Burning bush

BURNING BUSH takes another stab at the United States. The work consists of four letters (B-U-S- H), welded in steel to form a barbeque. The word BUSH is at once ambiguous, calling to mind the Biblical legend of Moses and the burning bush, whilst simultaneously taking a cheap shot at George W Bush (whom Boshoff considers to be a war criminal, following the Iraqi invasion), as well as Boshoff’s own name (which derives from bos, the Afrikaans word for ‘bush’).

Boshoff describes this piece as ‘naughty’ and ‘audacious’. At the opening night of his SWAT exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, on 11 September 2011, BURNING BUSH was used to braai and serve meat to a large audience at the entrance to the gallery.

The artist’s intention was that the resulting smoke and the smell of charred flesh should recall the destruction of war. After the opening the burnt-out barbeque was displayed inside the gallery. The blackened, burnt-out BURNING BUSH presented an ironic subversion of the Biblical account of Moses’s encounter with God, in which the bush burns, but is never consumed.