Zundiqondisise!: investigating voice, visibility and agency in the work of Xhosa women crafters who work in community art centres in the Eastern Cape

Tutani, Zodwa

Title: Zundiqondisise!: investigating voice, visibility and agency in the work of Xhosa women crafters who work in community art centres in the Eastern Cape
Creator: Tutani, Zodwa
ThesisAdvisor: Thorburn, Dominic
ThesisAdvisor: Goniwe, Thembinkosi
Subject: Art centers -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Community arts projects -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Women artists, Black -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Ethnic art -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Agent (Philosophy)
Subject: Art and society -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Voice (Philosophy)
Subject: Critical discourse analysis
Subject: Postcolonialism and the arts
Subject: Feminism and art
Subject: Curatorship -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Art, Xhosa -- Conservation and restoration
Subject: Gompo Community Art Centre
Subject: Nomzamo Old Age Centre
Date: 2020
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MFA
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146546
Identifier: vital:38535
Description: A curatorial practice, Zundiqondisise! Reclaiming Our Voice is a twofold study comprised of curatorial practice and a written thesis, both of which are interdependent, examining the significance of space, agency, voice, and visibility in the works of Xhosa women crafters from the Eastern Cape. The study explores ways of reading and displaying indigenous art, as well as the archiving and inserting of these essential but neglected creative works of black women into the discourse of South African contemporary visual arts. This scholarship takes into account the social, cultural, and labour conditions that give rise to the perceived voicelessness in the ‘craft’ work of Xhosa women who work from community art centres. Through collaborating with two groups of women from two Eastern Cape art centres, namely Gompo Community Art Centre in East London and Nomzamo Old Age Centre in Ilitha Township, the study undertakes to locate, highlight and authorise these women’s voices and agency. This undertaking is carried out through a textual inquiry and curated exhibition, two interdependent components of this study, working with black feminist and postcolonial theories that enable me to formulate a critical discourse and practice towards a reflective scholarship on black women’s ‘craft’ work. It is a scholarship whose various chapters and curatorial interventions are tailored to excavate ancient Xhosa wisdom found in folklore and cultural practices of the everyday. This scholarship also provides new understandings that demonstrate and appreciate the fertile and significant though marginalised indigenous ways of creative expressions and knowledge production.
Format: 98 pages, pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art
Language: English
Rights: Tutani, Zodwa

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