The University of Johannesburg’s Art Gallery, in partnership with the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), proudly presents Toor|Bos, a combination of a physical and virtual reality experience, curated by Dr Dineke Orton.
Premiering at the KKNK in Oudtshoorn, this unique multidisciplinary project features renowned visual artists Willem Boshoff and Jaco van Schalkwyk, poets Quaz Roodt and Bibi Slippers, VR specialist Dr Herman Myburgh, and composer Dr Jaco Meyer. Together, they merge visual art, poetry, virtual reality, and music to create an immersive artistic journey that pushes the boundaries of creative expression. This show distills and celebrates the transformation of Afrikaans as a language through a multimedia experience.
“Poetry is a powerful tool for interrogating Afrikaans’ complex past and its place among the diverse cultural groups that claim it as a mother tongue. It preserves, celebrates, challenges, and reshapes the language, ensuring it, and its many stories, are never lost,” says renowned poet, Quaz Roodt.
The premiere is set for 1 April and runs until 6 April at the Bibsaal, Voortrekker Road, Oudtshoorn from 10:00 – 15:00 daily. Visitors can expect a combination of physical and virtual reality experiences.
About the Artists
About Jaco van Schalkwyk
Van Schalkwyk is known for his meticulous attention to detail and can be described as a realist painter. Despite this, he is very interested in challenging the traditional, two-dimensional, and passive image. This approach is clearly recognizable in some of his collaborative exhibitions, such as A Land I Name Yesterday (2019) with Wayne Matthews and Jenna Burchell (who monitored brainwaves with an EEG device and converted them into sound) as well as his exhibition with Heidi Fourie and sculptor Allen Laing, titled Machine in the Garden (2019). According to Van Schalkwyk, artist collaboration is the key to giving movement and extra dimensions to the ‘passive’ image.
About Willem Boshoff
Willem Boshoff, one of South Africa’s most renowned conceptual artists, has a body of work that reflects his interest in language, words, plants, nature, materials, science, and politics. He can be described as a word-artist who plays with letters and meanings. The semiotic and performative qualities of language are his chosen medium.
Boshoff combines his fascination with words and language with a keen awareness of, and interest in, the natural world. His acute interest in nature is also in line with his view of himself as an artist-mystic, more specifically as a druid. According to Pliny the Elder, the word ‘druid’ is derived from an ancient Greek word, δρῦς (drỹs), which means ‘oak tree’. The druid is also a traditional seer, with special insight into the well-being of individuals.
Boshoff’s most significant works include KYKAFRIKAANS (1980), The Blind Alphabet Project (1995), Writing in the Sand (2001), and Garden of Words (an ongoing project since 1982).
About Bibi Slippers
The award-winning poet, journalist, and scriptwriter, Bibi Slippers, works across various creative disciplines. With degrees in both Visual Arts and Languages, she is no stranger to collaborative, multidisciplinary projects. Bibi is the author of two poetry collections: Fotostaatmasjien (2016) and Soekenjin (2023). She has also written articles, short stories, and film and TV scripts.
About Quaz Roodt
Richard “Quaz” Roodt is a writer, poet, artist, and social activist. He is the poetry facilitator for the UJ Arts Academy and teaches a poetry and creative writing class. He is also involved in various social outreach programs across South Africa.
Quaz is a co-curator of the Poetry Africa festival on behalf of UJ Arts and Culture and the editor of Poetry Potion, one of South Africa’s long-running print and online poetry publication platforms. He regularly performs at national and international festivals and has a strong presence in Johannesburg’s poetry and hip-hop scene.
Under his alias Sam English, Quaz has released four mixtapes, one EP, and several instrumental projects. He appears on numerous albums, short films, and documentaries, reflecting his engagement with various art forms.
In 2009, he published his first poetry collection, The Orange Book Vol:2, and is currently working on his second collection.
About Dr Jaco Meyer
The composer, Jaco Meyer, is a lecturer in Composition and Musicology at North-West University. During his postgraduate studies, he became friends with the conceptual artist, Willem Boshoff. Boshoff’s artworks provided a conceptual framework for Meyer’s compositions, and a significant portion of his body of work is dedicated to music based on “translated” artworks by Boshoff. This collaboration has led to further research opportunities in music and visual art as well as joint exhibitions between Meyer and Boshoff. Meyer is interested in ways in which art and sound can be made inseparable, particularly through conceptual connections between the visual and auditory.
About Dr Herman Myburgh
Herman Myburgh is a researcher, lecturer, and VR specialist affiliated with the University of Johannesburg who explores the applications and implications of extended reality (XR) technologies. His research interests include creating embodiment experiences, where users are immersed in virtual reality (VR) and can experience different scenarios. He is passionate about using XR, particularly for teaching and training purposes, as well as creating new experiments where participants can control their environment. He is an XR explorer, a problem solver, and an academic adventurer, constantly challenging himself through his work.
Dr. Dineke Orton
Dineke Orton is a curator, art historian, and researcher managing the University of Johannesburg’s Art Gallery (UJ Art Gallery). Orton has a passion for visitor engagement, transforming exhibition spaces, and collaborative projects where multiple people generate and realize ideas together—an approach that often leads to the disruption of boundaries.
Some of her projects include In Silva (2018), the KKNK virtual gallery (2020), and Liewe Land! (2021–2023).
About UJ Art Gallery
Nestled at the heart of the University of Johannesburg’s Auckland Park Kingsway Campus, the UJ Art Gallery has been a dynamic platform for showcasing emerging and established artists for over three decades. With a mission centred on promoting artistic expression, fostering critical engagement with contemporary art, and nurturing Johannesburg’s arts ecosystem, the gallery’s permanent collection of over 2,000 diverse artworks reflects South African vibrancy. Through curated exhibitions, educational programs, and public events, the UJ Art gallery cultivates a space for dialogue, reflection, and inspiration.
About Klein Karoo National Arts Festival
The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (abbreviated to KKNK) is a national arts festival with a primary focus on Afrikaans language in performing arts held annually in Oudtshoorn for eight days near Easter. Conceptualised by the local businessman and lawyer Nic Barrow and the former head of Naspers, Andrew Marais, as an Afrikaans equivalent of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, the KKNK launched in March 1995, to establish, and indeed, defend, the place of Afrikaans culture in post-apartheid South Africa. Barrow was the chairman of the initial directory board, which under the guidance of advisors Adam Small, Merwe Scholtz and Franklin Sonn aimed to inaugurate a racially inclusive and politically, culturally and religiously independent festival, in principle disassociated from the former Afrikaner Nationalist governance.