Department of Visual Arts

Permanent URI for this community

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/647

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 263

The abject, frail fourth age body: art jewellery as a tool to re-interpret aged female bodies
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) van Niekerk, Lani; Terreblanche, Carine; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates art jewellery as social communicator and questions the way in which the Fourth Age female individual is perceived. The argument of this thesis will be presented in conjunction with visual imagery of the series of pieces that have been created. Through my art practice, I aim to destabilise abject, frail bodies as a parallel for identity in the fourth age. Through the process of material investigation and making it becomes evident that the aged body is delicate and fragile, yet beneath the surface that is perceived as decay lies a vast pool of beauty, experience and strength that is overlooked. This thesis, along with my practical body of work acts as the catalyst to forming new perspectives and perceptions surrounding the fourth age female body and identity.
Acquisition list: An institutional critique of the Stellenbosch University Museum’s Fine Arts Collection
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Gumede, S'nothile; Van der Wal, Ernst; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
Africa-Lite: cultural appropriation and commodification of historic blackness in post-apartheid fabric and décor design
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Conradie, Annemi; Van Robbroeck, Lize; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the past few years, cultural appropriation has gained a degree of notoriety as a buzzword, after emerging into the wider public arena from academic, legal and political discourses. Internationally and in South Africa, debates arise predominantly around cases where historically asymmetric power relations are symbolically or materially re-enacted when dominant groups appropriate from economic or political minorities. This study examines the appropriation of colonial images of black individuals and bodies for commodification in twenty-first century South African décor and fabric design. A prominent trend in post-apartheid visual design, the re-purposing and commodification of archival photographs, and its circulation within local and global image economies and design markets demand further research and comprehensive theorising. I investigate the various aesthetic and discursive devices through which images of black bodies from South Africa’s pre-democratic past - including images of suffering, trauma and revolution - are assimilated for consumption and display within retail, leisure and domestic spheres. I use the notion of ‘subject appropriation’ to account for this form of appropriation, and to investigate the affiliation that indigenous groups claim with archival images in cases of objections to cultural appropriation, as well as where such groups deploy archival images for their own self-fashioning. In proposing a critical humanist and black existentialist approach to cultural appropriation, I suggest rethinking colonial representations as sites central to postcolonial ‘communities of practice’ in ongoing struggle for recognition, restitution and liberation.
The African Biennale : envisioning ‘authentic’ African contemporaneity
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-03) Mauchan, Fiona; Van Robbroeck, Lize; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
This thesis aims to assess the extent to which the African curated exhibition, Dak’Art: Biennale de l’art africain contemporain , succeeds in subverting hegemonic Western representations of African art as necessarily ‘exotic’ and ‘Other.’ My investigation of the Dak’Art biennale in this thesis is informed and preceded by a study of evolutionist assumptions towards African art and the continuing struggle for command over the African voice. I outline the trajectory of African art from primitive artifact to artwork, highlighting the prejudices that have kept Africans from being valued as equals and unique artists in their own right. I then look at exhibiting techniques employed to move beyond perceptions of the tribal, to subvert the exoticising tendency of the West and remedy the marginalised position of the larger African artistic community.
After birth : abjection and maternal subjectivity in Svea Josephy's "Confinement"
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013-12) Steyn, Christine; Van Robbroeck, Lize; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I investigate the radical reframing of maternal representation in the photographic series by Cape Town-based artist Svea Josephy (b. 1969), entitled Confinement 2005-ongoing. Using Julia Kristeva’s theorisation of the maternal body’s relation to abjection, as well as its imperative to the remodelling of the relationship between the corporeal and the cultural, I explore how Josephy’s images explicitly engage with the Kristevan abject in order to disrupt cultural inscriptions of maternity and ‘motherhood’. I contend that Confinement situates Josephy’s experience of ‘becoming-mother’ against the dominant discourses of maternity and birth, and thereby uses the maternal subject as a means to interrogate broader issues of gender and identity.
Agency through art: exploring self-efficacy in grade ten to twelve art learners at a private school in the Free State
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Lagendyk, Mieke; Alexander, Neeske; Costandius, Elmarie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research explored results pertaining to adolescents’ agency over their artistic practice. After working with grade ten to twelve art learners in a private education setting, I noticed insecurity with the learners through their increased reliance on educators for both creative and procedural directions. This paper explores the internal and external aspects that influence the development of the learners' self-efficacy. The study investigated the possible change of self-efficacy over three weeks after integrating self-compassion, self-reflection, and affirmation into the grade lessons. The researcher collected data through open-ended questionnaires, colouring and collaging activities, an in-depth interview with the art educator, feeling cards, and class observations. The data collected from the pre-study reflective questionnaire and the educator interview confirmed that learners had negative emotions about their artistic practice and capabilities. However, the other data collected through the post-study reflective questionnaire, the affirmation activities, the class observations, and the feeling cards, demonstrated that by creating a classroom environment that incorporates mindful colouring, affirming collaging, and reflective writing, learners’ self-efficacy might be affected and in turn, learners’ agency over their artistic practice was influenced.
Alternative to what? : the rise of Loslyf magazine
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Kirsten, Marnell; Viljoen, Stella; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this study I analyse the first year of publication of Loslyf, the first and, at the time of its launch in June 1995, only Afrikaans pornographic magazine. The analysis comprises a historical account of its inception as relayed mainly by Ryk Hattingh, the first editor of Loslyf and primary creative force behind the publication. Such an investigation offers valuable insights into an aspect of South African media history as yet undocumented. As a powerful contributor to an Afrikaans imaginary, emerging at a time of political renewal, Loslyf provides a glimpse into the desires, tensions and tastes of and for an imagined community potentially still shaped by a censorial past. The magazine is worth studying, in part, as an example of an attempt at reinvesting the prescriptive and seemingly generic genre of pornography with cultural specificity and political content, with a view to making it more interesting and relevant. The study argues that whilst Loslyf succeeded in fracturing the “simulacrum” (Baudrillard 1990: 35) of pornographic representation, it also demonstrated that this kind of „alternativity‟ is difficult to sustain. An analysis of the written and visual content of the first 12 issues of the magazine, under Hattingh‟s editorship, investigates the basis of Loslyf‟s status as „alternative‟ publication. I conclude that the first year of Loslyf contributed towards the broader project of democratic expression in an expanding South African visual economy, as a simultaneously well considered and underrated (at the time of its publication at least) cultural product.
Animated storytelling as collaborative practice : an exploratory study in the studio, the classroom and the community
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-12) Young, Tamlyn; Van Robbroek, Lize; Dietrich, Keith; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates stop motion animation as a form of socially engaged visual storytelling. It aims to expand commonly held perceptions that associate animation with the mass media and entertainment industries by investigating three non-industry related contexts: the artist studio, the classroom and the community. In each respective context the coauthoring of stop motion animation was employed as a means to promote collaboration between artists, students and members of the public. This was intended to encourage participants to share their stories regardless of language differences, contrasting levels of academic development and diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. Thus, animation making provided a means of promoting inclusivity through active participation and visual communication. This process is perceived as valuable in a South African context where eleven official languages and a diversity of cultures and ethnicities tend to obstruct an integrated society. My fundamental argument is that animation can be used as a tool to facilitate the materialisation, dissemination and archiving of stories whilst promoting the creative agency of the storyteller.
Antonin Artaud en Georg Baselitz : 'n psigo-analitiese perspektief as konteks vir my eie skilderwerk
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1991-12) Louw, Johann(Johannes); Hattingh, J.; Smuts, T.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH SUMMARY: In this thesis I shall create a context for my own painting by discussing the works of A. Artaud and G. Baselitz. As a general introduction to A. Artaud, the first chapter shall entail a discussion of his theatrical and poetical ideals. This shall be followed by a (rather limited) reading of a few psychoanalytical approaches to art. These first two chapters ought to serve as a reference structure for the following discussions of Artaud's imagery and the extent to which such imagery can also be found in Baselitz's painting and sculpture. A discussion of similar thematics and imagery in my own painting, as well as a discussion of Postmodernism as an intrinsically fragmentary and Artaudian anti-Classical discourse concludes the thesis. Themes of importance shall be: the opposition of Culture and anti-/non-Culture; the work of art as a 'Gesamtwelt'-experience (suggestive of, in psychoanalytical terms, prenatal experience); the intuitive as opposed to the cerebral aspects of esthetic discourse; and the theme of sexuality and psychological fragmentation in the structuring of a coherent Self.
Art and book : a commentary on artists' books
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2007-03) Emslie, Anne; Dietrich, Keith; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts .
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The thesis investigates the contemporary practice of book art, examining in particular the manner in which it fits both into the tradition of the book and the tradition of art making. The thesis spans two volumes. Volume One discusses the phenomenon of the artist's book from three vantage points: the attempts to define it, the attempts to catalogue it and the attempts to interpret it. Volume Two is an artist's book and although it is part of the project I have set myself, it is not being submitted with the theoretical component of the MA dissertation, but as part of the practical component. (Briefly, one of the tasks it embarks upon is an examination of the phenomenon of thesis writing, as understood and endeavoured by myself in the production of the first volume - in this sense it is self-reflective. Another is an examination of some aspects of my attempts to make examples of artist's books, which includes an investigation of some of the recurrent themes and preoccupations of my work) Volume One is set out in three chapters. The first chapter pursues a definition of book art and the artist's book in order to draw some perimeters around the subject, and to build a picture of its nature. In the course of doing this, the ideas of some book artists and book art commentators are considered in an attempt to create a richer tapestry of understanding. In the next chapter some of the ways in which book art has been categorised are discussed. This is in order to more finely delineate the nature and scope of book art. It is also to bring some clarity to bear upon the different components and manifestations of a vast and sometimes confusing oeuvre. I then suggest a system of classification of my own which offers an adjacent model for investigating artists' books and the endeavour of book art. With the above model in place, I undertake a foray into the arena of interpretation. Here I suggest the suitability of adopting certain methodologies of interpretation that come from the field of contemporary literary studies in general, and the interpretation of poetry in particular. I draw comparisons between the book artist and the poet, and suggest that they occupy a similar territory of meaning making. In the course of laying out my arguments in the three chapters, I refer extensively to examples of artists' books in order to make particular points. Where I consider it apt, I draw upon my book art as a source of example. In this way, I am able to weave into the text some information and reflection about my own practice and concerns as a book artist.
Art and conversion : an investigation of ritual, memory and healing in the process of making art
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006-03) Steyn, Sonja Gruner; Dietrich, Keith; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
This thesis investigates the concept of conversion which arose out of the process of making soap as medium for my body of sculptural works and signifying its material transformation with ‘cleaning’ and ‘conversion’ – terms encountered in research into chemical transformation (in alchemy) and further endorsed by my linking my sculptural forms, resembling fonts, to religious conversion. A line of theoretical research was thus traced into ritual as an embodied experience of recalling memory in the desire for redemption or healing. Contemporary South Africa art, it seemed, was also going through a conversion process. The movement, from the domination of apartheid to the profound change of the ‘new South Africa’, necessitated a sense of tolerance in response to the reawakening of the diversity of cultures, rituals and memories. Thus present debate surrounding the concerns of reconciliation and restitution requires a re-evaluation of the importance of memory – to forget, to renew or to uphold – in the desire for healing. This has re-awakened an appreciation of multi-cultural rituals and invoked new self-consciousness and a reformulation of identity. I was thus inspired to investigate transformation in terms of art theory, psychology and philosophy. By identifying Freud’s psychoanalytic concept of transference and of ‘working-through’ as a part of his ‘Theory of Conversion’, I arrived at this proposition: art initiates an awakening of self-consciousness. In arguing for the vitality of the mythopoetic imagination, as held within the unconscious, however, I claim that art, as an embodied process, draws from memory, and resonates within the context of a ritualised empathic interrelatedness of ourselves as humans in the environment. In attempting to understand the South African transformation, which resembles the spirit of Renaissance Humanism, I examined how historical shifts influence both inter-human and environment/human relationships. Operating largely in terms of the transference of power and belief, these moved, in an ever-recurring cycle, through sixteenth century Renaissance Humanism, which tolerated diverse religious convictions, to Cartesian reason and the quest for certainty, manifesting in religious and politically motivated wars. This revolution, I believe, has occurred again from the modern to the postmodern era. I believe, therefore, that art has a healing capacity. This flows from a metanoia – a turning around – effected in both artist and audience. Through this creative and aesthetic view of art, experienced in my practical making and substantiated in my theoretical research, art, I conclude, initiates inner conversion and thus healing.
The art of drag in Shanghai: Navigating local/ global tensions in practice- a case study
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023- 12) Pryde, Shelley; Costandius, Elmarie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept of Visual Sciences.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis discusses a case study of a group of drag artists based in Shanghai, China. After living and practising as a drag king in Shanghai for four years myself, I became curious about how the city’s local and expat drag artists positioned their practice in relation to queer globalisations, local restrictions, and Western dominance. The art of drag has become increasingly visible worldwide, largely due to RuPaul’s Drag Race and its surrounding media landscape, and as such exerts a significant influence on the global dissemination of LGBTQ+ cultures. Examining queer rights and cultures in the Global South, there is a concern that the vast transmission of American, post-Stonewall LGBTQ+ discourse constructs a universal story of queerness that obscures non-Western queer ontologies, resistances, and cultural productions. Simultaneously however, to consider globalisation as necessarily assimilation into Western cultural forms would deny the agency of non-Western queer movements and cultural productions to respond meaningfully to Western dominance. Theoretical perspectives of ‘global gay’ discourse, queer temporality, and Chinese-centric queer theories were incorporated to question how Shanghai’s drag artists navigate local and global in their practice, and the extent to which they question the authority of both state socialism and globalised capitalism, to offer new possibilities for queer knowledge production. In total, seven drag artists and one LGBTQ+ venue owner participated in the study. Convenience sampling and snowball sampling were employed to gather participants. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews and drag performance video samples. Interview transcripts were analysed using open coding and compared with analyses of relevant video samples. While the influence of Euro-American forms was documented and acknowledged, other perspectives revealed more nuanced and critical conceptualisations of the binary between copy and original, the frictions inherent in cultural exchange, and diverse forms of resistance. Shanghai’s drag scene is evolving in distinct ways, incorporating both global and local influences and cultural traditions. With queer knowledge still largely attributed to the West, it is important to recognise how China has its own queer forms and ideas to offer that are deeply engaged in the global conversation, despite the lack of visibility beyond small grassroots communities or underground ‘scenes’.
Artists' books in the age of digital reproduction : an enquiry into the problematic nature and (in)accessability of book production as contemporary art
(2012-03) Van Aswegen, Helene; Dietrich, Keith; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
Becoming and Unbecoming: A critical cartography of a student journey through the Fallist period
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Durrheim, Anna Ruth; Perold-Bull, Karolien; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa's 'born-free' generation - those who were born during the country's transition to democracy - were reaching adulthood in the early 201 Os. In the years that followed, this new, post-Apartheid generation would enter the university system to claim the promise Of equal education and a better future that had been made in 1994. This promise had been broken as many black students faced social and economic barriers within the higher education System. The year 2015 witnessed the emergence Of a series protests at South Africa universities which addressed these issues Of exclusion through a movement known as Fallism. This research project is concerned with the initial protests that destabilised some Of the most prestigious South African universities. These included the #RhodesMustFall (RMF) and #FeesMustFall (FMF) protests, from which the name 'Fallism' was derived. Both Of these movements aimed at addressing issues Of access to higher education, while also calling attention to the pervasiveness Of colonial ideals which continued to privilege the country's white minority. Through the use Of Rosi Braidotti's (2014) cartographic methodology, this research project aims to situate Fallism socio-politically and historically. This will attempt to track the various actors and timelines that converged to create the movement in 2015. The movement embodied processes Of both becoming and unbecoming as institutions and students reckoned with who they are in the world, and who they want to become. Fallism will be discussed using Anuro Escobar's (2012 & 2018) theories Of Ontological design and how they function within the university space. The Fallist protests were both driven and documented through the use Online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. This reflected a global trend Of activism, as discussed by Manuel Castells (2015). The research aims to consider Fallism in relation to social media and the Internet, exploring the digital space as a site Of both action and memory. The research questions what insights can be revealed from a cartographic exploration of Fallism, as it connects to both the past and to our future, thus giving us navigational tools for the present. As a researcher, I am part of the privileged white minority who was challenged by the Fallist discourse. Therefore I aim to situate myself in relation to the Fallist context through the use of auto-ethnography and digital storytelling. This journey is explored through the creation of a multi-layered digital story that makes use of found and original imagery to find connections between memory, media and theory.
Beeld se gedagtes : 'n alternatiewe benadering tot die voorstellingsfunksie van die fotobeeld
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010-12) Dorfling, Aletta; Viljoen, Stella; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is bemoei met die wyse waarop die fotobeeld konvensioneel aan 'n mimetiese kode van "gedrag" onderhewig is, met die gevolg dat alternatiewe voorstellingsfunksies dikwels buite oorweging gehou word. 'n Interessante area van ondersoek word blootgestel wanneer die komplekse verhouding tussen die toeskouer en beeld betrek word om die broosheid van eersgenoemde se agentskap in die waarnemingproses te beklemtoon. Dit is dus vanuit hierdie gewaarwording dat ek my bespreking van die fotobeeld grotendeels binne 'n psigoanalitiese raamwerk situeer en aan die hand van konsepte soos Einfühlung, die Lacanian Real en John Dewey (2005) se teorie van kuns as ervaring, bespreek. Die skynbaar teenstrydige aard van die fotobeeld as (onder andere) beide mimetiese realiteitskopie en piktoriale fiksie, ooglopend onafhanklik van taal en eweveel deurspek met diskursiewe vertolkings, openbaar volgens my egter die ideale vertrekpunt vanwaar fotografie se voorstellingsfunksie heroorweeg kan word. Dié opponerende tweespalt, wat as kenmerkende karaktertrekke van die fotobeeld na vore tree, noop die toeskouer om die beeld met 'n verhoogde sensitiwiteit te benader – met die gevolg dat die foto se onlosmaaklike skakel met "haar"1 diskursiewe grense en aptyt vir die "onsêbare" as konstruktiewe koalisie gesien word. Die fotografiese werk van Lien Botha, veral haar Amendment–reeks (2006) en Parrot Jungle (2009), sal deurentyd as visuele bevestiging van my argumente betrek word.
Besinning : verwaardiging van siekte
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Kirsten, Marguerite; Gunter, Elizabeth; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates the representation of the abject body in contemporary visual arts. I experience my own body as abject, through my personal experience with an all-consuming diseased body, caused by Chronic Kidney Disease. I investigate the abject body in relation to the psychological state that is created by the medical institution when dealing with chronic diseases, identity, the self and embodiment. The body and understanding of embodiment is key to our perception of being; who we think we are, and what others ascribe to us (Waskul & van der Riet, 2002). Through the creation of 'abject' objects and texture around the diseased bodies, I discovered an underlying trauma in the art expression of my work. My research method is primed by the critical theory text, Illness as Metaphor (1978) by American writer Susan Sontag. Combined with the text I investigate the work of two contemporary artists that use their bodies as subject in their photography. The selected artists are South African artist, Kathryn Smith, and Spanish photojournalist, Luna Coppola. I will analyze these visual examples by the artists mentioned above to contribute to the discussion of my art making practice. In my study, I display the abject body through the explanation of my own diseased body and present this to the viewer through installation.
Betekenis in narratiewe illustrasie : ’n dissonante samewerking tussen woord en beeld
(Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009-03) Dorfling, Aletta; Kaden, Marthie; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Visual Arts.
This thesis is concerned with the way in which word and image can be utilized to question conventions about meaning-making. I am of the opinion that an interesting area of research is exposed when word and image are co-joined in a disjunctive relationship within the context of a shared narrative. My study also focuses on the impact that cultural conventions have on the usage of word and image and refer to gender issues to prove my point. My arguments are positioned within a post-structural framework and I therefore emphasize the contribution of the reader as an active agent in the reformation of conventional meaning-making within the context of narrative illustration. Barthes’ ‘third meaning’, Freud’s ‘uncanny’ and ‘the mark’ serve as points of entry to expose meaning as a fragile contributor to the word/image-relationship. It is my opinion that the disjunctive relationship between word and image has the potential to refer to experiences that neither one could represent or allude to on their own.
Between colour lines : interrogating the category ‘coloured’ in depictions of District Six in the work of five South African artists
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Cupido, Cameron Amelia; Van Robbroeck, Lize; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Group Areas Act of 1950 radically affected coloured artists of the time, since it resulted in forced removals and the demolition of traditionally ‘coloured’ suburbs, and forced coloured people into mono-cultural suburbs with imposed identities not of their own choosing. This thesis seeks to uncover the complexities and heterogeneity of coloured identity and the effects apartheid ideologies and practices had on the personal narratives and cultural praxis of Lionel Davis, Albert Adams, George Hallett, Gavin Jantjes and Peter Clarke, who all emphasized the significance of District Six in their own articulations of colouredness. I propose that this problematic ascribed identity was at the root of most artworks produced by these artists and that their art helped them deal with their experiences within (and about) the space of District Six during apartheid. I argue that the political act of aggression by the apartheid state ironically formed the cornerstone of a new formation of coloured identity, that was shaped around political and cultural resistance. This thesis ultimately explores how these artists’ collective practices evoke both a strong association with and resistance to colouredness, as they come to terms with the trauma of their dislocation.
Bibliotuiste as veronderstelde tussentuiste
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Lyon, Marli; Kaden, Marthie; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: House, home, to be at-home-in-the-world and the need for a mobile home that accompanies us through our everyday life, are concepts upon which this thesis is built. I am of opinion that the constant mobility of globalization and each individual’s journey of finding a place to belong to, dictates a complementary conceptualization of a home. My study focuses on the possibilities that books present, physically and psychologically, as a possible complementary term to a house and a home. The theoretical structure of this thesis is based on Doreen Massey and Martin Heidegger’s view on modes of habitation. They outline a framework in which this phenomenological text of an everyday phenomenon, namely: to-be-at-home-in-the-world, is discussed.
The biopolitics of Gugulective against neoliberal capitalism
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Lemu, Massa; Van Robbroeck, Lize; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In critical and museological practices, a focus on diaspora has not only limited the scope of African art but also neglected a whole discursive field and practical corpus that challenges neoliberal globalisation on the continent. While highly critical, most gallery-bound practices from Africa tend to get privatised and absorbed in inaccessible enclaves of the global art world. However, this study demonstrates that the art of Gugulective has potential to escape privatisation. Within the South African context, Gugulective’s socially engaged collaborative aesthetics contests neoliberal privatisation and co-optation through subject-centred immaterial production. In Gugulective’s biopolitical production, artists and non-artists collaborate in transformative aesthetic projects that contest neoliberal capitalism in South Africa. My term “biopolitical collectivism” describes this collective life-forming artistic practice whose products are immaterial rather than material gallery-bound objects. In a context of neoliberal capitalism, which intensifies inequality, pauperisation, and precarisation of life for profit, Gugulective, among other contemporary African art groups, seeks to transform dehumanised subjectivities through collaborative art production, subjective interchange, and sharing. By decentring the object in subject-oriented art, Gugulective’s biopolitical collectivism confronts biocapitalism on the terrain of life itself. This is particularly evident in projects such as Indaba Ludabi, Akuchanywa Apha, Titled/Untitled, and Siphi? in which Gugulective confronts issues of place, space, and race by deploying a cross-disciplinary and interstitial aesthetic practice which situates itself between the art institution and the non-art world, between aesthetics and activism, the township and the city, the shebeen and the gallery, affects and the art object, art, and life.

Browse

Browsing Department of Visual Arts by Title

Results Per Page

Sort Options