Index of B(R)eachings (2000)

An artist is trained to be visually aware. The Afrikaans word raaksien also signifies beyond suggesting a keen eye to the essential role of a visual artist’s manner of looking, to reveal the truth of things.
The Afrikaans word waarseêr (seer in English) is also rather apt. Akin to the Greek word manteia, it signifies as the ability to observe what is and why things are as they are.
In reading the incidental and co–incidental patterns of things, a seer such as the mantis of ancient Greece, the augur of ancient Rome, the Celtic Druid, the inyanga and sangoma of Africa, as well as the visual artist/poet who conceived of the European post First World War DADA movement, liberates the analytical mind to think more broadly and creatively, through association and metaphor. The seer brings knowledge, gnosis, to this looking.
As a conceptual artist focusing primarily on words and how we use language, I have been pursuing models of thought and knowledge production for many decades. I have also researched the divination practices of Europe and Africa, paying respect to the secrets of well–established cultural practices. This ongoing project Index of (B)Reachings demonstrates similarities in the historic and current divination practices of Europe and Africa. This artwork is structured as a three dimensional index or dictionary of divination.
See Index of (B)Reachings under ‘All Artworks’ at www.willemboshoff.com