Devastation and restoration: the use of Namibian dense salt blocks and the Cape Cross Salt Pans as visual metaphors
- Authors: Greyling, Wil-Merie
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Sculpture , Destruction , Restoration and conservation , Salt pans in art , Grief in art , Loss (Psychology) in art , Visual metaphor , Salt mines and mining Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437203 , vital:73352
- Description: This mini-thesis explores personal experiences during seasons of loss and grief using physical landscapes, specifically Namibian dense salt mining activities at the Cape Cross Salt Pans, as metaphors for devastation and restoration. Furthermore, the thesis investigates the connection between spiritual and physical landscapes through song and dreams to interpret personal experiences of loss and grief. The thesis explores how believers may find physical places of value outside the constraints of formal religious activities and how these experiences could evoke spiritual landscapes. The qualitative auto-ethnographical approach followed in this study proved an appropriate research methodology, explicitly involving observation and documentation of the physical landscape and reflection on personal experiences, such as dreams. In coming to terms with personal experiences of grief and loss, the individual results of the process were generated using methods such as retrospective reflection and observation. In my findings, I unpack how I found personal meaning from my creative and academic explorations. The metaphoric characteristics of dense salt blocks figuratively express ‘metamorphosis’, ‘weeping’, and ‘growth’. My findings include that one can represent healing and restorative elements with artistic value. The Namibian salt mining industry is typically removed from artistic activities and expression, but I succeeded in forging an atypical relationship with the industry players in an area of the salt block mining industry. In my practice, I explored the character of mined resources, in this case, dense salt blocks, by changing their inherent properties from low-value commercial minerals into unique art objects. In the process, I examined the metaphoric associations that organically mined material, in this case, salt blocks, may hold. Therefore, I link personal creative storytelling to a site with spiritual and sacred values and thus become a place to come to terms with loss and grief. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
- Authors: Greyling, Wil-Merie
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Sculpture , Destruction , Restoration and conservation , Salt pans in art , Grief in art , Loss (Psychology) in art , Visual metaphor , Salt mines and mining Namibia
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/437203 , vital:73352
- Description: This mini-thesis explores personal experiences during seasons of loss and grief using physical landscapes, specifically Namibian dense salt mining activities at the Cape Cross Salt Pans, as metaphors for devastation and restoration. Furthermore, the thesis investigates the connection between spiritual and physical landscapes through song and dreams to interpret personal experiences of loss and grief. The thesis explores how believers may find physical places of value outside the constraints of formal religious activities and how these experiences could evoke spiritual landscapes. The qualitative auto-ethnographical approach followed in this study proved an appropriate research methodology, explicitly involving observation and documentation of the physical landscape and reflection on personal experiences, such as dreams. In coming to terms with personal experiences of grief and loss, the individual results of the process were generated using methods such as retrospective reflection and observation. In my findings, I unpack how I found personal meaning from my creative and academic explorations. The metaphoric characteristics of dense salt blocks figuratively express ‘metamorphosis’, ‘weeping’, and ‘growth’. My findings include that one can represent healing and restorative elements with artistic value. The Namibian salt mining industry is typically removed from artistic activities and expression, but I succeeded in forging an atypical relationship with the industry players in an area of the salt block mining industry. In my practice, I explored the character of mined resources, in this case, dense salt blocks, by changing their inherent properties from low-value commercial minerals into unique art objects. In the process, I examined the metaphoric associations that organically mined material, in this case, salt blocks, may hold. Therefore, I link personal creative storytelling to a site with spiritual and sacred values and thus become a place to come to terms with loss and grief. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
It’s an African proverb: conceptualizing narratives through the use of African subject matter
- Authors: Chithambo, N'lamwai Luntha
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Proverbs, African , Oral tradition Africa , Biography in art , Myth in art , Storytelling in art , Comic books, strips, etc. Themes, motives , Mental illness in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425311 , vital:72228
- Description: The research by practice is made up of three points of interest that aim to incorporate storytelling into the work with reference to the comic book genre. These points of interest are: experiences of mental health issues from a young man’s perspective, a unique autobiographical experience unpacking the young man’s mental health struggle and African oral traditions. These three points of interest work towards the goal of using African subject matter to uncover and present a meaningful narrative of a young man dealing with mental health problems and his father figure’s ongoing sit-down conversation with him. This mini-thesis breaks down the different components of the research by practice and analyses each component while drawing from various theorists and artists. The mini-thesis also builds up to the idea of using original African subject matter (e.g. African oral traditions, specifically African objects, subjects, and locations) as a means of cultivating a locus of African identity in the comic book industry. The research by practice intersects with this mini-thesis in that it acts as an example of how I visualise African subject matter being used in the theorising and creation of comic books. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
- Authors: Chithambo, N'lamwai Luntha
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Proverbs, African , Oral tradition Africa , Biography in art , Myth in art , Storytelling in art , Comic books, strips, etc. Themes, motives , Mental illness in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425311 , vital:72228
- Description: The research by practice is made up of three points of interest that aim to incorporate storytelling into the work with reference to the comic book genre. These points of interest are: experiences of mental health issues from a young man’s perspective, a unique autobiographical experience unpacking the young man’s mental health struggle and African oral traditions. These three points of interest work towards the goal of using African subject matter to uncover and present a meaningful narrative of a young man dealing with mental health problems and his father figure’s ongoing sit-down conversation with him. This mini-thesis breaks down the different components of the research by practice and analyses each component while drawing from various theorists and artists. The mini-thesis also builds up to the idea of using original African subject matter (e.g. African oral traditions, specifically African objects, subjects, and locations) as a means of cultivating a locus of African identity in the comic book industry. The research by practice intersects with this mini-thesis in that it acts as an example of how I visualise African subject matter being used in the theorising and creation of comic books. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
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