Lien Botha is a Cape Town-based fine art photographer and installation artist, whose work has been widely exhibited and is to be found in major collections around South Africa. "The artist has always preferred enigma as her point of entry. Her photographs, never things in themselves, are shifted, touched, re-contextualised. Traces rather than signs are what interest her Light and shade rather than bold colour, fickle memory rather than received history, movement rather than stillness. Gently unsettling, her art seeks out the depth in a thing and the shifting surfaces that cloud the perceived object. Author of many successful works of fiction and art criticism, Ashraf Jamal has woven an eloquent text around Botha's oeuvre, drawing on postmodern theory and poetic ressentiment alike. For this title Lien has collaborated with poet Karen Press and struck up a fascinating dialogue of meaning and imagery showing Press' words flowing alongside the beautiful reproductions of Botha's work.
TAXI is a series of titles on contemporary South African artists, initiated in 2000 by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and Pro Helvetia-Arts Council of Switzerland and published by David Krut Publishing. Based in Johannesburg, TAXI is the only educationally driven publication committed to contemporary South African art and its artists. Highlighting artists with a significant body of work, TAXI aims to create textually and visually compelling material to provide exposure and increase awareness on contemporary South African artists and their work.