Johannesburg — THINGS haven't changed that much, despite all this gender equality malarkey. Just as girls were once (and probably still are) expected to get "proper jobs" as teachers or nurses, for boys it is "sort of made clear that it's IT, engineering or medical".

Consequently, artist and sculptor Louis Olivier, after matriculating in Bethal and because he was "quite interested in computers", did a BCom Informatics at Pretoria University. "I had always dreamed of working with my hands," he says, "and had always enjoyed installation art and using found objects, but I'd never been introduced to sculpting, despite doing art to matric level. And it was definitely not considered a potential occupation."

In 2000, Olivier took what he calls a drastic step, leaving the IT world, giving himself just a month to decide that he would "jump into the unknown". He hasn't looked back; he's been too busy.

The jump was made easier by having met his future wife, a full-time painter and art teacher. "I thought we'd make a good team," says Olivier.

And they did. They got work as part of a team at uShaka Marine World in Durban, which led to work in Dubai at the Ibn Battuta mall. The work was "themed" and involved a lot of reconstruction and reproducing art types, but the projects introduced him to mould-making and casting, which piqued Olivier's interest. "It's fairly similar to sculpting, so I started teaching myself about the methods and materials."

By now he and his wife were based in Pretoria, a city he describes as a great base for artists and as having a "big social arts scene" and supportive arts community.

"I met a lot of artists and my art world opened up, and through them and their work I realised I could be a success as a sculptor." But success entailed constantly approaching people for potential private and usually small commissions. Then a friend introduced him to Teresa Lizamore, in about 2005.

Lizamore was art curator for Sasol and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). She left curating for Sasol last year after 27 years, but is still curator for RMB and has been for 15 years. In between corporate curating she found time to create Artspace in Jo'burg in 2000, a top-end gallery and the base for her art mentorship programmes.

"Teresa needed a sculpture urgently for a corporate commission for Sasol, for a plant in Qatar," says Olivier.

Another sculptor had dropped out at the last minute, and Lizamore took a chance with the unknown Olivier.

Their relationship has continued as one of mentor and student ever since.

It was through Lizamore that Olivier met Carolynne Waterhouse of RMB. In 2007, RMB needed a gift, and they needed a good one.

"We wanted a top-end, quality corporate gift that would reflect our 'Traditional values, innovative ideas' philosophy," says Waterhouse.

"So we came up with the concept of a contemporary take on Rodin's The Thinker as a pair of bookends. We were happy for Louis to innovatively interpret a traditional piece. And we wanted the finished figures to represent the thinking people in our building."

Olivier's first proposal had both figures as suited businessmen but, says Olivier, RMB felt he needed a companion, and the companion needed to be female so as to be more gender balanced.

I'm a huge fan of bookends, not least because of the objects found between them, but so often they are too light.

These are heavy despite the almost ethereal visual aspect of the two thinkers, who appear wistful and pondering calculus in equal measure. And the L-plate, unusually, slides under the books, making them part of the support, while the weight of the solid cast figures acts as a counterbalance.

The result is beautiful; so beautiful that the numbered and signed 250 pairs produced became extremely sought after.

"We got an amazing response," says Waterhouse. "We got extraordinarily touching letters from people who had seen the bookends - which were given exclusively as corporate gifts to RMB clients - asking to purchase a set.

"I had to explain they were simply not available - not for love nor money!"

But when the Sandton Central BenchMark Project was launched in March last year, and when RMB , known for their extensive support for the arts, were approached, they immediately thought of those thinking bookends.

The BenchMark Project is an "urban furniture programme ... that aims to make the area (of Sandton) more welcoming", using, you guessed it, benches.

Last week , Olivier took part in RMB's private celebration of the bench they commissioned from him, consisting of a 6m concrete "floating" bench in which the thinkers have grown to life size and visually function as the bench supports.

"They are almost identical to the original bookends," says Olivier, but obviously, due to the scale, there is more detail. The nostrils, for instance.

It was a two-year project from design to delivery, and the casting of the two figures alone took six months at the Renzo Vignali Artistic Foundry in Pretoria - the foundry Olivier has been u sing from the outset. William Kentridge uses it too, so Olivier quickly found himself in august company.

It was due to this corporate commission that Olivier was able to upscale his outlet along with his imagination, because an industrial-size studio was required to work on the life-size figures for the bench.

Olivier admits to being blown away by how fast doors have been opening since he was introduced to the corporate world. "Since about 2006 the idea was just to grab every opportunity I could and keep at it. But through Teresa and her contacts..." he just smiles and shrugs, and looks a little tired but happy.

Last year he completed a six-month, fully funded mentorship programme at Artspace, which programme Lizamore describes as her way of "giving back to the artistic community".

"Young artists often battle to get into galleries," Lizamore says. "They and their work are not known and so are often overlooked as galleries go for the bigger, established names. This mentorship programme is a way of bridging that gap, and a way of bridging the perceived gap between business and art."

The programme is endorsed by Business and Art SA, through which Artspace has applied for funding.

While putting the finishing touches to a corporate bench, Olivier had his first exhibition at Artspace at the end of the mentorship programme. Entitled Pale Male - Sitting, Walking, Standing, Olivier used "his body as the template for the figure and as a metaphor for spiritual convictions, and to convey them with sculpture and the body as a sculptural form. I was creating life-size figures from white materials - such as plaster of Paris - and there were all these white bodies in my studio. And obviously I am white, hence the name of the exhibition."

The exhibition led to several commissions, and to funding from local government for Artspace to exhibit at this year's Joburg Art Fair, in which Olivier's Pale Male will appear again. Additions to the exhibition for the fair are two bronze versions of existing figures. "They're the same mould," says Olivier. "I'll just recast them."

Recasting the mould, rather than breaking it, seems to make good business as well as artistic sense.