STRUGGLETRAIN

MY devotion to study of African Art led me to research

South African artist;

Willie Bester.

My search was simply to find an artist, who, like myself,

sculptured and painted metal.

After watching a video;

http://www.vmcaa.nl/vm/video/video003.htm

I was so impressed with this charasmatic, humble and modest man,

that I knew I had made the right choice.

Willie says;

"When you are poor you are faced with problems".

These problems he has addressed, for himself,

by looking at what is around him.

He will find odd pieces of metal or leather and take them home.

ttp://library.thinkquest.org/18799/wbesgen.html

Months may pass till an idea comes up as to how to make use of them.

Bester1.avi - Willie on the aftermath of Apartheid - 3.1 MB

Bester2.avi - Willie collecting materials - 3.7 MB

Bester3.avi - Willie at work (contains some interesting imagery) - 1.3 MB

Willie, born in 1956 in Montagu, in the Western Cape,

learnt his craft literally on the streets.

http://www.mnet.co.za/Mnet/Shows/carteblanche/story.asp?Id=2099

In an interview with Ruda Landman:

Ruda ;

'When you started painting, what did you start with?'

Willie:

'I started with making wire cars.

Then later I covered the wire cars with metal.

We used to paint them and later we put lights on them.

That progressed to painting.

I would try to copy a house.

I'd look at what a house was made out of and try to make

it the same on a flat work.

I think that's when my collages started.'

Ruda:

'Was that when you were still a child?'

Willie:

'Yes, I was a child. But I didn't think it was art because

I had seen nothing like it around here.'

His older works dealt with specific events such as

the torturing of detainees and massacres

during the Apartheid regime.

Awakening Consciences seems to be the key to Artist Willie Bester.

His work is a collage of conceptualities; layering and linking;

humanity and truth.

Enhanced by vibrant colours, his work invites the viewer to explore

South African struggles and traditions

with historical and political expressions.

Says Willie

"Art serves as a constant therapy".

"You deal with your society".

"The largest sector of our community were robbed of their

education – townships were demolished".

" By doing art, I overcame a lot of my bitterness."

Ruda:

'What do you mean?'

Willie:

'By addressing things that make me bitter,

by creating something, then I feel so much better once it's done.

I believe in facing up to something, dealing with it,

and then we can move on.'

Ruda:

'Do you feel that after 1994 the era of 'struggle art' is over?'

Willie:

'No, I think one's whole life gets taken up with struggle.

For me it wasn't necessarily about apartheid.

It was about the human condition and how people treat other people.

It isn't something you can vote away.

It's something you have to keep an eye on the whole time.'

Willie uses photographs to keep records as they provide

so much information, which he can translate,

making adjustments between the past and now.

"Now is a more violent situation than ever,

- Before we knew who the enemy was –

certain sections were protected and others, not".

" Now anywhere can be affected;

in the workplace for example."

"Now",

he says

"we are part of this Open Season".

"As an artist I must draw on what is positive.

Now nobody will come to search my house and tell me what to paint".

His sculpture "For Those Left Behind (2003)" portrays a heavily armed policeman

and a vicious dog made entirely out of recycled metal and guns.

This work makes

reference to a national scandal sparked by

the distribution, in 2000, of a video showing white

policemen setting dogs on a group of black men and

watching them be mauled.

It is very important to Willie that the history of

South Africa is kept alive,

to teach what they went through and show the achievements made;

so that the same "stupid Ideas" of the past, will not be tolerated again.

"The Bible" has the structure of a "time bomb". Says Willie;

"If you make a hole for someone else you will fall in it yourself".

This work can be found on Robin Island, a new museum established January 1997

dealing with the political history of South Africa.

Willie Bester's family home is situated in a quiet Cape Town suburb

of Kuilsrivier.

This unique home, could be described as a three-storey “installation”.

A parking meter stands,

at the driveway;

coloured pipes wrap themselves around the outside walls of the house

and in the garden there is a colourful windmill,

with Ndebele design.

[Strong cultural significance that expresses the history, culture and identity of the S.African Ndebele

people. [The geometric lines are drawn freehand as example right]

A birdhouse is made from recycled steel objects and horns

and there stands a huge welded sculpture of an armed canon.

The swimming pool is built from rocks out of the surroundings

and in the corner a recycled notice from the past,

stating "Whites Only ".

Recycling material plays an important part in his home and his art

(like water that evaporates and is naturally recycled, returning as rain)

Inside; an old geyser serves as a liquor cabinet,

and a petrol pump is used as a hi-fi cabinet.

Carin Smuts of CS Studio Architects

was asked to design the house for Willie,

with collaborative and specific input from Willie and his wife,Evelyn,

who is also Willie's business manager, and their three children;

for example: the kitchen makes use of the wood of old railway sleepers

for the cupboards and colourful bathroom tiles are all recycled.

From the spacious living room, which sounds amazing,

one can look up into an open space

and the second level where Willie's studio is situated;

designed as the centre ofcreativity and allowing him

to be integrated with his family's life even while working.

The roof resembles wings - how lovely!

Ruda:

'What's the reaction of people driving past?'

Willie:

'I've encountered two extremes:

people who are mad about the house

and then you get people who think it's a piece of rubbish.'

I chanced to

email

him through his very impressive

website and with thanks

to the GOOD LORD,

he replied!

I felt truly honored when I read the words

that he "was proud of me"

and he wished me

luck with my research.

Around the same time I watched the Channel 4 news:

The South African Human Rights Commission chair,

Jody Kollapen, slams the video of white students

humiliating black university cleaners.

The footage provoked uproar in the country.

The students are filmed urinating into a container of soup,

which they then feed to the

unsuspecting cleaners.

The University of the Free State,

where the video was shot last year,

says it will prosecute the students involved.

I was both shocked and disgusted.

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=11267

I remembered the words of Willie Bester;

"Before we knew who the enemy was!"

"Now anyone can be affected.."

From the book by David Philips Publishers 1996;

"ART IN SOUTH AFRICA,

the future present";

Artist Sue Williamson and writer Ashraf Jamal say

"Bester's intention is not to make people miserable, but

"to keep poeple awake."

Often a medicine is bad tasting but is willingly accepted

to make the ILL better!

With Willie Bester's work the medicine sure looks good

and is certainly addictive!