [6 December 2018].