Treading water, dreading warfare: a long panoramic mixed media drawing of figures in water

Ryan Botha — Selected works 2017–2021

Drawing, photography and digital media.

Series I

Sometimes I Dream I’m Drowning 2021

Final-year exhibition, Visual Multimedia Arts, University of South Africa (UNISA).

Treading water, dreading warfare, panoramic mixed media drawing — 01Treading water, dreading warfare, 2021Mixed media drawing, 230 × 84 cmOriginal available · Prints

Amnesic, panoramic multimedia drawing — 02Amnesic, 2021Multimedia drawing, 220 × 84 cmOriginal available · Prints

Shifting outwards, panoramic multimedia drawing — 03Shifting outwards, 2021Multimedia drawing, 230 × 84 cmOriginal available · Prints

Acceptance, panoramic multimedia drawing — 04Acceptance, 2021Multimedia drawing, 300 × 84 cmOriginal available · Prints

Utter the words I, digital print — 05Utter the words I, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured Silk, 30 × 42.3 cmPrints

Utter the words II, digital print — 06Utter the words II, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured Silk, 30 × 42.3 cmPrints

Words within I, digital print — 07Words within I, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured Silk, 30 × 42.3 cmPrints

Words within II, digital print — 08Words within II, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured SilkPrints

Words within III, digital print — 09Words within III, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured SilkPrints

Rupture, digital print — 10Rupture, 2021Digital print on Ilford Textured Silk, 30 × 42.3 cmPrints

Series II

Water 2021

Staged photographic works made in the sea, rivers and pools.

Through a lens darkly, staged photograph — 11Through a lens darkly, 2021Prints

Thoughts of change, staged photograph — 12Thoughts of change, 2021Prints

Emerge I, staged photograph — 13Emerge I, 2021Prints

Emerge II, staged photograph — 14Emerge II, 2021Prints

Boundless, staged photograph — 15Boundless, 2021Prints

Betwixt, staged photograph — 16Betwixt, 2021Prints

Outward yet inward, staged photograph — 17Outward yet inward, 2021Prints

Break, break, break, staged photograph — 18Break, break, break, 2021Prints

Spirit of the sky, staged photograph — 19Spirit of the sky, 2021Prints

Float, black and white staged photograph — 20Float, 2021Prints

Series III

Float 2020

Drawn and printed figures suspended between surface and depth.

Series IV

Forest 2020

Staged photographic works made in orchards and woodland.

Burnt orchard, staged photograph — 29Burnt orchard, 2020Prints

Trapped in the trees, staged photograph — 30Trapped in the trees, 2020Prints

Dark footsteps, staged photograph — 31Dark footsteps, 2020Prints

Misty path, staged photograph — 32Misty path, 2020Prints

Series V

Studies 2020

Drawing, painting and digital painting studies, UNISA Visual Multimedia Arts.

Drawing I, study — 33Drawing I, 2020Prints

Drawing II, study — 34Drawing II, 2020Prints

Drawing III, study — 35Drawing III, 2020Prints

Painting I, study — 36Painting I, 2020Prints

Painting II, study — 37Painting II, 2020Prints

Painting III, study — 38Painting III, 2020Prints

Photograph I, study — 39Photograph I, 2020Prints

Photograph II, study — 40Photograph II, 2020Prints

Photograph III, study — 41Photograph III, 2020Prints

Digital painting I, study — 42Digital painting I, 2020Prints

Digital painting II, study — 43Digital painting II, 2020Prints

Digital painting III, study — 44Digital painting III, 2020Prints

Series VI

Early work 2017

Ink drawings and photographic works.

45Cathedral of awkward silence, 2017Prints

Prints

Every work is available as a print

Open any work in the catalogue and choose a format. Limited editions are signed and numbered by the artist and come with a certificate of authenticity.

Limited edition giclée print, A3Archival fine-art paper, approx. 30 × 42 cm · Edition of 25: $120
Limited edition giclée print, A2Archival fine-art paper, approx. 42 × 59 cm · Edition of 15: $220
Open edition art print8 × 10 in: $45
Original work on paperWorks 01–04 only: Enquire

Prints are produced on demand on museum-grade archival paper and shipped worldwide. Limited editions close when sold out. Prices in USD.

About

Ryan Botha

Why I am in my own work

Most of the figures in these works are me. That isn't because the work is about me. It's because it is about something I can only reach from the inside.

The work keeps returning to water, stillness and the suspended body: sinking, floating, surfacing, holding on and letting go. These states are physical before they are symbolic. To make them honestly I need a body I can put underwater in the cold, ask to lie still in ash or freeze mid-fall, and do it again and again until the image is true. The only body I can ask that of, without limits and without directing someone else's vulnerability, is my own.

Look closely and the face is rarely the point. It's hidden, turned away, blurred by water or lost in fabric. I'm not offering a portrait. I'm offering a stand-in: an ordinary middle-aged man's body, used the way a writer uses "I", to describe something many people know and few say out loud. That might be anxiety that feels like drowning, faith tested in the dark, or the quiet work of staying afloat for the people who depend on you.

I work in a tradition of artists who turned the camera on themselves to disappear rather than to be seen. Francesca Woodman blurred into rooms. Bill Viola submerged the body to talk about birth, death and transcendence. Cindy Sherman used her own face to play everyone but herself. I'm the subject because I'm the one who's available, accountable and willing to go under. The person in the picture is meant to become you.

— Ryan Botha

Water, stillness and the suspended body recur throughout: figures that float, sink and surface, caught between holding on and letting go.

Ryan Botha is an artist and designer living in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. He studied Visual Multimedia Arts at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where his work moved between large-scale drawing, staged photography, video and digital media.

His final-year exhibition, Sometimes I Dream I’m Drowning (2021), brought these threads together in four large multimedia drawings, a series of digital prints and two video works.

Contact

Commissions, originals and print enquiries

ryanwbotha@gmail.com