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drewallen β butcher boys
Published: 2003-01-10 14:36:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 6826; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 680
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Description
"The Butcher Boys are images of brutalisation; they are the loci of malevolent and dehumanising forces. And what those forces are making them is inhumans. Mouthless, they can neither speak nor roar nor eat; they have gouged holes where they once had ears, it is only the searching ambivalent eyes that remain intact. They are not even truly beasts. The horns are broken and useless, the spine is not properly welded......In their woundedness and their bestiality, they are personifications of the appallingly spiralling violence, the anarchy, the necklace killings, the civil war, the police brutality, the child detentions, the burnings and lootings of South Africa in the 1980s..."
Ivor Powell on Jane Alexander's "Butcher Boys"
South Africa National Gallery - Resistance Art exhibit
Cape Town, South Africa
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Comments: 28
Am I right in saying that these were men who basically had their identity removed?
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my favourite artwork by my favourite artist can't wait to see it in person 
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Jane Alexander is absolutely amazing. I had the priviledge of shadow-jobbing at the gallery while her exhibition was there. Did you by any chance see Willie Bester's 'Trojan Horse' there? It's a beautiful resistence sculpture made fron scrap metal. The concept is similar to Butcher Boys.
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I studied this sculpture for Art class when I was in high school and the feelings it provoked when I saw it have never left me! It really is the most awesome and disturbing piece of work.
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stunning.
the symbolism is only that much stronger because those things will never truly disappear from our humanity. In a way it's ripping all of that out and showing it to us in 3-D.
You really captured all of that, and through angle..wow..
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Ahh the Butcher Boys. That is such a cool sculpture, bloody freakishly real!
Went on an outing to see it. Those eyes... ooh those dark abyss-like eyes, and their spines stick out there backs... love it.
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I don't understand this photo, at all. I added it to my favorites quite a while ago because the feeling I get from it scares me. I still don't know what's going on but the imagery is so powerful, I'm naturally drawn back to it again and again...
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Cheers, love The Butcher Boys - fantastic installation. Incidently I went to UCT and for the life of me I cannot remember the name of that place either. I lived on Medical School campus so I should know this. Now I feel really old and stupid.
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great shot, they really look alive. im doing actually doing a paper on resistant art and she's one of my favourites. william kentridge stays my fav tho.
:fav: !!!!
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Sorry for the late response!
Just wanted to say thanks for looking and the fav. Glad you like it.
It was chilling to be in the room with these creatures.
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aaah! i was there i was there! saw the real thing! they look so alive. people weren't kidding when they said they look like they want to pounce you at any given moment.
oh-you go to izko often? did you see the picasso exhibition by any chance?
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They do look like they might pounce, but they also look tragic and sad, having wrought their hidseousness (sp?) upon themselves.
Izko? I take it that's the local name for the museum. No, I was only in Cape Town for a months a few years ago. But I'm yearning to return. Stayed in Retreat, but had a friend who was studying at UCT and living in.... shit... I can't remember. It was a bohemian neighborhood that I think had the word "orange" in its name.
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Wow these are very intresting. They remind me of the beings from Hellraiser. I would like something like this for my house. I think you did a grate job with the photo and I thank you for taking the time to tell about the subject matter. Not many do.
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hey this picture itΒ΄s very interesting!!,I like very much man!!
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Yay!!! Another South Africa and a Cape Townian no less!!!! Unfortunetly i missed the exhibition...really wanted to go see it but just got caught up! Nice work, will check in again soon when i got a little more time.
~Slide
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beautifully disturbing, a great capture. you fell off my deviantwatch, but i'm just putting that right...
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I used to live in South Africa and I Studied Jane Alexander's "Butcher Boys." They're Awesome. Shes an amazing artist.
Fab work.
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HEY! Ive stood in that room with the Butcher boys!!
Seeing im South African!
Hey, er.. you live in the United States? Did you come down and take the photo?
Anyway, coo' I really think Butcher boys is the coolest sculpture there is.
For those that dont know this stands in the National Gallery.
When you walk around this sculpture it really feels real, especially their spinal cords shooting out of their backs...
*FREAKS OUT* anyway, hehe, ill stop talking now *g*
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Creepy!!! Feels like they're looking back at me...
Really nice shot... like the balance and the depth...
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They look stunningly real...and out of a nightmare. The angle makes it feel surreal, and makes one's blood curl. Were these people real? Or is this just an artist statement?
Feels like it is out of a movie.
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phenomenal photo.. with a wild description.
chilling... surreal..
this must have been quite the site to see first hand.
well done.
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This is the kind of image and description that provokes much thought. It's a very chilling and appropriate reminder of those events... the exhibit is quite horrifying and Powell's words are very powerful, every one of them...
Jess...
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perfect composition and depth of field...and yes, the description puts these pieces of art well into context.
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whoa, at first impression i though it was just some of that nasty whack shit that people like, but the description really opened me up, and i recognise and understand and agree witht he symbolism of the pic.... nice.
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