The distance between us : strategizing a queer, artistic, personal and social politic
Date
2006-12
Authors
Fouche, Pierre
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
This thesis considers radical and reactionary political strategies for questioning systems of gender/sexuality categorisation and finds both wanting in terms of the cultural insularity and mainstream assimilation each respectively engenders. An alternative is posited in the form of radical assimilation, a theory borrowing the best elements from both approaches. The remainder of the study is focussed on the search for personal and iconographic strategies to pursue a politic of radical assimilation in my creative production. These strategies are finally exemplified and manifested via discussions of the practical corpus of artworks that aided in the formation of this politic. The discursive framework in which this theorization occurs includes considerations of queer theory and photography (especially domestic photography and portraiture) and subjective contextualization (invoking the domestic uses of images), and all should be seen as constituting a personal discursive framework: an attempt to counter the reductive scope an uncontextualised analysis of my work allows. This study is accordingly an explication of the processes that turn the personal into the political; a critical affirmation of difference; and an attempt to narrow the distances between us.
Description
Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
Keywords
Dissertations -- Art, Theses -- Art, Dissertations -- Visual arts, Theses -- Visual arts, Social system, Gender identity -- Social aspects, Gender identity in art, Assimilation (Sociology), Creative ability -- Social aspects, Queer theory, Individual differences, Figurative art, Photography -- Social aspects