A second skin: investigating the role of dress in identity formation
- Authors: Featherstone, Juanito Romario
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Identity (Psychology) in art , Clothing and dress in art , Clothing and dress Social aspects , Clothing and dress Psychological aspects , Self South Africa Makhanda
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425322 , vital:72229
- Description: This thesis is a secondary component to an artistic practice-led process and as such, is guided by my own artistic practice in that way. In this body of work, I use myself as the main character or protagonist for the artworks that I have created. However, both the thesis and the exhibition also respond to social issues of identity beyond the personal and examines the construction of identity in a South African, and more specifically Makhanda context, as that is the larger context in which I am situated. The work itself is inspired by memories and experiences of feeling uncomfortable in my own (first) skin, and how I found that comfort in my second skin (dress). My professional art practice and my thesis are based on the concept of clothes as a second skin for human beings, specifically observing the ways in which we utilise dress to construct and express our identities. As such, this thesis is an attempt at understanding the relationship between clothes and the body through the lens of identity politics. Through the topics and artworks discussed in visual and textual analysis, this thesis intends to unpack the properties of dress as a complex medium individuals can utilise as a tool to construct their identity. This is partially achieved through the exploration of my own personal experiences of dress and of the spaces that shaped and mediated the construction of identity. Lastly, it is an attempt to understand the experiences of dress in parallel to the experience of the body/self, which consists of the world within and the one outside. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Feminist simulations: deep in the dream of a game
- Authors: Mackintosh, Tayla
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Video games in art , Crocheting , Minecraft (Game) , Feminism in art , Simulation games , Handicraft in art , Autoethnography , Intersectionality (Sociology)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425333 , vital:72230
- Description: This study delves into how the worlds of computer gaming and fine art intersect, employing DIY feminism to reflect on the gendered world of gaming and the links between simulation, reality, and fantasy within the game of Minecraft. I argue for a feminine craft (crochet) to challenge masculine gaming oppressions and the lack of representation, acceptance, and visibility for women in gaming culture. My research question is taken from the End Poem seen when the player has beaten the game's main boss. There is a line within the poem that asks, “But what true structure did this player create, in the reality behind the screen?” (End Poem, 2022). This is the question I have sought to answer within this study, by exploring a methodological approach that combines autoethnography and phenomenology to create a reflexive personal narrative. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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InVisible freedom fighter: a critical analysis of portrayals of women in archival photographs, independence monuments and contemporary art in Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia)
- Authors: Kalichini, Gladys Melina
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432433 , vital:72870 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432433
- Description: This doctoral dissertation in art history develops a notion of invisibility by critically analysing processes in which narratives about women are either concealed or uncovered in visual portrayals relating to the independence of Zambia (former Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (previously Southern Rhodesia). This study concentrates on three main visual categories that include archival photographs, national monuments, and visual art. It critically engages with concepts of memory and history through a framework of gender. The concept of invisibility developed in this thesis articulates a dynamic process in which independence narratives evolve over time, sometimes revealing memories associated with women and at other times rendering women invisible. National liberation in many African states is dominantly accredited to the political parties that were in power at the time of independence. In Zambia, the United National Independence Party (UNIP) is acknowledged for spearheading efforts to overthrow the colonial administration, while in Zimbabwe it is the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU – PF). Both political parties were headed by men, and the majority of their memberships was also comprised of men; as such, the dominant narratives largely illuminate the stories of men associated with these political parties. The overarching argument of this doctoral dissertation is that there is a gender bias inherent in dominant independence struggles narratives that are communicated through cultural heritage sites such as monuments and archives. In this study, art and art making inform theory as the methodological approach takes the direction in which selected artworks and visual materials are employed as a starting point of considering concepts that relate to the visibilities of stories about women. This approach cogitates the function of art, visual culture, and art history in the production of knowledges that foster in-depth understandings of concepts that explain social phenomena such as historical erasure. This doctoral dissertation in art history is divided into two parts, A and B, that conceptually complement each other. In section A which comprises of chapters one and two, the study develops an alternative visual archive that surveys the involvements of six specific women in the attainment of national independence in their respective countries, and critically analyses the Freedom Statue in Zambia and the National Heroes Acre in Zimbabwe as monuments dedicated to commemorating the independence struggle in the two countries. In Chapters three to five which form the second section of this dissertation, the emphasis of the discussion is on how selected visual artworks of three selected artists disrupt, counter or engage with dominant historical accounts that either exclude or marginalise narratives about women. The three artists include myself, Gladys Kalichini, and Zimbabwean born artists Kudzanai Chiurai and Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude. This thesis offers a culturally rich conversation about visual representations of social, political and cultural roles women performed in the colonial times in Northern and Southern Rhodesia and gives insight into the evolution of the luminosity of contemporary performances of women’s social collectives in Zambia and Zimbabwe. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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It’s an African proverb: conceptualizing narratives through the use of African subject matter
- Authors: Chithambo, N'lamwai Luntha
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- 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
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Playing it back: audible traces in contemporary African art
- Authors: Panchia, Bhavisha Laximi
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432455 , vital:72872
- Description: Access restricted. Exptected release date 2025. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Revisionist narratives: locating six Black artist-teachers onto the map of twentieth-century modern art in Zimbabwe
- Authors: Muvhuti, Tichapera Barnabas
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432444 , vital:72871 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432444
- Description: Job Kekana (1916-1995) was a South African sculptor and teacher who moved to Zimbabwe in 1944, where he founded the Kekana School of Art and Craft in the early 1960s. There were also a few Black Zimbabwean artist-teachers, namely, Sam Songo (1929-1977), Cornelius Manguma (b. 1935), Lazarus Khumalo (1930-2015), Joram Mariga (1927-2000) John Hlatywayo (b. 1928), who were either working with missionaries Canon Edward Paterson (1895-1974) and Father John Groeber (1903-1973) at the Cyrene and Serima workshops respectively and later on at the Mzilikazi Arts and Crafts Centre, or with Frank McEwen (1907- 1994) at the National Gallery school. This thesis examines the relative invisibility of Kekana and the selected Black artist-teachers in the dominant discourse of the history and development of modern art in Zimbabwe. Employing the biographical approach as a methodology, and modernism as an analytical tool and foregrounding African thinkers like Chika Okeke-Agulu Elizabeth Georgis, Emma Wolukau- Wanambwa and Salah Hassan, this research exposes the possible reasons for their exclusion from the canon, which are rooted in a gatekeeping culture shown by actors in the local art scene, including art historians and scholars, as well as cultural workers in institutions like the National Gallery of Zimbabwe who have not sufficiently questioned and possibly shaken the enshrined legacies of Paterson, Groeber and McEwen. Canons mostly tend to tell a story that privileges and excludes others from the art narrative of a nation. With the arrival of Frank McEwen on the scene in the late 1950s the stone sculpture tradition rose to prominence in such a way that it overshadowed other forms of art produced in the two mission schools or workshops at Serima and Cyrene. In the process, Kekana and his students at the Kekana School of Art and Craft were relegated to the peripheries of the canon as they carved in wood and tended to work in a more representational style. While there is literature acknowledging the role of the missionaries in laying the foundation of modern art in Zimbabwe, local artists-cum-teachers working with them are only recognised as a footnote on the nation’s map of modern art. Recognising that canons are always evolving and shifting, and without discrediting the work of the three mentioned expatriates – and to an extent that of Tom Blomefield of the Tengenenge Workshop – this thesis attempts to expand the canon by arguing for the inclusion of the critiqued overlooked six. Citing the efforts of researchers, scholars and curators in multicultural South Africa to bring the previously marginalised generation of Black modernists into the mainstream, this thesis demonstrates that it is possible to spotlight the narratives of the Black artists and teachers who continue to occupy peripheral space in the history of Zimbabwe. This comparative analysis is done bearing in mind the temptation of falling into the trap of glorifying ‘South African exceptionalism’. In analysing the Black artist-teachers’ contributions as a counter-narrative, this research proposes a more heterogeneous modernism and revisionist art history. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Storytelling through video game artworks – Twee kante van ’n storie
- Authors: Randall, Tasmin Tania
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Colored people (South Africa) Ethnic identity , Colored people (South Africa) in art , Storytelling in art , Digital art , Browser game , Art Video games , Autoethnography , Stereotypes (Social psychology) in art , Discrimination based on hair texture , Swag
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425355 , vital:72232
- Description: This mini-thesis serves as a supporting document for my Master of Fine Art (MFA) exhibition, ‘Twee Kante van ‘n Storie’. The exhibition explores my culture and experiences as a ‘Coloured’ woman in Makhanda through storytelling. I use the term ‘Coloured’ with quotation marks to remain respectful to those who do not wish to reclaim the term. My minithesis analyses how video games as artworks can be a mode of storytelling and can encourage sociocultural awareness. In my research, I use storytelling as a tool and autoethnography as a methodology to both discuss and influence my practice. For my MFA installation, I have created a digital interactive website that uses the same language as a video game. Throughout my process, I have used two video games, That Dragon Cancer and Boet Fighter, as case studies, in order to help the building and creation of my autoethnographic art video game. My art video game explores my experiences of my culture and living in a small town. Through the creation of four fictionalised characters, which are loosely based on true life experiences and first-hand observations, I can reveal and unpack cultural experiences and biases that I have observed over the years. Each character in the game grapples with one of three prominent themes; stereotypes, ‘swagger’ and texturism. Furthermore, through using autoethnography as a methodology and the researcher as the phenomenon (Ellis, 2004: 45). This study contributes to the gap in ‘Coloured’ cultural diversities that exist outside the lens of the Western Cape experience. This is a perspective not commonly found within academia. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Towards interrogating the notion of a Black aesthetic in multi-cultural Africa
- Authors: Maina, Muhunyo
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Uncatalogued
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425231 , vital:72221
- Description: Enbargoed. Expected release date 2025. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Uviwe Umthandazo
- Authors: Madinda, Viwe
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: Ubuntu (Philosophy) , Interpersonal communication , Mindfulness (Psychology) , Identity (Psychology) in art , Self-care , Spirituality in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425344 , vital:72231
- Description: The discourse of identity and community are topics of interest to me. As a citizen living in post-apartheid South Africa, I am captivated by the re-emerging wisdom and knowledge of Nguni cultural philosophies and practices. My practice-based research is interested in a creative interpretation of these ancient philosophies and practices in the context of postcolonial life. The project in many ways re-members through observation of socio-political issues such as inequality, violence, and vandalism as reflections of internal challenges of the individual self in current reality. In essence, my discussion in this paper highlights the need for healing grief and loss for the well-being – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – of society. Self-definition is the core of any community and we see this in the philosophy of the African proverb umntu ngumntu ngabantu, ‘I am because you are’. ‘I am’ is a set of beliefs that construct the individual self; our life’s course then becomes a constant molding of the body and the world around us. The wisdom of ubuntu was, and is, a catalyst for many African cultures, as this law recognizes each individual as important and equal in the community. As a descendant of various indigenous clans originating in Africa the well-being and balance of my being is determined by how much I know about who I am. Consequently, being a part of the generation that is experiencing the transitioning phases from apartheid I question the ways we are dealing with the residue of coloniality concerning all aspects of self; the physical, emotional, and mental bodies of self. My creative work is a reflection of the exercises I implemented to cultivate selfhood as a way to participate in and control my reality as a marginalized member of society. The different chapters touch on many intersecting theories about tools for healing/soothing the self. The creative process experimented with the various concepts embedded in the expression ‘I am because you are’. In the process of this research, I learned that knowing yourself is one of the principles of ubuntu, which teaches me that I cannot be or give what I do not have. The themes I explore through the above expression are self-love, self-acceptance, and self-respect using a creative lens. This practice-based research proposes a concept; the act of love as a decolonial gesture. My exhibition Vuleka Mhlaba Ndinegene1 utilizes visual language to convey the need for more conversations on healing using natural elements, as a way to make a connection between self, the natural environment, and community. In the first and second chapters, the paper focuses on practices employed by artists such as Lhola Amira, Guadalupe Maravilla, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Tony Gum, Lina Iris Viktor, and Aida Muleneh, to relate the various approaches to re-member the severed connection between self, nature, and community. This study looks at theories on; holding space, sound healing, earthing, shadow work, astrology, and human consciousness. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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Archontic Aporias: the mediums of memory
- Authors: Arbuckle, Julia Ruth
- Date: 2023-03-30
- Subjects: Practice research , Eastern Cape (South Africa) History , Autoethnography , Information storage and retrieval systems Memory , Archives South Africa Eastern Cape , Aporia , Memory in art , Archives in art
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/408727 , vital:70520
- Description: Contextualising my research within the Eastern Cape as a descendant of 1820 settlers, I question the modalities of historical recollection by introducing memory as a viable mode of archival production alongside that of the archive. Through interrogating Eastern Cape archival institutes and employing an autoethnographic approach to my familial archives, I show that archival curation affects the gaps, schisms, and interpretations of archives as much as the ‘unreliability’ of memory. I rely on definitions from Jacques Derrida and literature from Achille Mbembe and Verne Harris, as well as reflexive methodologies, to engage the ways of remembering the past and methods of storytelling. With this undertaking, I expose the aporias within archival processes. This written component is part of broader research that encompasses theoretical study and a practice-based Fine Arts research project culminating in an exhibition that shares themes of memory, archive, trauma, and curatorial and personal heritage management. This research engages in case studies of artworks by Angela Deane and Maureen de Jager to contextualise and position the creative process. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2023
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I want him to hold me, but I’m afraid to ask: the objective correlative and the souvenir as representational narrative devices of queer male intimacy
- Authors: Ferreira, Evaan Jason
- Date: 2022-04
- Subjects: Sexual minorities in art , Sexual minority culture , Intimacy (Psychology) , Sexual minorities in motion pictures , Intimacy (Psychology) in motion pictures , Homosexuality and motion pictures , Motion pictures Study and teaching , New media art , Nostalgia , Souvenirs (Keepsakes) , Gay men , Queer male intimacy , Objective correlative
- Language: English
- Type: Master's thesis , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/232556 , vital:50002
- Description: This thesis centres itself around an investigation into the representations of the relationship between intimacies and ideas of romance, love, desire, and vulnerability in male relationships. The premise for this body of work was sparked by my own observations on the conflation of sex and intimacy in representations of queer male love—particularly (but not exclusively) in mainstream film and media. Whilst intimacy and sex are not unrelated, the over-emphasis on the physical when trying to represent the connection between two men led me to consider other ways in which a relationship or special connection could be gestured towards — through other kinds of signifiers that last longer than physical contact and point to the importance of a particular connection. In the introduction, I consider my own experiences as a closeted queer teen when contemplating representations of queer relationships in mainstream media. I explore several studies by gender and film theorists who consider reasons and modes in which the representations of queer intimacies on-screen are distorted to favour a presumed heterosexual audience. In the first chapter, I discuss two potential means by which to relay a more complex emotional state via the use of narrative signifiers. I examine T.S. Eliot's (1919) theory on the objective correlative in narratives as a means to explore the emotional state of a character through metaphors which open up the reading rather than illustrating it through dialogue or direct speech. I then explore Susan Stewart's (1992) ideas on souvenirs of personal experience. In Chapter Two, I conduct a close reading of three mainstream films, which employ such signifiers in the attempt to share more complex representations of queer male intimacies through well-developed storylines and characters. The films Brokeback Mountain (2006), Moonlight (2016), and Call Me by Your Name (2017) have been selected based on their use of the objective correlative and souvenirs as plot devices (rather than exclusively physical intimacy) to demonstrate the emotional resonance between characters. The third and final chapter explores my own use of objective correlatives and souvenirs as symbolic, narrative devices in my practical body of work: an online garden of remembrance. My practical work focuses largely on the process of creation of these intimacy objects (the objective correlative or the souvenir) through an investigation into my own poetry, which details my experiences of intimacies with other men, specifically where vulnerability and secrecy played a large role. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Arts, 2022
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Tronkvoël: An exploration of the intersection of personal experiences and identities, concerning depression
- Authors: Kramer, Brunn David
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Mental illness in art , Art, South African 21st century , Metaphor in art , Depression, Mental , Prisons in art , Identity (Philosophical concept) in art , Gender identity in art , Intersectionality (Sociology)
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/191647 , vital:45129
- Description: My diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder in 2018 led to my experience of a terrible loneliness and a peculiar isolation that triggered a feeling of imprisonment. The work thus engages with the idea of prison as a metaphor for depression, and is influenced by earlier work that centred around prisons and ex-prisoners. I explore the intersection of gender-based issues, homophobia, racism and religious prejudice that is based on my experiences and identities, in an attempt to understand the depression and communicate the complex prejudices I face in my daily life. The work is based on my lived experience, through which depression can feel like a self-constructed prison. Thus, by visually communicating my lived experiences with depression as a coloured, queer body, I also aim to encourage dialogue and open up conversations around mental illness, as it is all too is often seen as taboo, particularly in communities of colour. I harness old family photographs as a departure point to investigate personal memory, as well as recently captured selfies to explore my narrative of self-imprisonment. I also integrate objects from childhood games such as glass marbles, with prison objects like paper mache dice and shivs all presented in the form of an installation. My invisible prison is visually communicated further through incorporating visual language of the prison – including tattoos, prison slang, and ‘shifts and shanks’ (makeshift weapons). I use a variety of mediums, including charcoal, photographic transfers, paint and linocuts, with a combination of burning and smoking techniques, made by using candle soot, as a primary feature throughout my work. In this mini-thesis I reflect on memories from my childhood and the way they have informed my experience of depression as a self-constructed prison. I position my practice in relation to the work of South African artist Tsoku Maela who navigates similar concerns in his own artworks. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2021
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In My Flesh : Fabricating the Bulimic Body
- Authors: Hodgson, Ashley
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: Bulimia , Human body -- Social aspects , Human figure in art , Diseases in art , Art therapy
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/177317 , vital:42809
- Description: My MFA exhibition In My Flesh, explores my own personal experience of an eating disorder: bulimia nervosa, through the medium of sculpture and installation. Situated in the Fine Art Sculpture and Painting building on Rhodes University campus, this practical submission takes the form of a multi-sensory installation depicting the fleshy interior of a bulimic body. The sculptural works that make up the installation resemble enlarged bodily forms and cavities, namely the mouth; the oesophagus, the stomach; the intestines; and the flesh. These anatomical forms are made from fabric which has been melted, manipulated, and stained using food and other synthetic dyes. The arrangement of the sculptural components (parts of the body affected by bulimia) does not mirror the human body exactly, and their intentionally disordered placement creates a feeling of dis-ease and disturbance for the participant experiencing the installation. This mini-thesis, In My Flesh: Fabricating the Bulimic Body, unpacks the visual, tactile and audio elements of this practice as research submission as they relate to my interest in bodily boundaries, corporeal traces and material extensions. I look at these themes as they translate into installation, and discuss the way in which bulimia is experienced, theorised and represented. I position my work in relation to the concept of the abject as proposed by Julia Kristeva, and visually analyse artworks by Mona Hatoum, Heidi Bucher and Ernesto Neto who make use of immersive installation strategies that resonate with my own practice. This supporting document considers the three conceptual elements informing my installation: embodiment, space, and materiality. In the first chapter of this document: Embodying the Bulimic Body, I address bulimia as less open to visual interpretations than other eating disorders because of its secretive and hidden nature. I go on to frame the illness in relation to theories around bodily boundaries and abjection and argue that bulimia epitomises abjection. In Chapter Two: Architecture of the Bulimic Body I engage with the idea of architectural structures as having anatomic features. I interrogate how the body moves through space, leaving traces of itself behind. Chapter Three: Fabricating the Bulimic Body concentrates on the main medium used in In My Flesh: fabric. In my discussion of this material, I unpack its metaphoric and symbolic qualities, as well as its personal resonance with my own lived experience. , Thesis (MFA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Fine Art, 2021
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Kuntanshi yamikalile (The Future): speculative nonconformity in the works of Zambian visual artists
- Authors: Mulenga,Andrew Mukuka
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Future in art , Africa -- In art , Art, Zambian , Art, African , Artists -- Zambia , Nyandoro, Gareth
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172203 , vital:42175 , 10.21504/10962/172203
- Description: In recent years, select African visual artists practising on the continent as well as in its diaspora have increasingly been attracted to themes that explore, portray or grapple with Africa’s future. Along with this increasing popularity of the ‘future’ or indeed ‘African futuristic’ themes by visual artists, such themes have also attracted academic consideration among various scholars, resulting primarily in topics described as ‘African Futurism’ or Afrofuturism. These are topics that may be used to disrupt what some scholars – across disciplines and in various contexts – have highlighted as the persistent presumptive notions that portray Africa as a hinterland (Hassan 1999; Sefa Dei, Hall and Goldin Rosenberg 2000; Simbao 2007; Soyinka-Airewele and Edozie 2010; Moyo 2013; Keita, L. 2014; Green 2014; Serpell 2016). This study makes an effort to critique certain aspects of ‘African Art History’ with regard to the representation of Africa, and raises the following question: How can an analysis of artistic portrayals of ‘the future’ portrayed in the works of select contemporary Zambian artists be used to critique the positioning of Africa as ‘backward’, an occurrence at the intersection of a dualistic framing of tradition versus modern. Furthermore, how can this be used to break down this dichotomy in order to challenge lingering perceptions of African belatedness? The study analyses ways in which this belatedness is challenged by the juxtaposition of traditional, contemporary and futuristic elements by discussing a series of topics and debates associated to African cultures and technology that may be deemed disconnected from the contemporary lived experiences of Africans based on the continent. The study acknowledges that there is no singular ‘African Art History’ that one can talk of and there have been various shifts in how it has been perceived. I argue that while currently the African art history that is written in the West does not simplistically position Africa as backward as it may have done in the past, there appear to be moments of a hangover of this perception (Lamp 1999:4). What started out as a largely Western scholarly discourse of African art history occurred in about the 1950s and the journal African Arts started in the 1960s. Even before contemporary African art became a big thing in the 1990s for the largely US- and Europe-based discourses there were many discussions in the US about how the ‘old’ art history tended to freeze time and that this was not appropriate (Drewal 1991 et al). In order to advance the discourse on contemporary African visual arts I present critical analyses of the select works of Zambian artists to develop interpretations of the broader uses of the aforementioned themes. The evidence that supports the core argument of this research is embedded in the images discussed throughout this dissertation. The artists featured in the study span several decades including artists who were active from the 1960s to the 1980s, such as Henry Tayali and Akwila Simpasa, as well as artists who have been practising since the 1980s, such as Chishimba Chansa and William Miko and those that are more current and have been producing work from the early 1990s and 2000s, such as Zenzele Chulu, Milumbe Haimbe, Stary Mwaba, Isaac Kalambata and Roy Jethro Phiri.
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Chirema Chine Mazano Chinotamba Chakazendama Madziro
- Authors: Mapondera, Wallen
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Art, Zimbabwean , Art -- Economic aspects -- Zimbabwe , Artists -- Zimbabwe , Takadiwa, Moffet , Nyandoro, Gareth , Clottey, Serge Attiku , Mapondera, Wallen -- Exhibitions
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147457 , vital:38638
- Description: This mini-thesis has developed as a practice-based supporting document to the exhibition Chirema Chine Mazano Chinotamba Chakazendama Madziro. The exhibition responds to how people become innovative in finding alternative means of survival and staying relevant in an economically depressed country. Zimbabwe is often the first country that comes to mind when people talk about hyperinflation; the situation was and still is intolerable, but somehow its citizens find means to pull through. Unemployment and poverty are the main causes of physical and mental problems for an individual. With this thesis, I highlight the innovations employed by Zimbabweans as a way of keeping themselves busy. I approach this through analysing the Zimbabwean general public’s creative reactions, and by tracing Zimbabwean visual artists’ use of found objects as a reaction to the country’s economic hardships. As people have been pushed to find alternative ways of survival, Zimbabwean artists in particular also shifted from using conventional art materials due to their unavailability. They began to redefine what art material is by employing objects in their artworks that previously had a non-art function. As such, there is a growing need to recognise, classify and document the shifts and establish platforms to generate growth of these innovations. In this minithesis I discuss my own practice, and I analyse the works of Moffat Takadiwa, Gareth Nyandoro and Serge Attiku Clottey.
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Creative production and existential thought: a feminist existential analysis of South African visual artist Berni Searle’s artwork
- Authors: Mokwena, Palesa
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Women artists -- South Africa , Women artists, Black -- South Africa , Existentialism and art , Feminism and art -- South Africa , Searle, Berni
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/148005 , vital:38701
- Description: Through an analysis of the work of South African artist Berni Searle, my study will investigate feminist existential ideas and concepts that have been explored by various creative producers in and outside of Europe/South Africa through different forms of creative productions and under different epistemological categories. ‘Canons’ of European existentialist/feminist thought often exclude the existence of feminist existential knowledge productions and producers outside of Europe. In conducting this study, I am responding to the past and present separatist and identitarian categorisations of creative productions from black/African creative producers, particularly women creative producers in South Africa, creating an alternative canonisation around their selected works. Although canons have been and can be used to drive separatist and identitarian categorisations, it is my hope to elucidate a discourse around the preservations and acknowledgements of South African creative and knowledge productions through a feminist existential framework that canonises important black feminist existentialist works and thereby brings to light their intellectual contributions over and above their identities. My development of a South African feminist existentialism is an attempt to graft a more intersectional, holistic framework to introduce in the feminist and existential discourses, and to proffer a new intersectional holistic paradigm of discussing categories that do not limit creative productions. To frame this research, I will reflect on the politics of historical and contemporary South African society as it is reflected in the works of the chosen creative producers and theorists and to question how we respond as creative feminist existentialists to contemporary South African struggles and how such a lens can be activated as a creative-theoretical tool of investigation.
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Petits récits: creative perspectives of Chinese encounters in Zambia
- Authors: Mwaba, Stary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Personal narratives , Lyotard, Jean-François, 1924-1998 , Art and society -- Zambia , Social practice (Art) -- Zambia , Art and globalization -- Zambia , China -- Relations -- Zambia , Storytelling in art , Colonization in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146355 , vital:38518
- Description: This mini-thesis, which supports my MFA exhibition Black Mountain, articulates on-the- ground creative perspectives of the Zambia-China discourse, through the representation of little narratives - les petits récits - connected to personal experiences. Through my creative production as an artist, I respond to perceptions of the Chinese presence in Africa. I utilize historical and contemporary personal narratives to complicate existing perceptions of Chinese presence in my home context of Zambia. “Petit récits”, or “little narratives”, in Francois Lyotard’s term, refers to personal stories of individuals that subvert dominant master-narratives and their legitimization in social-cultural structure. In the case of China’s presence in Zambia, I refer to the dichotomized narratives in the media as metanarratives which pay little attention to the people on the ground and propose the approach of “little narratives” to foreground the lived experiences of Zambians who have individual encounters with Chinese in various social spaces. By employing the narratives of my family members through installations, paintings, and drawings, I intervene in a broader China-Africa discourse that is often driven by economics and politics, and I attach importance to the little narratives. In my thesis I divide my material into three chapters; each chapter grows out of an encounter with the presence of China (and Chinese people) in Zambia in relation to the very personal narratives of family members - Zoë my daughter, my grandma, and Ngolo my cousin. The first chapter focuses on my work Chinese Cabbage as my entry point to this topic, which is based on a school experiment I did with my daughter Zoë. In this chapter I also discuss the current discourses around China’s presence. Chapter two revisits the Zambian-Chinese historical encounters in memory of my grandma’s insaka stories about the construction of TAZARA Railway, and thus my works discussed in this chapter attach importance to the individual engagements from a historical perspective. Chapter three discusses in particular the controversial issues around Black Mountain and the works inspired by my cousin Ngolo’s stories of mining in Black Mountain and dealing with the Chinese traders.
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Post-apartheid nostalgia and the future of the black visual archive
- Authors: Nsele, Zamansele Nsikakazi Busisiwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Nostalgia in art , Memory in art , Africa -- In art , Africans in art , Fanon, Frantz, 1925-1961. Peau noire, masques blancs. English , South Africa -- In art , Black people in art
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167177 , vital:41444
- Description: The implications of nostalgia often strike a discordant note in post-apartheid discourse and this has opened up critical possibilities for research scholarship. For instance, Jacob Dlamini’s memoir Native Nostalgia entered the discursive fray in 2009, and it was subsequently followed by Derek Hook’s psychoanalytical approach in (Post) apartheid Conditions: Psychoanalysis and Social Formation in 2014. Notably, there is not yet a sustained and intensive research focus that has been conducted on post-apartheid forms of nostalgia within the discipline of art history and visual culture. I present this dissertation as a response to this gap. This thesis identifies mainly two competing nostalgias in post-apartheid South Africa. Through the analysis of selected artwork and media imagery, this dissertation critiques the connections of these nostalgias to the representation of the black figure in post-apartheid visual culture and the implications thereof. I argue that nostalgias for an apartheid-colonial-imperialist past operate through erasure and in the sanitisation of memory and as a result they render suffering indiscernible or in a sadomasochistic way consumes suffering as enjoyable. This thesis simultaneously critiques art work and visual representation that responds to South Africa’s nostalgia for the future: a restorative nostalgia that has emerged in the form of “rainbow nationalism”. This is a form of nostalgia that is underpinned by a dogged commitment to triumphalism and as a result erases the ongoing scenes of abjection. I use nostalgia and Afropessimism as analytical frameworks to argue that both real and visual representational forces work in tandem to restrain the future and this, I suggest is fulfilled by the transference of the black body from one state of unfreedom to next, resonating with a cyclical pattern. Frantz Fanon’s (1967) Black Skin White Mask forms the conceptual bedrock of my study, particularly his visual layout of “negrophobogenesis” and colonial temporality, which he describes as a “hellish cycle” or as an “infernal cycle” wherein the past overwhelms the present and ideas of the future.
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The digital and the hyperreal, with reference to artwork by Signe Pierce and Lauren King
- Authors: King, Lauren Pascal
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Women in art , Femininity in art , Figurative art , Cyberspace -- Social aspects , Feminine beauty (Aesthetics) , Online identities , Photo-realism , Computer art , Virtual reality in art , Reality in art , Art, Modern -- 21st century , Feminist art criticism , Pierce, Signe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147939 , vital:38688
- Description: This MFA is a visual art critical investigation of digital representations, manipulations, and exploitations of feminine figures in cyberspace. The particular focus of this study is centred on the work of self-titled reality artist Signe Pierce, as well as my own practical body of work: The Digital Feminine. Case studies of Pierce’s practice include Big Sister (2016), Halo (2018), American Reflexxx (2013) and Reality Hack (2016). Through these case studies I examine the nature of identity formation online as underscored by notions of performativity as well as arguments for the use of feminine aesthetics as feminist critique, specifically through the use of the ‘Venus Flytrapping’ method. Jean Baudrillard famously theorised the hyperreal and the simulacra, claiming that human experience is a simulation of reality1. My MFA thesis addresses contemporary concerns relating to issues of reality, perception, the gaze, and identity in an increasingly virtual world. The 20th century witnessed massive changes in technology, and its subsequent commercialisation marked new territories for mass media, politics, entertainment, social life, and the art world. Avant-garde modern art movements shattered previously held standards of traditional artistic production, thus ideas surrounding the ‘art object’ and the role of artists themselves were fundamentally changed. In a postmodern world where nothing is sacred and life is experienced through the simulacra of the screen, the hyperreal takes over. I investigate how real-world socio-political issues, particularly those related to gender, transcend into the digital realm of cyberspace through discussions of Donna Harraway’s ‘cyborg feminism’ and Judith Butler’s ideas of gender performativity, as well as Erving Goffman’s ideas of everyday performativity. My final body of work for the professional art practice component of this MFA is realised in the form of an immersive installation that straddles the virtual and the real. Influenced by digital and hyperreal aesthetics (such as VapourWave), this installation also explores various expressions of femininity that an individual can express both online and in real life.
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The use of ritual as physical and spiritual medium and its documentation in Buhlebezwe Siwani’s contemporary visual arts performance
- Authors: Lila, Philiswa
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Arts and religion , Ritual -- South Africa , Performance art -- Religious aspects -- South Africa , Women performance artists -- South Africa , Siwani, Buhlebezwe, 1987-
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/166160 , vital:41334
- Description: This thesis is motivated by my experience of Inzilo: Ngoba ngihlala kwabafileyo, a live performance by South African visual artist Buhlebezwe Siwani. The performance took place at Michaelis Galleries, University of Cape Town (UCT), as part of a group exhibition Between Subject and Object: human remains at the interface of art and science (2014), which accompanied the Medical Humanities in Africa Conference (from 28 – 29 August 2014). As an entry into my discussion, I describe how Siwani’s performance makes use of death and burial ritual in what seems to be an intention to make art that is (re)presenting an activity of reality to invade and control the sphere of feelings, emotions and a sense of ceremony that is dependent on both ritual and rites of the performance. I grapple with the fact that I experienced a ritual performance in a gallery space. Furthermore, I question how walking out of the performance I thought of the lines between art and/or life. The role of ritual in my thesis explores the symbolic meanings, powers and intentions of ritual rites in Africa. This reflection maps out historical locations that are relevant to the major debates, definitions, themes and the experiences of ritual as part of academic research. From Siwani’s practice as an artist and isangoma to other expressions in the fields of history, sociology, religion, feminism, to mention a few, my thesis is an enquiry that engages ritual and performance art theory and scholarship. Through a qualitative analysis, my methodology rejects a chronological, thematic and discipline centered research. Rather, I use a multidisciplinary approach based on critical visual analysis as knowledge creation in the visual arts, for example archives, documentation, performance, text, video, installation, painting, sculpture, etc. The findings suggests that the role of ritual in performance art is not a singular exploration, nor is it based on separating ritual and performance art. The results further reveal that ritual in performance art is not a reenactment of patterns and human behaviours, nor is the notion of reenactment used to denote the myriad meanings and functions of re-performing historical ritual events into performance art. Throughout, my thesis provides a focus that demonstrates the significance of how ritual in performance art has a profound subjective (personal or individual) and collective holistic way of serving human and spiritual needs, and that of creating an environment that is open to the content and context of art as it relates with traditional African religious practices, beliefs and knowledges. Focus is given to three major themes that make up the three chapters of my research: firstly, I reflect on death as personified by Siwani’s performance Inzilo: Ngoba ii ngihlala kwabafileyo and her role as isangoma. Here death is used to draw specific attention to the body in process of embodied presence and absence of physical and spiritual worlds. Secondly, drawing on Siwani’s concept of secrecy and boundaries of concealing and revealing rituals meanings and powers as isangoma, I question the role of secrets, which highlights the significance of bodies (human and natural sites of ritual) in ritual performance. Finally, the idea of a trace is explored. The intersecting use of a trace as the thinking-making-doing of ritual in performance articulates a connected thread that sets in motion the trace of ritual (installation, image and marked space pf ritual) as an afterlife that offers a continued space of processual ceremony for multiple effective encounters and movements..
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