To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: South African Art pottery.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'South African Art pottery'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'South African Art pottery.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Stevenson, Michael. "The South African art index, 1971–1988." Thesis, University of Cape Town, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23488.
Full text
2
Ifejika-Obukwelu, Kate Omuluzua. "Igbo pottery in Nigeria : issues of form, style and technique /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1990. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/10939362.
Full text
3
Von, Veh Karen Elaine. "Transgressive Christian iconography in post-apartheid South African art." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002220.
Full textAbstract:
In this study I propose that transgressive interpretations of Christian iconography provide a valuable strategy for contemporary artists to engage with perceived social inequalities in postapartheid South Africa. Working in light of Michel Foucault’s idea of an “ontology of the present”, I investigate the ways in which religious iconography has been implicated in the regulation of society. Parodic reworking of Christian imagery in the selected examples is investigated as a strategy to expose these controls and offer a critique of mechanisms which produce normative ‘truths’. I also consider how such imagery has been received and the factors accounting for that reception. The study is contextualized by a brief, literary based, historical overview of Christian religious imagery to explain the strength of feeling evinced by religious images. This includes a review of the conflation of religion and state control of the masses, an analysis of the sovereign controls and disciplinary powers that they wield, and an explication of their illustration in religious iconography. I also identify reasons why such imagery may have seemed compelling to artists working in a post-apartheid context. By locating recent works in terms of those made elsewhere or South African examples prior to the period that is my focus, the works discussed are explored in terms of broader orientations in post-apartheid South African art. Artworks that respond to specific Christian iconography are discussed, including Adam and Eve, The Virgin Mary, Christ, and various saints and sinners. The selected artists whose works form the focus of this study are Diane Victor, Christine Dixie, Majak Bredell, Tracey Rose, Wim Botha, Conrad Botes, Johannes Phokela and Lawrence Lemaoana. Through transgressive depictions of Christian icons these artists address current inequalities in society. The content of their works analysed here includes (among others): the construction of both female and male identities; sexual roles, social roles, and racial identity; the social expectations of contemporary motherhood; repressive role models; Afrikaner heritage; political and social change and its effects; colonial power; sacrifice; murder, rape, and violence in South Africa; abuses of power by role models and politicians; rugby; heroism; and patricide. Christian iconography is a useful communicative tool because it has permeated many cultures over centuries, and the meanings it carries are thus accessible to large numbers of people. Religious imagery is often held sacred or is regarded with a degree of reverence, thus ensuring an emotive response when iconoclasm or transgression of any sort is identified. This study argues that by parodying sacred imagery these artists are able to disturb complacent viewing and encourage viewers to engage critically with some of its underlying implications.
4
Worth, Janet. "The distinctive fish motif on a 14th century Iranian bowl in the Art Gallery of South Australia's William Bowmore Collection of Islamic ceramics /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2004. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARAHM/09arahmw932.pdf.
Full text
5
Becker, Danielle Loraine. "South African art history: the possibility of decolonising a discourse." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26883.
Full textAbstract:
In light of recent calls to decolonise curricula at South African universities there has been a renewed interest in what decolonisation might specifically imply for particular academic disciplines. Art history in South Africa has long struggled to move away from its settler colonial origins towards a more Afrocentric focus and its art world has frequently been criticised for being elitist and dominated by white practitioners. To this end, one of the primary questions that this dissertation seeks to answer is to what extent indigenous, African art and African epistemology has been included in South African art history and the institutions that support despite the discourse's traces of colonialism. Through a discussion and analysis of South African art history this dissertation seeks to describe the changes in the discourse since the late twentieth-century in light of the entanglements of the national; the colonial and the decolonial. Such an analysis is provided through a discussion of the biases of art history as a discourse originating in Western Europe; the geographical location of museums and university departments; the character of South African art historical writing; the curatorial strategies used to display African art in South African museums and the specific nature of art history curricula as it is taught at South African universities. The dissertation that follows therefore aims to provide an overarching view of South African art history that takes into account a range of factors impacting its particular framing so that the question of decolonisation can be adequately addressed. The dissertation finds that South African art history has a specific, settler colonial character and that historical African art has been neglected in art historical discourse despite overt attempts to transform the nature of the discipline post-democracy. It is argued that this may be the result of a shift in focus towards contemporary practice in the twenty-first century and away from the historical as a result of a resistance to cultural or racial labels attributed to art due to the legacy of apartheid legislation. As such, I argue that South African art history may find a path towards decolonisation through a renewed focus on historical South African and African art that is perceived on its own terms.
6
Bereng, Lerato. "Featuring simplicity: jargon and access in contemporary South African art." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/60479.
Full textAbstract:
The focus of this paper is an exploration of curating and its various forms as understood in a South African art context. In order to understand this context I examine definitions of South African publics as well as different curatorial models. I raise questions around art and accessibility as well as the functions of language as a gate keeper within the visual arts. Through a practical exploration of curatorial methods of engagement, I assess the curator's role as disseminator of information. My final project Conversations at Morija that was held in Morija, Lesotho faces the challenge of curating within a space that has a strong creative platform, but lacks a visual art audience. The exhibition was held during the 2013 Morija Art and Culture festival which is dominated by its music component. Despite Morija being the country's creative centre and sole museum, there is little support for its programme both monetary and in terms of attendance. Through a series of conversations several issues pertaining to Morija, Lesotho and the diaspora were addressed. I look at the absence of creative platforms and alternative curatorial methods that engage the public in a participatory manner. Briefly exploring questions of migrant labour and definitions of what constitutes a diaspora. I look at relatable ways to engage the local audience whilst maintaining a creative core in which to spark dialogue around pertinent matters relating to the country.
7
Dodd, Alexandra Jane. "Secular séance: Post-Victorian embodiment in contemporary South African art." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12814.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references.In this thesis I explore selected bodies of work by five contemporary South African artists that resuscitate nineteenth - century aesthetic tropes in ways that productively reimagine South Africa’s traumatic colonial inheritance. I investigate the aesthetic strategies and thematic concerns employed by Mary Sibande, Nicholas Hlobo, Mwenya Kabwe, Kathryn Smith and Santu Mofokeng, and argue that the common tactic of engagement is a focus on the body as the prime site of cognition and "the aesthetic as a form of embodiment, mode of being-in-the-world" (Merleau - Ponty). It is by means of the body that the divisive colonial fictions around race and gender were intimately inscribed and it is by means of the body, in all its performative and sensual capacities, that they are currently being symbolically undone and re-scripted. In my introduction, I develop a syncretic, interdisciplinary discourse to enable my close critical readings of these post - Victorian artworks. My question concerns the mode with which these artists have reached into the past to resurrect the nineteenth - century aesthetic trope or fragment, and what their acts of symbolic retrieval achieve in the public realm of the present. What is specific to these artists mode of "counter - archival" (Merewether ) engagement with the colonial past? I argue that these works perform a similar function to the nineteenth - century séance and to African ancestral rites and dialogue, putting viewers in touch with the most haunting aspects of our shared and separate histories as South Africans and as humans. In this sense, they might be understood both as recuperations of currently repressed forms of cultural hybridity and embodied visual conversations with the unfinished identity struggles of the artists’ ancestors. The excessive, uncanny or burlesque formal qualities of these works insist on the incapacity of mimetic, social documentary forms to contain the sustained ferocious absurdity of subjective experience in a "post - traumatic", "post - colonial", "post - apartheid" culture. The "post" in these terms does not denote a concession to sequential logic or linear temporality, but rather what Achille Mbembe terms an "interlocking of presents, pasts and futures". This "interlocking" is made manifest by the current transmission of these works, which visually, physically embody a sense of subjectivity as temporality. If the body and the senses are the means though which we not only apprehend the world in the present, but through which the past is objectively an d subjectively enshrined, then it is by means of the ossified archive of that same sensory body that the damage of the past can be released and knowledge/history re - imagined. Without erasing or denying South Africa’s well - documented history of violent categorisation, the hypothetical tenor of these works instantiates an alternate culture of love , intimacy, desire and inter - connectedness that once was and still can be.
8
Meewes, Sarah Jessica. "South African Ballet : a Performing Art during and after Apartheid." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/76715.
Full textAbstract:
Literature on the topic of ballet in South Africa is growing. However, there are still gaps as a result of the fragmentation of sources. This dissertation draws on primary and secondary sources to try to provide a coherent discussion of the history of ballet in South Africa from a fresh perspective. The research demonstrates that ballet has been in constant engagement with South African history and society since its arrival on African shores. Through secondary and primary literature, the research starts by engaging with South African balletic history by looking at an overview of ballet’s journey to South Africa and the establishment of balletic societies and institutions. Emphasis is placed on the more successful institutions based in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The history of these institutions, as traced within the research, demonstrates the responsiveness of the balletic community to the environment in which they were situated. South African choreographed ballets with Afrocentric themes are used to highlight the responsiveness that the ballet community has demonstrated towards the historical climate and structures within South African society during and after apartheid. Finally, ballet is explored in the post-apartheid context. Topics that are engaged with here include the removal of grand and petty apartheid policies, as well as the ideas behind the decolonisation of ballet as exemplified by the Cuban-South African exchange.Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2019.
Historical and Heritage Studies
MSocSci
Unrestricted
9
Stielau, Anna. "Double agents : queer citizenship(s) in contemporary South African visual culture." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20625.
Full textAbstract:
South Africa claims the most progressive constitution on the African continent, extending protections to all citizens regardless of race, gender, ability or sexual orientation. Much has been published in recent years about the induction of LGBTIQ persons into this inclusive post-1994 human rights framework, often with a particular focus on the role of the state in instituting non-discrimination legislation and promoting equality. This document reflects my belief that South African sexuality scholarship too often presents incorporation into a unified nation-state as the only desirable outcome for queer citizens. By mapping the manner in which sexual difference has been uneasily imagined in national discourses, I argue here that the ideal South African citizen remains a heterosexual citizen presupposed as private, patriotic, familial and reproductive. I posit that when non-normative sexual identities and practices become visible in the public sphere, they risk assimilation into "acceptable" modes of representation produced in accordance with the expectations and responsibilities attending state-sanctioned national membership. In so doing, I assert, these cultural forms mandate a queerness that leaves structural inequalities intact. To look beyond this horizon I choose to explore dissident citizenship forms that intervene in dominant cultural narratives to expand the boundaries of belonging. Specifically, I concern myself with representations of queer subjects in visual culture and the multiple audiences these representations invite.
10
Ruiters, Mellaney Bualin. "The development of a translucent low fired porcelain casting slip using South African raw materials." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/20004.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of the research was to develop a translucent low fired porcelain casting slip using South African raw materials, due to the ever increasing electricity tariffs in South Africa as well as the physical deterioration put on the elements and brickwork in electric kilns when fired to traditional porcelain temperatures. Traditional porcelain bodies that can be purchased from South African suppliers are required to be fired to between 12000C and 13000C. The commercially prepared porcelains when tested produced white vitrified bodies but were lacking in translucency. Local ceramic artists are therefore compelled to import their porcelains from overseas suppliers if they require a white translucent porcelain but this is still requires a firing temperature well above 12000C. It has been shown that by using South African ceramic raw materials and adjusting a Parian ceramic formula using a selected frit; a low fired translucent porcelain can be made that matures below 12000C. The addition of paper fibres to the non-plastic porcelain was necessary to reduce the high shrinkage rate and prevented the clay from cracking and tearing in the firing process. With the further adjustments to the formula by the addition of calcium triphosphate true white translucent porcelain was produced. Without this last adjustment the porcelain would be an off-white colour due to the impurities found in the South African ceramic raw materials which are mainly contaminated with iron oxide. It was found that the following formula produced a white translucent porcelain which vitrified at 11900C and satisfies the original concept in the title stated above.
11
Blake, Tamlin. "South African botanical art : a study of nineteenth- and twentieth-century imagery." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52458.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Botanical art consists of a complex combination of scientific fact and aesthetic awareness, and is concerned with more than the realistic representation of a plant and its flowers. It goes beyond the visual description of scientific information and speaks about the contributions artists have made through history to the conventions of both art and science. It contains a unique visual language, conventions which we read intelligently and an evolved tradition, and it is this language and the development of these conventions within the genre of South African botanical art, which this thesis investigates. In South Africa botanical art developed as a direct result of European interest in the flora and the colonisation of this country by the West. A brief history of responses to South African plants is discussed in the Introduction in order to begin to establish an understanding of this tradition and to contextualise the contributions made by 19th-and 20th -century South African botanical artists. Now that postmodernity has called for the reassessment and questioning of 'given truths', alternative ways of assessing botanical art are slowly evolving. Through study and the comparison of botanical art and artists of South Africa their evaluation as artists is reconsidered. This issue of defining art and artists is the subject of Chapter One of this study. Some of the factors that have a bearing on this include: relationships between text and image; art and science; art and illustration; and how society's expectations of gender roles affect the production of botanical art. In order to establish a context from which to discuss plant imagery in South Africa, it is important to study the history and development of botanical art in this country. Chapter Two discusses the emergence and development of this art form and its artists, starting with a short description of people and events from the 1600s and then takes a comprehensive look at developments in the 19th and 20m centuries. For the artists working within the genre of botanical art, the conventions and inventions are often explicitly formulated. It is an art based on the logic, scrutiny and informative tradition of science, where the main objective is to represent a plant's structural essence. Fundamental to our response to botanical art, however, is the style and technique employed by the artist. Chapter Three is devoted to a detailed discussion of the work of selected contemporary South African botanical art and artists. By comparing their work it is possible to establish trends and developments in representation and the role played by mediums and techniques in this highly skilled art form. Since this research has both a theoretical and a practical component, Chapter Four is devoted to discussion of my own work within the botanical art genre. I describe and illustrate several related series of paintings and explore established conventions and ways of developing my own stylistic identity as a botanical artist.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Botaniese kuns bestaan uit 'n komplekse kombinasie van wetenskaplike feite en estetiese bewustheid, en is gemoeid met baie meer as net die realistiese voorstelling van 'n plant en sy blomme. Dit gaan verder as net die blote visuele uitbeelding van wetenskaplike informasie, en behels die bydraes wat kunstenaars deur die geskiedenis tot die konvensies van beide kuns en die wetenskap gemaak het. Botaniese kuns besit 'n unieke visuele taal, konvensies wat intelligent gelees word, en 'n ontwikkelde tradisie. Hierdie tesis ondersoek juis hierdie spesiale taal en ontwikkeling van konvensies binne die genre van Suid-Afrikaanse botaniese kuns. Botaniese kuns in Suid-Afrika het ontwikkel as In direkte gevolg van Europese belangstelling in die flora, en Westerse kolonialisasie van hierdie land. In die Inleidingword daar kortliks gekyk na die geskiedenis van die hantering van Suid-Afrikaanse plante, en het ten doelom eerstens 'n begrip van hierdie tradisie daar te stel, en tweedens om die bydraes van 19de en 20ste eeuse Suid-Afrikaanse botaniese kunstenaars te kontekstualiseer. Sedert Postmodernisme die herevaluering en bevraagtekening van gegewewe waarhede aangewakker het, is die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe maniere van kyk na botaniese kuns stadig besig om plaas te vind. Deur die bestudering en vergelyking van botaniese kuns en kunstenaars van Suid-Afrika, word die botaniese kunstenaar se status as kunstenaar uitgelig. Hierdie kwessie oor die defmieëring van kuns en kunstenaars is die onderwerp van Hoofstuk 1 van hierdie werkstuk. 'n Paar van die faktore wat In invloed op laasgenoemde het, sluit in: verhoudinge tussen beeld en teks; kuns en wetenskap; kuns en illustrasie; en hoe kwessies van geslag soos waargeneem deur die samelewing die produsering van botaniese kuns beïnvloed. Dit is belangrik om die geskiedenis en ontwikkeling van botaniese kuns in Suid-Afrika te bestudeer, sodat daar 'n konteks geskep kan word waarbinne die afbeelding van plante in hierdie land bespreek kan word. Hoofstuk 2 behandel die totstandkoming en ontwikkeling van hierdie kunsvorm en sy kunstenaars, en begin met 'n kort beskrywing van mense en gebeurtenisse van die 1600s wat gevolg word deur 'n uitgebreide kyk na ontwikkelinge gedurende die 19de en 20ste eeue. Vir die kunstenaars wat werk binne die genre van botaniese kuns, is die konvensies en bevindings van die medium dikwels breedvoerig geformuleer. Dit is 'n kunsvorm gebasseer op die logiese, navorsbare en insiggewende tradisie van die wetenskap, waar die hoofdoel die voorstelling van 'n plant se strukturele essensie is. Fundementeel in die benadering tot botaniese kuns is die styl en tegniek wat deur die kunstenaar gebruik word. Hoofstuk 3 word gewy aan 'n gedetailleerde bespreking van die werk van geselekteerde kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse bot~iese kuns en kunstenaars. Deur hul werk te vergelyk is dit moontlik om tendense en ontwikkelings in die voorstelling en aanbieding van botaniese kuns te bepaal, en wat die rol van verskillende mediums en tegnieke in hierdie hoogs geskoolde kunsvorm behels. Weens die feit dat hierdie navorsing uit 'n teoretiese en praktiese komponent bestaan, word Hoofstuk 4 gewy aan 'n bespreking van my praktiese werk binne die genre van botaniese kuns. Ek beskryf en illustreer verskeie verwante reekse werke en kyk na bestaande konvensies en die maniere hoe my eie stilistiese identiteit as botaniese kunstenaar kan ontwikkel binne die medium.
12
Cook, Shashi Chailey. ""Redress : debates informing exhibitions and acquisitions in selected South African public art galleries (1990-1994)" /." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1631/.
Full text
13
Lauwrens, Jennifer. "The contested relationship between art history and visual culture studies A South African perspective /." Diss., Pretoria : [s.n.], 2006. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05222007-133343.
Full text
14
Becker, Carl. "South African art institutions : their formation and strategy with particular reference to the question of legitimacy." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007622.
Full textAbstract:
I have examined the relationship between the art institution and its social base, and the way in which legitimacy is sought and maintained under changing social circumstances. The social pattern of 'avante garde artist' vs. 'philistine public' has tended to be the context within which 20th century art has developed. The consequent disjuncture between the public art institution and its social base was subsequently accepted as the natural condition of Fine Art production. During the 1980's, two significant factors were to influence this 'natural' condition: i) The demise of 'modernism' internationally, ' which broadened the scope of allowable objects for consideration as Fine Art. ii) Political mobilisation in South Africa was accompanied by calls for democratisation and charges of 'elitism' being levelled against many public institutions. These factors have combined to make the S.A. art institutions (public galleries, tertiary teaching institutions and national art competitions) re-assess their legitimacy, particularly in terms of 'accountability' and 'representativeness' . A close examination of these two factors is essential if one is to gain insight into the current condition of the public art institutions. This research is an attempt to understand the history and the current nature of the shifting relationship between the art institutions and the 'public' in South Africa. A further goal is to assess the extent to which concepts that are valid within the realm of the polity can be transposed into the cultural realm: A tendency prevalent within the cultural debate in South Africa during the 1980's. The emphasis of this mini thesis is on the artworld's perception of its social role. I therefore look at the way changing attitudes are reflected in the statements and writing of leading figures within this sector. The method is to critically analyse texts that pertain to my chosen area of research.
15
Van, Zyl Marelize. "Constructing the value of art : a sociological perspective on value creation at South African art auctions." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20053.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The value of art is a critical concept in theoretical discourse. As a result, the high prices of artworks on auctions pose questions about the various processes of value construction and the status of art in these processes. This thesis adopts a sociological approach to the construction of value of art on South African auctions. This approach is situated within a socio-historical perspective, which introduces the various social structures and conditions of cultural production. The main premise of this approach is that a multiplicity of social and cultural influences permeates the art market, its processes and structures, and therefore the determination of value. This research therefore indicates that the value of art on auction is socially constructed. As such, the value of an artwork does not reside in itself, but is produced (and constantly reproduced) through processes that are subject to the codes and conventions of the art world. Within the context of the art market, artworks function as commodities for economic exchange. Since economic exchange is socially and culturally situated, the distinctive ways in which art auctions in South Africa (as a market intermediary) encompass certain social and cultural processes, is also explored. To asses the various factors that influence the value and exchange of artworks on auction, the study introduces the Components of Value Model. The Aesthetic and Historical Factors; the Supporting Documentation and Material Attributes of an artwork, as well as the Financial and Economic Factors collectively indicate that values are, first and foremost, social categories. The value of art on auction is therefore a socially constructed value.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die waarde van kuns is ‘n kritiese konesep in teoretiese gesprekvoering. Na aanleiding van die hoë pryse wat kunswerke op Suid-Afrikaanse veilings behaal, word verskeie vrae gevolglik gestel rondom die verskillende prosesse van waarde samestelling en die status van kuns in hierdie prosesse. Hierdie verhandeling neem ‘n sosiologiese benadering aan tot die samestelling van die waarde van kuns op veilings. Dié benadering is gesetel binne ‘n sosio-historiese perspektief wat verskeie sosiale strukture en voorwaardes van kulturele-produksie inlei. Die hoof premis van hierdie benadering is dat ‘n aantal sosiale en kulturele invloede die kunsmark se prosesse en trukture deurweek, en gevolglik ook die bepaling van waarde. Hierdie navorsing kom dus tot die gevolgtrekking dat die waarde van kuns op veilings sosiaal geskep word. Gevolglik is die waarde van kuns nie intrinsiek nie, maar word geproduseer (en aanhoudend geherproduseer) deur prosesse wat onderhewig is aan die kodes en konvensies van die kunswêreld. Binne die konteks van die kunsmark, funksioneer kunswerke bloot as kommoditeite vir ekonomiese verhandeling. Omdat ekonomiese vehandeling sosiaal en kultureel gesetel is, word die eiesoortige wyse van hoe kunsveilings (as ‘n marktussenganger) sekere sosiale en kulturele prosesse omvat, ook ondersoek. Om die veskeie faktore wat die waarde van kunswerke op veilings beïnvloed te ondersoek, word die ‘Komponente van Waarde Model’ ingebring. Gevolglik dui die Esteties- en Historiese Faktore; Ondersteunende Dokumentasie en Materiële Eienskappe van kunswerke asook die Finansiële en Ekonomiese Faktore gesamantlik aan dat waardes hoofsaaklik sosiale kategorieë is. Die waarde van kuns op veiling is gevolglik sosiaal gekonstrueer.
16
Hahn, Catherine Neville. "The political house of art : the South African National Gallery, 1930-2009." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2016. http://research.gold.ac.uk/19314/.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis analyses modes of representation in the South African National Gallery (SANG) between 1930 and 2009. Built in 1930, for the larger part of its history SANG was situated in a white state that disenfranchised the black populace. Whiteness, as citizenship, was normalised and glorified in the state’s museums. Analysis of evidence collected from the archive, décor, art collection, exhibitions, attendance of walking tours and semi-structured interviews with staff demonstrates that SANG’s historic practice does not fit neatly within the dominant theoretical understanding of the art museum, namely a sacred space in which power has been obscured through the ‘art for art’s sake’ model. Instead, the thesis finds at SANG invisible symbolic capital resided alongside the more muscular capital of the colony, which derived its strength from an overt relationship with commerce, politics and race. The thesis further finds that SANG developed a close relationship with its white audience through its construction as a ‘homely space’. As a consequence, I argue SANG developed museological conventions that better fit the analogy of the political house than the temple. Taking new museum ethics into consideration, the thesis examines how SANG’s distinctive heritage impacted on its ability to be inclusive. My fieldwork on recent representational practice at SANG reveals strategies congruent with the post-museum, including performative political exhibitions, diversification of the collection and active dialogue with the communities it seeks to serve. At the same time embedded modes of white cultural representation were identified that restricted its capacity to ‘move-on’. The thesis contributes to the field of museum studies by drawing attention to the significance of the individual histories of art institutions in determining their ability to make change. The thesis also contributes to the field of visual sociology by presenting images and ‘map-making’ as an integral feature of the research design.
17
De, Beer Esther. "Spicing South Africa: representations of food and culinary traditions in South African contemporary art and literature." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20027.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Francoise Vergés comments in her essay Let’s Cook! that “one could write the history of a people, of a country, of a continent by writing the history of its culinary habits” (250 ). Vergés here refers to the extent to which food can be seen to document and record certain events or subjectivities. Exploring a wide range of texts spanning the late 1800s up to the post-apartheid present, this thesis focuses in particular on the ways in which “spice” as commodity, ingredient or symbol is employed to articulate and/or embed creole and diasporic identities within the South African national context. The first chapter maps the depiction of the “Malay” figure within cookery books, focussing on the extent to which it is caught up in the trappings of the picturesque. This visibility is often mediated by the figure’s proximity to food. These depictions are then placed in conversation with the conceptual artist Berni Searle’s photographic and video installations. Searle visually interrogates the stagnant modes of representation that accrue around the figure of the “Malay” and moves toward understandings of how food and food narratives structure cultural identity as complex and mutable. Chapter two shifts focus from the Cape to the ways in which “Indian Cuisine” became significant within the South African context. Here the Indian housewife plays a role in perpetuating a distinctive cultural identity. The three primary texts discussed in this chapter are the popular Indian Delights cookery book authored by the Women’s Cultural Group, Shamim Sarif’s The World Unseen and Imraan Coovadia’s The Wedding. Indian Delights. All illustrate the extent to which the realm of the kitchen, traditionally a female domain, becomes a space from which alternative subjectivities can be made. The kitchen as a place for cultural retention is explored further and to differing degrees in both The Wedding and The World Unseen. Ultimately, indentifying cultural heritage through food enables tracing alternative and intersecting cultural identities that elsewhere, are often left out for neat and new ethnic, cultural or national identities. The thesis will in particular explore the extent to which spices used within creole and/or diasporic culinary practices encode complex affiliations and connections. Tracing the intimacies and the disjunctures becomes productive within the postapartheid present where the vestiges of apartheid’s taxonomical impetus alongside a new multicultural model threaten to erase further the complexities and nuances of everyday life.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In haar artikel Let’s Cook! wys Francoise Vergés daarop dat die geskiedenis van ‘n mens, ‘n land of selfs ‘n kontinent saamgestel sou kon word deur te skryf oor die geskiedenis van hulle kos en eetgewoontes (250).Vergés skep hier ‘n besef van individuele en sosiale identiteit wat deur kos geleenthede vasgevang kan word. Deur bronne vanaf die laat 1800’s tot die postapartheid periode te bestudeer, fokus hierdie navorsing spesifiek op die wyse waarop speserye as kommoditeit, inhoud of simbool gebruik word om die kreoolse en diasporiese identiteite in Suid Afrika te bevestig of te bevraagteken. Die eerste hoofstuk lewer ‘n uiteensetting en beskrywing, soos verkry uit kookboeke, van die stereotypes wat vorm om die Maleise figuur. Daar word konsekwent gefokus op die mate waarin die sigbaarheid van die Maleise identiteit verstrengel word in ‘n bestaande raamwerk van diskoerse. Die Maleise figure word dikwels meer sigbaar in die konteks van kos en eetgewoontes. Berni Searl se fotografiese en video installasies word gebruik om hierdie stereotiepiese visuele kodes te bevraagteken. Searle ontgin die passiewe wyse waarop die Maleise persoon visueel verbeeld word en beklemtoon dan hoe kos en gesprekke oor kos die kulturele identiteit kompleks en dinamies maak. Hoofstuk twee verskuif die klem vanaf die Kaap na die wyse waarop die Indiese kookkuns identiteit kry in die Suid Afrikaanse konteks. Die fokus val hier op die rol van die Indiese huisvrou en haar kombuis in die bevestiging en uitbou van ‘n onderskeibare kulturele identiteit. Die drie kern tekste wat in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek word is die wel bekende en populere Indian Delights kookboek wat saamgestel is deur die Women’s Cultural Group, Shamim Sarif se The World Unseen en Imraan Coovadia se The Wedding. Indian Delights toon verder die mate waarin die kombuis as primere domein van die vrou, ‘n ruimte bied vir die formulering van alternatiewe subjek posisies. Die kombuis bied ook geleentheid vir inherente subversie wat verder en op alternatiewe wyse ontgin word in die bronne The Wedding en The World Unseen. Deur kos te gebruik om kulturele identiteit te verstaan bied ook die geleentheid om kulturele oorvleueling te verstaan al mag sommige groepe beskou word as onafhanklik in hul oorsprong en identiteit. Hierdie navorsing gee spesifiek aandag aan die mate waarin speserye en die gebruik daarvan in kreoolse en diasporiese kookkuns die kompleksiteite, soortgelykhede, verskille en misverstande reflekteer. Dit is veral waardevol om te let op soortgelykhede en verskille gegee dat die apartheidstaksonomie van die verlede en die huidige multikulturele model die rykheid en subtiele nuanseerings van die daaglikse bestaan verder kan erodeer.
18
Van, Robbroeck Lize. "Writing white on black : modernism as discursive paradigm in South African writing on modern Black art." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1329.
Full text
19
Josephy, Svea Valeska. "The development of a critical practice in post-apartheid South African photography." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52508.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South African photography in the 20th century was dominated by the documentary genre. This genre has its roots in 19th century Modernist and colonialist belief in the accuracy of the camera as a tool of representation, and faith in the camera's objectivity and ability to present empirical evidence and 'truth'. These positivist notions were carried into South African documentary practice during the apartheid era. Apartheid-era South African documentary photography was particularly focused on exposing the socio-political ills of apartheid in order to gain support for the liberation movement, both locally and abroad. It was serious and didactic in its purpose and did not allow for creative responses to the medium, as the camera was seen as a 'weapon' of the struggle. The 1990s saw the beginning of the emergence of a liberated South Africa. The documentary imperative to record and expose apartheid practices was now increasingly redundant. Photographers, particularly after the elections, were faced with a 'crisis' of sorts in documentary as the main focus of their subject had been removed. The upshot of this was that documentary photographers had to find new subjects, which they had to approach in different ways. The arrival of Postmodernism in South Africa coincided with the demise of apartheid. It had in essence been kept at bay by what seemed to be the more pressing issues of the struggle. Postmodern art and its theoretical base, post-structuralism, argued for an erosion of the previously fixed concepts of genre, and allowed for the mixing of the previously separate categories of 'documentary' and 'art'. There was a radical questioning of previously fixed constructs of race, identity, class and gender. The erosion of the documentary imperative to record allowed for more creative responses to the medium than ever before. Artists were able to experiment technically, with video, multi-media, digital photography, historical processes, colour, composite work and interactive pieces. In this thesis I explore the above-mentioned shift and situate my practical work within this contemporary paradigm.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Op die gebied van fotografie is die toneel in Suid-Afrika in die 20ste eeu deur die dokumentêre genre oorheers. Die genre het sy oorsprong in 'n Modernistiese en kolonialistiese, 19de-eeuse siening, naamlik dat die kamera 'n objektiewe en akkurate voorstellingsmiddel is waarmee empiriese bewyse ingesamel en die "waarheid" uitgebeeld kan word. Hierdie positiwistiese uitkyk is tydens die apartheidsjare op die dokumentêre praktyk in Suid-Afrika oorgedra. Tydens hierdie era was dokumentêre fotografie daarop gemik om die sosiopolitieke euwels van Suid-Afrika onder apartheid bloot te lê, ten einde sowel binnelands as buitelands vir die bevrydingsbewegings steun te werf Met hierdie gewigtige en didaktiese doel voor oë, was daar min ruimte vir 'n kreatiewe hantering van die medium, aangesien die kamera as 'n "wapen" in die stryd teen apartheid gesien is. Die 1990's het die begin van Suid-Afrika se bevryding ingelui. Die dokumentêre imperatief om apartheidsdade op rekord te stel en aan die groot klok te hang, het vervaag. Fotograwe het 'n soort "krisis" in die gesig gestaar, veral na die verkiesing, want die onderwerp van hulle fokus het verdwyn. Die resultaat was dat dokumentêre fotograwe nuwe temas moes vind, wat hulle vanuit 'n ander oogpunt moes benader. In Suid-Afrika het die koms van Postmodernisme met die ondergang van apartheid saamgeval. Voorheen is dit in wese oorskadu deur oënskynlik belangriker kwessies rondom die "struggle". Postmoderne kuns en die teoretiese grondslag daarvan, naamlik post-strukturalisme, bepleit 'n beweging weg van die vaste begrip van genre wat voorheen gegeld het. Hiervolgens raak 'n vermenging van die voorheen afsonderlike kategorieë 'dokumentêr' en 'kuns' moontlik. Dit bring ook 'n radikale bevraagtekening mee van die konstrukte ras, identiteit, klas en geslag, wat voorheen as vaste indelings beskou is. Die verflouing van die dokumentêre imperatief om dinge op rekord te stel, maak dit moontlik om op 'n meer kreatiewe wyse as ooit tevore met die medium om te gaan. Kunstenaars kan nou met die tegniese sy van fotografie eksperimenteer: video, multimedia, digitale fotografie, historiese prosesse, kleur, saamgestelde werke en interaktiewe stukke. In hierdie tesis kyk ek op verkennende wyse na die veranderings waarna hierbo verwys word, en situeer ek my praktiese werk binne hierdie kontemporêre paradigma.
20
Cosser, Marijke. "Images of a changing frontier worldview in Eastern Cape art from Bushman rock art to 1875." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002196.
Full textAbstract:
A discussion of the concept of worldview shows that how an artist conceives the world in his images is governed by his worldview - an amalgam of the worldview of the group of which he is a part modified by his own ideas, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and upbringing. The author proposes that studying an artist's work can reveal his, and hence his group's, worldview and thus the attitudes prevalent when the work was produced. A brief historical sketch of the Eastern Cape to 1834 introduces the various settlers in the area. Though no known examples of Black, Boer or Khoi pictorial art are extant, both the Bushmen and the British left such records. A short analysis of rock art shows how the worldview of the Bushman is inherent in their images which reflect man's world as seen with the "inner" eye of the spirit. In white settler art, the author submits that spatial relationships changed in response to a growing confidence as the "savage" land was "civilised" and that the position, pose and size of figures - and the inclusion or exclusion of certain groups - reflect socio-political changes. The two foremost nineteenth-century Eastern Cape artists, Thomas Baines and Frederick I'Ons, succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of Frontier life but are shown to interpret their surroundings through the rose-tinted spectacles of British Romanticism. They also reveal individuality in approach - Baines preferring expansive views while I'Ons's landscapes tend to be "closed-in", strictly following the coulisse scheme of Picturesque painting. Perhaps, the author postulates, such differences result from the very different environments, i.e. Norfolk and London, in which the two grew up. I'Ons is shown typically to use generalised landscapes as backdrops for his foreground figures, while comparing Baines's scenes with modern photographs shows that he adjusted the spacial elements of the topography as well as the temporal sequence of events to suit aesthetic considerations. Lithographed reports of his work contain even further adjustments. The author concludes that the use of Africana art as historical records must be treated with great caution.
21
Schwartz, Erin M. "Spheres of Ambivalence: The Art of Berni Searle and the Body Politics of South AfricanColoured Identity." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1399305465.
Full text
22
Mannering, Hildegard Kirsten. "European stylistic influence on early twentieth century South African painters." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002207.
Full textAbstract:
South African artists, d i ssatisfied with the staid environment in local circles, felt the need to travel abroad for fresh stimulation. This need allowed for a historical investigation into the results, beneficial or otherwise, of the influence of European modernism on early twentieth century South African painters. Because of the numerous practising artists in South Africa at the time, it was found necessary to give cohesion to the artists discussed and, therefore the most pertinent were grouped into artistic movements. Thus, H.Naude, R . G. Goodman and H.S. Caldecott are discussed in conjunction with Impressionism. B. Everard, R. Everard-Haden and J.H. Pierneef are compared to the post-Impressionists and finally, I.Stern and M. Laubser are equated with the Fauves and Expressionists. To ascertain the true effect of European stylistic influence, a comparative analysis of work executed before European visits and upon the artists' return was imperative. Simultaneously, as part of the analysis, reference was also made to any work executed by these artists while in Europe. European movements of the period are also reviewed, enabling precise grouping and better understanding of t he styles adopted by the chosen group of early twentieth century South African artists. Some attention is given to the impact these artists had on South African art upon their return, as this confirms the degree of European influence and facilitates the classification of styles adopted by the selected group. In conclusion, to establish the extent to which European art was influential, a brief synopsis shows the changes in local groups, once these artists had re-established themselves in South Africa.
23
Lilla, Qanita. ""The advancement of art" : policy and practice at the South African National Gallery, 1940-1962." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18426.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-138).This thesis is an enquiry into the policies and practices that shaped the South African National Gallery in the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing on newspaper reports, the South African National Gallery's exhibition catalogues, pamphlets and annual reports, records of parliamentary debate and the crucial report of the Stratford Commission of 1948 the study has reconstructed a detailed history of the South African National Gallery. Established in 1871 as a colonial museum catering for a small part of the settler population of British descent, the museum came under pressure to accommodate the Afrikaner community after 1948. This did not mean that the liberal ethos at the museum disappeared, however. The South African National Gallery was strongly influenced by public pressure in this period. Public outrage over controversial art sales in 1947 led to the appointment of a commission of enquiry into the workings of the museum. At the same time, the head of the Board of Trustees, Cecil Sibbett, engaged the public on matters of Modern art. The museum's conservative and controversial Director, Edward Roworth was replaced in 1949 by John Paris who ushered in a new phase of development and management, encouraged the reconceptualization of South African art and reorganized the permanent collection. This initiative took place despite decreased autonomy for the Director and increased government imposition of Afrikaner Nationalist ideology. Nevertheless, the South African National Gallery avoided becoming a political instrument of the Apartheid regime.
24
Adendorff, Delaida Adéle. "The princess in the veld : curating liminality in contemporary South African female art production." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/63007.
Full textAbstract:
I aim to showcase post-African female identity through the exhibition, The princess in
the veld. The exhibition displays selected works produced by South African women
artists, underpinned by the proposed curatorial framework. This curatorial approach
is feminist, and may allow for a liminal reading of local female identity. I premise my
theorised curatorial framework liminally, in-between binary oppositions. This position
allows for a feminist position and/or reading of female identities that simultaneously
allude to, and reject a so-called local (essentialised) women’s art production within
the ambit of global, Western dominated feminism. I argue that, for such a display to
be successful, an alternative curatorial space is needed. For this purpose, I introduce
the notion of heterotopia, a counter-space, to renegotiate binaries and to render
identity formations temporarily in-between prevailing norms. This heterotopic
counter-curatorial space is realised through an exhibition that employs the medium of
video, rather than conventional exhibition media installed in real space.
An exploration of specified key local and international survey exhibitions
foregrounding women’s concerns from the 1980s onwards, serves to inform my
theorised curatorial framework. The research embarks on an investigation of a recent
large-scale exhibition hosted in France, to gain an understanding of the pitfalls
prevalent in curating an exhibition of artwork produced by women. From a feminist
standpoint, I critically analyse this display to suggest more inclusive alternative
curatorial strategies to shift the conventionally Western approach followed by this
curator.
The revisionist, feminist, re-reading of certain South African curated exhibitions from
both the apartheid and post-apartheid periods proposes a feminist trajectory that
follows the shaping of local women’s identities, which remain deeply inscribed in this
country’s politics and histories. This section of the survey underlines local post-
African female identity as liminal and in flux, through the investigation of seminal
exhibitions and artworks produced by South African women. I argue that this liminal
account allows for an inclusive and extended understanding of women, while
explicating the South African multicultural dispensation wherein the post-African
woman operates.Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
National Research Foundation
University of Pretoria
Visual Arts
DPhil
Unrestricted
25
Rankin, Carin. "Development by design - an example in the South African craft industry the Due-South travel guide /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2007. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-10082008-094907.
Full text
26
Bloch, Joanne. "Letting things speak: a case study in the reconfiguring of a South African institutional object collection." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20272.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis I examine the University of Cape Town (UCT) Manuscripts and Archives Department object collection, providing insights into the origins of the collection and its status within the archive. Central to the project was my application of a set of creative and affective strategies as a response to the collection, that culminated in a body of artwork entitled Slantways, shown at the Centre for African Studies (CAS) Gallery at UCT in 2014.The collection of about 200 slightly shabby, mismatched artefacts was assembled by R.F.M. Immelman, University Librarian from 1940 until 1970, who welcomed donations of any material he felt would be of value to future scholars. Since subsequent custodians have accorded these things, with their taint of South Africa's colonial past, rather less status, for many years they held an anomalous position within the archive, devalued and marginalised, yet still well-cared for. The thesis explores the ways in which an interlinked series of oblique or slantways conceptual and methodological strategies can unsettle conventional understandings of these archival things, the history with which they are associated, and the archive that houses them. I show how such an unsettling facilitates a complex and subtle range of understandings of the artefacts themselves, and reveals the constructed and contingent nature of the archive, as well as its biases, lacunae and limitations in ways that conventional approaches focusing on its evidentiary function allow to remain hidden. This set of slantways strategies includes the use of a cross-medial creative approach, and my focus on an a-typical, marginalised and taxonomy-free collection. Also important is the incorporation of my visual impairment as avital influence on my artwork, leading to an emphasis both on unusual forms of seeing and on the senses of smell, touch and hearing. Furthermore, my choice to follow a resolutely thing-centred approach led me to engage very closely with the artefacts' materiality, and subsequently with their actancy as archival things, which in turn influenced my conceptual and creative choices.
27
Bristow, Tegan Mary. "Post African futures : decoloniality and actional methodologies in art and cultural practices in African cultures of technology." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/10848.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis addresses the presence and role of critical aesthetic practices by cultural practitioners and creative technologists in addressing cultures of technology in contemporary African societies. Nairobi and Johannesburg are used as primary case studies through which a closer understanding of these unique cultures of technology are unpacked. The learning established from the findings of the cases is applied to understanding the concerns of cultures of technology within these and other African contexts. In this, attention is placed on latent neo-colonialism found in the relationship between African cultures and the networked global information economy being led by technology practices. This research starts by responding to a paucity of prior investigation in the field, and thereby aims to identify an ontological framework for Africa’s cultural engagement with technology. The primary research is preceded by an introductory chapter that draws on African knowledge theory and a critique of historical scholarship that exists on African experiences with technology. The primary research is predicated on this critical framework and uses it as a foundation from which to address concerns around contemporary digital and communications technologies and an African cultural encounter with a networked and globalised system. Due to the paucity around scholarship on Africa within this field, the methodological approach evolved as an iterative development between theoretical and empirical research. This methodological development was informed by the theory of decolonising methodologies and was led by culturally responsive methods. Through thematic content analysis of the fieldwork, the identification of key themes impacted the theoretical framing of the research. Not only were new concerns identified, but particular aesthetic mechanisms became apparent in the practices of those interviewed. These brought to light the importance of decolonising methodologies within a cultural practice. This importance led to the development of a responsive exhibition, also titled Post African Futures. The exhibition was held at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in May 2015. Post African Futures as both a framework and an exhibition is central to this thesis’s contribution of new knowledge. This exhibition develops the propositions of the primary research and is therefore instrumental in strengthening a context-sensitive critical position that affords Africans the privilege of contributing to and providing insight into a globalised technology culture and its futures in relation to regions in Africa.
28
Nieuwoudt, Leanri. "An investigation of critical citizenship education : exploring art making processes in the South African context." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86214.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MA(VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The notion of critical citizenship has become a diverse phenomenon in both South African and global contemporary societies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the teaching and learning of critical citizenship can be improved in the South African context through participation in art-making processes. This was done by following a qualitative approach and a case study design. The following themes were explored in this study: conceptual abilities; the technicalities of practice; art and emotional development; and collaborative art making. The findings in this investigation showed that involvement in art-making processes certainly contributes to the development of a learner’s ability to become more intelligent, self initiated and critical thinkers. The investigation also shows that the visual arts learning area is recognized as an educational practice that encourages critical thinking and the ability to conceptualize, but the implementation of critical citizenship in both the practical and theoretical teaching of art-making processes is currently lacking. It is suggested that a holistic understanding of both practical and theoretical components in the grade 9 visual arts learning area should be maintained on an equal footing. The emotional development of learners is also identified as a source of concern, since it influences a learner’s adherence to participation with others. It is further suggested that collaborative art making urges learners to engage with the ideas of others in the classroom and therefore can encourage tolerance towards other members of the group. Critical citizenship education in the teaching and learning of the visual arts learning area can have more robust impact on the future of a democratic society if it is implemented more directly in the classroom environment.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die idee van kritiese burgerskap het ‘n diverse verskynsel in beide die Suid-Afrikaanse en globale eietydse samelewings geword. Die doel van hierdie studie is om te ondersoek hoe die onderrig en aanleer van kritiese burgerskap in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks verbeter kan word deur deelname aan kunsskeppende prosesse. Dit is gedoen deur gebruik te maak van ‘n kwalitatiewe benadering en ‘n gevallestudie-ontwerp. Die volgende temas is in hierdie studie ondersoek: konseptuele vermoëns; die tegniese aspekte van kunspraktyk; kuns en emosionele ontwikkeling; en gesamentlike kunsskepping. Die studie se bevindinge het gewys dat betrokkenheid in kunsskeppende prosesse bydra tot die ontwikkeling van ‘n leerder se vermoë om ‘n meer intelligente, self-geïnisieerde en kritiese denker te word. Die ondersoek het ook gewys dat die visuele kuns leerarea erken word as ‘n opvoedkundige praktyk wat kritiese denke en die vermoë om te konseptualiseer aanmoedig, maar dat die implementering van kritiese burgerskap in beide die praktiese en teoretiese onderrig van kunsskeppende prosesse tans gebrekkig is. Daar word aanbeveel dat ‘n holistiese begrip van beide die praktiese en teoretiese komponente in die Graad 9 visuele kuns leerarea op ‘n gelyke grondslag gehandhaaf word. Die emosionele ontwikkeling van leerders is ook geïdentifiseer as ‘n bron van kommer, aangesien dit ‘n leerder se samewerking met ander beïnvloed. Daar word verder daarop gewys dat gesamentlike kunsskepping leerders kan aanspoor om met ander persone se idees in aanraking te kom, en sodoende verdraagsaamheid teenoor ander lede van die groep te bevorder. Kritiese burgerskap opvoeding in die onderrig en aanleer van die visuele kuns leerarea kan meer robuuste gevolge vir die toekoms van ‘n demokratiese samelewing inhou indien dit meer direk in die klaskamer aangewend word.
29
Verschoor, Jenni. "Why do companies invest in art? The purpose and composition of art collections in the South African financial sector." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/59797.
Full textAbstract:
Companies around the world invest in art, be it through sponsorship activities or in the
establishment of corporate art collections. This study explores the primary reasons why
companies choose to invest in art collections, examining the South African financial
sector from the perspective of a developing country. It then assesses the possibility of
linking the purpose of an art collection with the type of art collected, to identify trends and
create guidelines for businesses and arts organisations respectively. Finally, it examines
the impact that leadership has on the implementation and continuity of an art collection
and how changes in leadership can have a direct impact on the focus and composition
of a collection.
The study employed exploratory research through the application of semi-structured, indepth
interviews with 13 individuals across 11 companies. These individuals
represented a variety of roles, internal and external to the organisation, ranging from the
chairperson to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), to internal and external professional
curators. The insights obtained from these individuals were collated and analysed from
both a deductive and inductive perspective, to probe existing theories and generate new
ideas based on the information collected.
The findings of this study indicate that corporations within developing countries prioritise
the purpose and strategic intent of an art collection differently from companies in
developed markets. While it was not possible to determine definitive guidelines on how
the purpose of a collection impacts its composition, new insights were formulated on the
general focus of corporate collections on local, emerging artists, with high investment
potential. Finally, it was determined that for a collection to succeed and fulfil the strategic
aims of the company, it needs to have the active support of leadership and be built into
the fabric of the organisation.Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
ms2017
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted
30
Baholo, Keresemose Richard. "A pictorial response to certain witchcraft beliefs within Northern Sotho communities." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/21197.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography: pages 58-62.This study focuses on stories of witchcraft within the Batlokwa - a sub-group of the Northern Sotho community living in the northern Transvaal. Having grown up in this society where witchcraft beliefs are predominant, my fears, as a child, of witches were very real. In later life I have attempted to ignore these fears. However, I do not think they will ever disappear entirely, as I will never be able to extricate myself from my origins. This experience of the dangerous witch is one of the reasons that compelled me to respond pictorially to some of these perceptions for the purpose of highlighting the concerns of ordinary people and the extent to which they have been affected by belief in witchcraft. My paintings are a translation of real and unreal incidents fused together producing a visual narrative.
31
Van, Wyk Josly. "A practice-led exploration of the aesthetics of household waste in selected South African visual artworks." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60437.
Full textAbstract:
In this practice-led exploration, I investigate the aesthetic potential of household waste. With household waste as the object of investigation, I explore the cultural signification of waste in terms of the role it plays in art practice. I look into the found object, bricoleur culture and the sculptural process of assemblage. By considering how assemblage allows for the inclusion of waste materials, the lowly status of household waste leads my art practice to a do-it-yourself approach. This approach of incorporating waste materials into artworks shifts the focus from the physical state to the conceptual meaning of waste. The shift that occurs when the waste object is displaced into art is central to this research study, owing to the capacity of these objects to connote meaning. I refer to this capacity as the social agency of waste materials. My investigation pertains to how art practice may alter or enhance the meaning of household waste. The physical cycle of waste, the constant change in use value that is promoted by consumer society and the process of conceptual adaptation instil a nomadic quality in household waste. I view the nomadic quality of waste as a means to activate viewer participation.
I investigate, in particular case studies, how the interrelationship of installation art, site-specificity and community-based art may contribute to an experiential mode of viewing. I apply the lens of phenomenology and contemporary environmental aesthetics to interpret how viewers engage with art installations. My investigation of confrontational art installations has informed the approach of my own creative research. To convey the nomadic quality of waste, I have developed a series of quasi-functional sculptural artworks that act as mechanical modes of movement to signify an industrial influence of consumerism. Through community art practice as an interrelated field of research, the community members of Rietondale, particularly the school learners from workshops I presented, influenced my approach to my own art practice as I had sought to influence theirs. This mini-dissertation serves as a reflection on the coinciding thought process, material journey and collaborative initiative of a practice-led exploration of the aesthetics of household waste.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Visual Arts
MA
Unrestricted
32
Ross, Dusty K. "Readings of Zwelethu Mthethwa's South African Photographs: Postcolonialsim, Abjection, and Cultural Studies." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/140.
Full textAbstract:
South African painter turned photographer, Zwelethu Mthethwa, was born in Durban during Apartheid. In 1980 Mthethwa began taking his photographs in the shanty towns on the outskirts of Cape Town and later took pictures in Mozambique and New Orleans. His work has global significance. Using art and literary theory and criticism, I expand upon the significance of his photographs in the contemporary world. I do “readings” of eight photographs from eight different series of Zwelethu Mthethwa’s work using postcolonial theory, abjection, and cultural studies as theoretical constructs to provide three different angles for interpreting his work.
33
Steyn, Pieter Andrew. "The relationship between the concept 'art' and its institutionalisation during the period 1850-1871 in South Africa." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005626.
Full textAbstract:
This research evolved as part of a personal struggle to understand my role as 'art' student. As such the essay is concerned with both the theory and practice of 'art', and the relationship between the two. It is, however, my experience of the lack of an analysis of the concept 'art' as a social and historical phenomenon, and the suppression of the politics of culture in most fine art courses, that has led me to concentrate on theoretical and political issues, rather than the formal aspects of painting. This essay is therefore not concerned with individual 'works of art', but with the general category 'art' as an organisational form. Despite its limitations, the essay goes beyond the personal by exploring some of the social, political, economic and cultural processes that form the broader social context in which the examination of 'art' should take place.
34
Hirst, Manton Myatt. "The healer's art : Cape Nguni diviners in the townships of Grahamstown." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001601.
Full textAbstract:
This is a study of Cape Nguni diviners practising in the townships of Grahamstown where, during the 1970s, there was a large and active concentration of diviners treating clients from the locality, the rural areas and even the large urban centres further afield. The study situates local diviners in the socio-economic, cultural and religious context of contemporary township Iife during the 1970s (see chapter 1 and section 2.1). The personalities and socio-economic circumstances of diviners (and herbalists) are described as well as their case-loads, the various problems they treat, the relations between them and their clients, the economics of healing and the ethics pertaining to the profession (see chapter 2) . Chapter three focuses on the various problems and afflictions - which are largely of an interpersonal nature - suffered by those who are eventually inducted as diviners and the ritual therapy this necessarily entails. Here we see how the diviner, what Lewis (1971) terms a 'wounded healer', becomes an expert in interpersonal and social relations as a result of suffering problems - largely connected to the family but not necessarily limited to it - in interpersonal relations and that require a ritual, and thus social, prophylaxis. The main theoretical argument is that the diviner, qua healer, functions as a hybrid of Levi-Strauss' s bricoleur and Castaneda's 'man of knowledge' artfully combining the ability of the former to invert, mirror or utilise analogies from linguistics to make everything meaningful and the ability of the latter to creatively bend reality . The diviner's cosmology is described in terms of a 'handy', limited but extensive cultural code/repertoire of signs, symbols and metaphors that is utilised in getting the message across to others and in which animals bear the main symbolic load (see chapter 4). This leads logically to a reappraisal of Hammond-Tooke's (1975b) well-known model of Cape Nguni symbolic structure particularly in so far as it pertains to the way in which diviners classify animals, both wild and domestic (see section 4.6). A striking evocation and confirmation of the view argued here, namely of the diviner as bricoleur/'man of knowledge', is contained in chapter five dealing with an analysis of the diviner's 'river' myth and the context, form and content of the divinatory consultation itself. Finally, the conclusions, arising out of this study of contemporary Cape Nguni diviners in town, are evaluated in the ligrht of Lewis's (1966, 1971, 1986) deprivation hypothesis of spirit possession (see chapter 6)
35
Draper, Jessica Lindiwe. "Being white : Part I: A self-portrait in the third person; Part II: Whiteness in South African visual culture." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aa3689b2-6d6f-4cc0-8599-9db96a56611d.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is concerned with the ways in which whiteness and authenticity are manifested within contemporary visual culture in South Africa. The project begins as an artistic inquiry grounded in autobiography, which becomes an elaborate self-portrait narrated from the distance of the third person. My practice aims to address the trajectories that I am unable to articulate through my theoretical analysis. Through a process of solvent release printing, I explore the dualities of my own identity as African and white in an attempt to counteract the view that one negates the other. Part I attempts to provide an archive-able record of this practice. Part II shows that a long history of dichotomous art-historical practice has resulted in differentiated artistic pressures for black and white South African artists. I discuss the development of platforms that have contributed to the shifting of such classificatory trends without dissolving them completely, namely the first and second Johannesburg Biennales, Africus (1995) and Trade Routes (1997). In doing so, I trace how these events have troubled such stereotypes. Whiteness is identified as the overriding factor which allows the dominant discourse of Western- and Euro-centric ideals to remain prioritised. Brett Murray and Minnette Vári are discussed as examples of white South African artists who problematise whiteness by addressing racial fluidity, belonging, authenticity and identity. The theme of autobiography is reintroduced in the conclusion, where I argue that my own practice could be seen to mirror the strategies that each artist has employed to subvert their whiteness, and to build a case for accessing a multiple identity that is African in its ability to be diverse. I conclude that it is ultimately the artists’ performative use of their own bodies which allows them to discuss issues of representation without falling into the ideological position of the coloniser.
36
Yoshie, Yoshiara. "Art museums in a diverse society : a visitor study at the South African National Gallery." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.498502.
Full text
37
De, Bruto Petro C. "ART-related body composition changes in adult women in a semi-rural South African context." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/17445.
Full textAbstract:
Assignment (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate practical methods of monitoring AIDS related wasting and lipodystrophy in a resource-poor clinical setting with HIV infected women as the population group of interest. Measurement of body composition changes using anthropometry is both cost- and time-efficient. Various different skinfolds were taken and two different equations (the equations of Pollock et al. (1975) and Durnin and Womersley (1974) for calculating body fat were used to determine the most promising method or methods of monitoring body composition changes in a clinical setting. Detailed anthropometric measurements were performed, as well as selected measurements for haematological parameters and quality of life (QoL) for a group of 8 participants on antiretroviral medication (ART group) and 6 participants who were not on treatment (TN group). New variables namely, intra-abdominal indicator (IAI) and a percent of ideal body mass to percent of ideal arm circumference ratio (%IBW:%IAC) were investigated as possible indicators of lipodystrophy. Although measurements were taken at various timepoints, three specific time-points were chosen for data-analysis for the ART group and two time points for the TN group. These three time-points were, baseline (on the day of recruitment for TN participants and within one month before the initiation of treatment for ART participants), short-term (2 to 12 weeks after treatment initiation or the baseline measurement or for the ART and the TN participants) and long-term (within one and a half year of treatment initiation for the ART group). ART and TN participants did not differ for many variables at baseline. The major differences between ART and TN were in measured and derived variables of the arm, especially percent of ideal arm circumference (%IAC) and upper arm fat area (UAFA), which were significantly lower in the ART group. CD4+ and QoL improved significantly for the ART participants from baseline to long-term. This was not associated with changes in muscle mass, but rather some fat mass variables. Participants on antiretroviral medication exhibited changes relating to abdominal obesity. It was concluded that antiretroviral therapy contributed greatly to the QoL of the participants and it probably aided in the recovery from wasting for at least one participant in this study. Measures of the arm can be used in a rural clinical setting to effectively monitor patients with regard to AIDS related wasting. The new variables IAI and %IBW:%IAC could be helpful in the monitoring of lipodystrophy and should be investigated in future research.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelwit van hierdie studie is om praktiese metodes te ondersoek om VIGS-verwante uittering en lipodistrofie te meet in ‘n plattelandse kliniese omgewing (waar hulpbronne dikwels beperk is) met MIV ge-infekteerde vroue as populasiegroep. Die gebruik van antropometrie om veranderinge in liggaamssamestelling te meet is beide koste- en tydeffektief. Verskeie velvoumetings is geneem en twee verskillende vergelykings (die vergelykings van Pollock et al. (1975) en Durnin en Womersley (1974)) is gebruik om liggaamsvetinhoud te bereken, met die doel om ‘n belowende metode te vind om veranderinge in liggaamssamestelling te meet in ‘n kliniese omgewing. Verskeie antropometriese metings is geneem, sowel as uitgesoekte hematologiese en lewenskwaliteitmetings (QoL) vir ‘n groep van agt deelnemers wat antiretrovirale medikasie ontvang het (ART groep) en ses deelnemers wat nie hierdie behandeling ontvang het nie (TN groep). Nuwe veranderlikes (binnebuikindikator (IAI) en die verhouding van persentasie van ideale liggaamsmassa tot persentasie van ideale armomtrek (%IBW:%IAC)) is ondersoek as moontlike aanwysers van lipodistrofie. Drie spesifieke tydpunte vir die ART groep en twee tydpunte vir die TN groep is gekies uit die verskeie tydpunte waarby metings geneem is, nl. basislyn (gedefinieer as die dag wat TN deelnemers in die studie opgeneem is en 0 tot 4 weke voor die begin van behandeling vir die ART deelnemers), korttermyn (2 tot 12 weke nadat behandeling begin is of na die basislyn meting) en lang-termyn (binne een en ‘n half jaar nadat behandeling begin is vir die ART groep). By die basislyn tydpunt het min van die ART en TN deelnemers se gemete veranderlikes verskil. Die ART en TN groepe het hoofsaaklik verskil ten opsigte van veranderlikes wat betrekking het op die arm, veral persentasie van ideale armomtrek (%IAC) en bo-arm vetarea (UAFA). Hierdie twee veranderlikes was beduidend laer in die ART groep as in die TN groep. CD4+ seltelling en lewenskwaliteit tellings het beduidend verbeter vir die ART deelnemers van die basislyn tot die lang-termyn tydpunt. Hierdie veranderinge is nie samehangend met veranderinge in spiermassa nie, maar eerder met sommige vetmassa veranderlikes. Deelnemers wat antiretrovirale medikasie ontvang het, het veranderinge getoon wat gedui het op ‘n verhoogde neerlegging van vet in die buikarea. Ten slotte is bevind dat antiretrovirale medikasie bygedra het tot die verbeterde lewenskwaliteit van die deelnemers en dat dit waarskynlik ook die omkeer van uittering van ten minste een deelnemer aangehelp het. Daar is ook bevind dat armverwante metinge gebruik kan word in die plattelandse kliniese omgewing om pasiënte suksesvol te monitor ten opsigte van VIGSverwante uittering. Die nuwe veranderlikes, IAI en %IBW:%IAC kan moontlik gebruik word om lipodistrofie-verwante veranderings te meet en die gebruik van hierdie veranderlikes behoort ondersoek te word in verdere navorsing.
38
Gibson, N. Jade. "Making art to make identity : shifting perceptions of self amongst historically disadvantaged South African artists." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10508.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography: p. 159-177.This study examines how historically disadvantaged artists shift self-identities through artmaking beyond previously racialised, hierarchised and essentialist constructs in a transforming New South Africa. Fieldwork research involved direct observation, working with artists on art projects, and interviews with visual artists and other arts practitioners in Cape Town, 1998-2001. Artworks are examined as events incorporating social change, and thus as a focal point between unconscious praxis and the cognitive coming-to-awareness of self within-the-world. Using a non-essentialist approach to identity construction, I argue for an understanding of, and approach to, studying individual identity that incorporates complexity, multiplicity, materiality and change as integral to identity formation. The reworking of memory materially within artworks is demonstrated through examining how artists re-presented autobiographical and historical referents of identity to affirm and re-present new narratives of self in South Africa's present. How artists respond to, and negotiate, tensions and contradiction between concepts of 'freedom' and externally-derived categories of value within socio-economic limitations in a transforming South African art world is also explored. I also show how artworks act as sites of transcultural encounter for artists, within their awareness of different gazes and contexts of interpretation, to position identities simultaneously both within the local and beyond the local, through different images, styles, techniques and technologies in their work. Finally, I demonstrate how different collaborative art projects, through artistic praxis, enable mutual processes of social and artistic collective identification between artists of different socio-cultural backgrounds, in relation to processes of nation-building and reconciliation for South Africa in the future. The study not only provides insight into art-making in South Africa and material processes of cognitive identity construction, but also how individuals act as agents in shifting self-identities within processes of collective socio-political transformation.
39
Kgokong, Arthur. "South African black artists : in the permanent collection of the Pretoria Art Museum (1964 –1994)." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/78619.
Full textAbstract:
The Pretoria Art Museum opened its doors to the public on May 20, 1964. At that time the Johannesburg Art Gallery had already been established in 1910 and the South African National Gallery in Cape Town in 1895. The realization of the Pretoria Art Museum was an accomplishment of the City’s clerk’s push for the city to have a museum of its own that would enable it to showcase works that the city owned which until then had been confined to its administrative offices and the City Hall. This nucleus collection which had been inaccessible to the general public, consisted of South African Old Masters and 17 Century Dutch art. On 15 April 1964, about a month before the museum opened officially to the public, the Selection Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Art Museum instituted by the City Council of Pretoria met to deliberate on how the collection of the museum was to be built in order to expand this nucleus collection further.The result was a series of eight resolutions that favoured the acquisition of South African Old Masters and The Hague School (19thcentury Netherlandish art). In the minutes of that meeting no mention was made of the acquisition of 20thcentury South African black artists. By 1994 about 2 404 units of artworks by white artists had been acquired in contrast to about 86 units of artworks by black artists. The eight resolutions tabulated by the board, can be taken as an informal policy thatthe museum adopted during the thirty-year period of its existence from 1964 to 1994 to acquire artworks. No formal acquisition policy existed as a part of the museum’s acquisition strategy during that three decade period. Fortunately, as the collection grew, there were deviations in the ‘acquisition strategy’ because works by black artists, though collected at a far lesser frequency than those by white artists, found their place in the collection. This research paper is a homage to the contributions of 20thcentury South African black artists’ contributions to the history of South African art.Dissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
Historical and Heritage Studies
MSocSci
Unrestricted
40
Mulder, Annelize. "Attenuated Memories and South African Migration: Remnants of Everyday Violence in a Visual Art Practice." Thesis, Griffith University, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/414585.
Full textAbstract:
Migration is a complex experience that brings many challenges. This research explores how the mourning of the past and the deep emotion caused by migration are amplified and impacted by a history of enduring exposure to violence. It focuses on South African migrants and the lure of safety abroad to escape direct or vicarious encounters with violence. As a practice-led project, these ideas have been investigated through sculpture, installation, and multimedia approaches. This research argues that memories remain connected, sometimes only faintly, but motioning closer when remembered. In response to migrated memories, this research identifies that the emotional burden of migration is intensified due to the lasting mark violence leaves on memory, with the lingering threat not forgotten. This research contributes a new approach to memory as an attenuated connection and interprets the entanglement of migration and violence. A restrained visual language is used to engage with individual memories and to render a common space in which the collective memories of South African migrants may be considered.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text
41
Murray, Brett. "A group of satirical sculptures examining social and political paradoxes in the South African context." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15885.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography: pages 99-101.My proposal was to produce a group of satirical sculptures thematically embracing paradoxes within the broad South African context. My intention was to work within the tradition of social and political satire. Strict definitions of satire were to be expanded to include both comedy and tragedy. By satirising particular stupidities, abuses and "evils of all kind" within South African society, I hoped to address the same in a broader context by implication. By discussing some artists who have worked within this tradition my intention was to determine an art-historical context within which to place my work, to extract elements of a shared experience and to attempt to define the nature of satire.
42
Bauer, Vanessa M. "The inception of cross-cultural dimensions in the ceramics of the late 1970s onwards, as reflected in the work of Maggie Mikula and her adherents." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/2607.
Full textAbstract:
In this dissertation the incorporation of cross-cultural imagery and its assimilation is focused on the work of Maggie Mikula, a ceramist from KwaZulu-Natal. Producing within the 1970's and 1980's. her work is investigated within the historical context of the socio-political background of South Africa. Syncretism in the visual arts reflects problems associated with identity and authenticity and this dissertation analyses these issues. A reference is made to select artists and ceramists in South Africa who approach their work in this manner, in particular with reference to the influence that Maggie Mikula has had in their work. Chapter One discusses the history of borrowing in South Africa citing examples of work by artists including amongst others Walter Battiss, Alexis Preller and Cecil Skotnes. This is based around the broad political and ideological relationships in the country that framed local art
making. The assimilation and the breakdown of barriers in African/western art in a South African context is argued through a post-colonial reading. The chapter deals with the problems of borrowing related to appropriation and stereotyping from a postmodernist perspective. Chapter Two introduces the history of South African ceramics examining its development and styles, focussing on changing premises within the medium. The second part of the chapter positions Mikula's work, interests, personal history and ideals. Chapter Three deals with the development of Mikula's ceramic work, referring to her
technology, processes and sourcing. The reception of Mikula's work and the attitudes to cross-cultural assimilation in the 1980's, as well as current perceptions are addressed in Chapter Four. Her influence on this creative
medium is shown with specific examples. Personal interviews attempt to contextualise her position and situate her within the ceramic world. Acknowledging that there is a wealth of collections through out South Africa, the ceramic work predominately researched for this paper is from KwaZulu-Natal. It has been sourced both from the immediate family, and from individual collectors, as this was the site of her production. Other collections have been accessed from around South Africa including the Corobrik collection in Pretoria (of which there are two pieces - one which is broken), the large piece is documented photographically (see Fig.22) and referred to on Page 66. The Nelson Mandela Museum, Port Elizabeth, (accessed on-line and via photographs from the artist's records) has a notable collection, but given the nature of this research, these pieces do not demonstrate any significant features over and above those that were already sourced. This paper is not intended as a catalogue, but is meant to show a variety of Mikula's work to
demonstrate her influence and style. Each piece is chosen for its specific aspects and unique features that would support this research. Given the nature of this investigation, the author has been obliged to read widely, including
writers such as Berman, Sacks, Cruise and the complete edition of APSA newsletters and magazines to give a comprehensive over view of the changes in style and influence within South African art and specifically, ceramics.Thesis (M.F.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.
43
Garrett, Ian William. "Nesta Nala : ceramics, 1985-1995." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5979.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis reviews two local collections of ceramics by Nesta Nala between 1985 and 1996. The main text is presented in four chapters. Chapter One outlines the development of Nala's career and discusses the collections of her work outlined in this study. Chapter Two provides a brief overview of Zulu domestic-ware traditions, and outlines the basis of Nala's technology and decorative methods. Chapter Three reviews texts that discuss Nala and her work and then critically examines the application of the term "traditional". Chapter Four interprets Nala's decorative themes of examples in the Durban Art
Gallery and University of Natal collections. An attempt is made to contextualize genres of Nala's work represented in these collections on the basis of their intended market destinations.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.
44
Gers, Wendy A. "South African studio ceramics, c.1950s : the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/4370.
Full textAbstract:
The oeuvre of the Kalahari Studio (Cape Town), Drostdy Ware (a division of
Grahamstown Pottery, Grahamstown) and Crescent Potteries (Krugersdorp) is investigated within the historical context of the 1950s, a watershed period that witnessed crucial developments in South African cultural and political history. This dissertation elucidates the historical development, key personnel, the ceramics, as well as relevant technical information related to the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries. This dissertation analyses the broader socio-political and ideological paradigms that framed South African art-making, as well as the international design trends that influenced the local studio ceramics sector. The establishment and demise
of the South African studio ceramics industry and requests for tariff protection were considered within this context. Significant primary research was conducted into the present status of South African studio ceramics from the 1950s in the collections of our heritage institutions. Wares of all three of the studios reveal a predilection for figurative imagery, especially
images of indigenous African women and iconography derived from reproductions of Southern San parietal art. Imagery of African women is considered within the framework of the native study genre in South African painting, sculpture and photography from 1800-1950 and Africana ceramics from 1910-1950. Images of San parietal art are investigated within their historical context of a growing public and academic interest in the Bushmen and a surge in publications containing reproductions of San parietal art. Some images of African women and San parietal art conform to pejorative and theoretically problematic modernist cannons of the'other', while some
are subversive and undermine the dominant pictorial and ideological artistic
conventions.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.
45
Watt, Ronald. "South African studio pottery of the later Twentieth century and its Anglo-Oriental epithet." Diss., 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/22167.
Full textAbstract:
South African studio pottery of the later twentieth century has consistently been described as ‘Anglo-Oriental’, because it was perceived to adhere to the standard forms of utilitarian wares in plain or subdued colours and decorations, as promoted by the Anglo-Oriental tradition of studio pottery. This dissertation investigates the validity of such an epithet, based on evidence that the pioneer South African studio potters and their successors were exposed to broader pottery influences, and that the oeuvres which they developed reflect what they borrowed, adapted and re-interpreted from such influences. The studio pottery careers and
influences of the pioneers Esias Bosch, Hyme Rabinowitz and Bryan Haden are discussed, and the oeuvres of the second generation of studio potters are also investigated. Attention is given to both the ethics and aesthetics of their studio pottery practices. The dissertation further explores whether the era’s studio potters contributed towards the creation of a distinctive South African pottery identity.Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
M.A. (Art History)
46
Rall, Michelle. "Images of nature in recent South African printmaking and ceramics." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/3883.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation considers nature imagery in selected South Afiican ceramics and printmaking. The main focus is on ecological issues in recent art productions. The text consists of five chapters. The first examines the ideologies of Fritjof Capra in relation to issues about deep ecology and ecofeminism; this chapter seeks to clarify the scope of the words 'land' and 'landscape' as used in a late 20th century context. The second chapter examines some historical works and ideas that have influenced perceptions of nature imagery in South Afiica. Chapters three, four and five constitute the main body of the thesis, and examine nature imagery in selected examples of contemporary printmaking and ceramics. Chapter three investigates selected landscape images ofceramist Esias Bosch and printmakers Gerda Scholtemeijer and Kim Berman. In chapter four the focus is on the flora as the point of reference. Prints of Gerhard Marx, Douglas Goode, EIsa Pooley and Karel Nel, who were all participants in the Art meets Science: Flowers as Images exhibition, will be examined. Important issues such as the separation ofbotanical and fine art, and art and science will be discussed with reference to their work. This will be followed by discussion of works of Susan Sellschop (a ceramic mural) and Bronwen Jane Heath (a wood engraving) in order to demonstrate the different intentions and outcomes ofthese to artists. Three dimensional works of the three ceramists, Lesley-Anne Hoets, Samantha Read-and Katherine Glenday are discussed in the final section of chapter four. Chapter five examines the interrelationship oflandscape and land. This chapter comprises two main sections. The first deals with aspects of landownership in South Africa reflected in recent ceramics and printmaking. Examples of the work of Marion Arnold and Ellalou O'Meara reinterpret images of early explorers and colonists situating them in a contemporary arena, demonstrating connections between past and present. Landownership is the overt subject in the Fee Halsted Berning, whose ceramic relief panel reflects a different perspective of landownership from the prints ofthe Schmidtsdrift artists. The second section surveys work of four artists whose images draw attention to ecological matters. Wendy Ross, Diana Carmichael, Marion Arnold and Carol Hofrneyr create images that higWight different aspects of the fragile balance of nature.Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000
47
Watt, Ronald. "A contextual history of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries." Thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/27015.
Full textAbstract:
Text in English with summaries and keywords in English, Afrikaans and ZuluPresented in two volumes. Volume 2 contains colour photographs
Bibliography: (volume 1: leaves 181-219)
The history of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries tends to be presented in a compartmentalised manner in that it focuses on the leading exponents within genres and is limited to an investigation of the contexts that have an immediate bearing on their oeuvres. The result is a fragmented (and sometimes biased) view of the role players, circumstances, influences and incentives that have come to define South African ceramics. The thesis introduces key contributors who have hitherto been considered in relation to crafts and fine art but whose work with ceramic materials places them firmly within the ambit of South African ceramics. It also positions and evaluates the roles of the formal and informal twentieth-century educational and training agencies that, within the constraints of imposed political dogma, produced ceramists who successfully challenged staid Western aesthetics. Particular attention is given to how the black “traditional potters” exercised agency in negotiating a contemporary (as opposed to an ethnographic) presence in which they referenced the forms, meanings and values of “traditional pottery” to meet the expectations of the collector’s market. The thesis posits that the ceramists’ quest to claim an identity (or an “indigeneity”) in the turbulent political era of the later twentieth century has parallels with the intent and outcomes of African Modernism. African Modernism, which arose in postcolonial countries, sought to challenge Western binaries of art, craft, identity and presence and typically made use of hybridity to that end. The same presence of hybridity is evident in twentieth-century South African ceramics, which must be read as an engagement with a multi-cultural society within which the ceramists sought to position themselves. The thesis illustrates the progression of hybrid features from an initially crude and superficial referencing of indigenous and African material culture to subjective translations of that culture that are presented in innovative approaches. This theme is further explored in relation to South African ceramics of the twenty-first century, and evidence suggests that some of the ceramists’ oeuvres can now be considered transcultural and even transnational. The thesis, which is by its nature an enquiry that presents new or reassessed evidence is neither a fully inclusive nor an absolutist revision of the history of ceramics.
Die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns van die twintigste en een-entwintigste eeu is geneig om op ʼn onderverdeelde wyse voorgehou te word, omdat dit op die hoofeksponente in genres fokus en beperk is tot ʼn ondersoek na die kontekste wat ʼn direkte uitwerking op hul oeuvres het. Die resultaat is ʼn gefragmenteerde (en soms bevooroordeelde) beskouing van die rolspelers, omstandighede, invloede en aansporings wat Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns definieer. Die tesis stel sleutelbydraers bekend wat tot dusver met handwerk en beeldende kuns verbind is, maar wie se werk met keramiekmateriale hulle sonder twyfel binne die sfeer van Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns plaas. Daarbenewens posisioneer en evalueer die tesis die rolle van die formele en informele twintigsteeeuse opvoeding- en opleidingsagentskappe wat, binne die beperkings van voorgeskrewe politieke dogma, keramiste opgelewer het wat oninspirerende Westerse estetika suksesvol betwis het. Aandag word veral geskenk aan hoe die swart “tradisionele pottebakkers” bemiddeling uitgeoefen het in die verwesenliking van ʼn kontemporêre (teenoor ʼn etnografiese) teenwoordigheid waarin hulle verwys het na die vorme, betekenisse en waardes van “tradisionele pottebakkery” om aan die verwagtinge van die versamelaarsmark te voldoen. Die tesis voer aan dat daar parallelle bestaan tussen die keramis se soeke om op ʼn (inheemse) identiteit te kan aanspraak maak in die onstuimige politieke era van die latere twintigste eeu, en die oogmerke en uitkomste van Afrika-modernisme. Afrika-modernisme het in na-koloniale lande ontstaan en het beoog om Westerse binêre pare van kuns, handwerk, identiteit en teenwoordigheid te betwis; om hierdie doel te bereik is hibridisme gewoonlik gebruik. Dieselfde teenwoordigheid van hibridisme kan gesien word in Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns van die twintigste eeu, wat beskou moet word as ʼn gemoeidheid met ʼn multikulturele samelewing waarin die keramiste hulself probeer posisioneer. Die tesis illustreer die vooruitgang van hibriede eienskappe, van ʼn aanvanklik onafgewerkte en oppervlakkige verwysing na inheemse en Afrika- materiële kultuur, na subjektiewe interpretasies van daardie kultuur wat in innoverende benaderings voorgehou word. Hierdie tema word verder ondersoek in verband met SuidAfrikaanse keramiekkuns van die een-en-twintigste eeu, en bewyse dui daarop dat sommige van die keramiste se oeuvres nou as transkultureel en selfs as transnasionaal beskou kan word. Die tesis, wat in wese ʼn ondersoek is wat nuwe of hersiende bewyse voorhou, is nóg ʼn ten volle inklusiewe nóg ʼn absolutistiese hersiening van die geskiedenis van keramiekkuns.
Umlando weseramiki yaseNingizimu Afrika kwikhulu leminyaka lamashumi amabili namashumi amabili nanye uvamise ukwethulwa ngendlela ehlukaniswe ngezigaba ngokuthi igxile phezu kwezingcweti ezihola phambili ngaphakathi komkhakha wezinhlobo kanti lokhu kugxile kuphela kuphenyo lwezizinda ezinomthintela osheshayo phezu kwemisebenzi yonke yalezo zingcweti. Umphumela ukhombisa umbono owehlukene (kanti ngesinye isikhathi umbono owencike kwingxenye eyodwa) wabadlalindima, wezimo, wemithelela kanye neziphembeleli ezichaza iseramiki eNingizimu Afrika. Ithesisi yethula abagaleli abasemqoka ukufika manje okudala benakiwe mayelana nemisebenzi yobuciko kanye nemisetshenzana yobuciko obuncane kodwa imisebenzi yayo yomatheriyali weseramiki ibabeka ngaphakathi komkhakha wezeseramiki eNingizimu Afrika. Lokhu kuphinde futhi kuhlole izindima zezinhlaka zemfundo nezoqeqesho ezihlelekile nezingahlelekile, lezo ngaphaklathi kwezihibhe zohlelo olumatasa lwepolitiki, lukhiqize osolwazi bezeseramiki abaphonsele inselele ngempumelelo osolwazi bezobuhle beNtshonalanga. Kugxilwe kakhulu kwindlela ababumbi bendabuko abamnyama “traditional potters” abasebenzisa ngayo ubummeli uma bexoxisana ukubonakala emsebenzini wesikhathi samanje (njengoba lokhu kuphambene ne-ethinigrafi) lapho baye bariferensa izindlela, izincazelo kanye nezinga lobugugu bobuciko bendabuko bokubumba ukufeza izinhloso ezilindelwe zemakethe yabaqoqi bomsebenzi wobuciko. Ithesisi iyasho ukuthi impokophelo yosolwazi bezeseramiki yokuzitholela uphawu oluchaza ubunjalo babo (or an “indigeneity”) esikhathini esibucayi sezepolitiki sekhulu leminyaka yamashumi amabili inezimpawu ezifanayo ngenhloso kanye nemiphumela yohlelo lwesimanjemanje sase-Afrika African Modernism. Uhlelo lwe-African Modernism, oluqhamuka kumazwe avele ngemuva kombuso wobukoloni, luphonsela inselele yezinhlelo zobuciko, yesithombe sobuciko kanye nobukhona bobuciko kanti ikakhulukazi bukhandwe ngobuciko bokuhlanganisa izinhlobo (hybridity) ezahlukile. Ubukhona bohlelo lokusebenzisa izinhlaka ezahlukile lwe-hybridity lubonakala kwimisebenzi yeseramiki yesenshuwari yamashumi amabili yaseNingizimu Afrika, okufanele ifundwe njengomsebenzi ohlanganiswe ndawonye nomphakathi wamasiko amaningi, kanti ngalo msebenzi ababumbi beseramiki bafuna ukuziphakamisa ngawo. Ithesisi ikhombisa intuthuko yezimpawu wumsebenzi oyingxubevange (hybrid) ovela kwindlela yokureferensa eluhlaza neyobuciko bamaqhinga bosiko lwendabuko lomatheriyeli wase-Afrika ukuphawula ngemisebenzi ehunyushiwe yalolo siko eyethulwe ngezindlela ezinamaqhinga amasha. Lesi sihloko siqhubekela phambili nokuhlolwa mayelana nohlelo lweseramiki eNingizimu Afrika kwisenshuwari yamashumi amabili, kanti ubufakazi buyasho ukuthi eminye imisebenzi yosolwazi bobuciko beseramiki ingathathwa njengemisebenzi ekhombisa ukushintsha amasiko kanye nokushintsha kwesizwe. Ithesisi, ngokwemvelo yayo ingumbuzo owethula ubufakazi obusha noma ubufakazi obubuyekeziwe, le thesis ayiwona umsebenzi oxuba konke futhi ayikona ukubuyekezwa kwangempela komlando weseramiki.
Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
D. Phil. (Art)
48
Du, Plessis Lara. "Marietjie van der Merwe : ceramics 1960-1988." Thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/732.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation will contextualize and analyse selected works of the South African ceramist Marietjie van der Merwe (bl935 dl992; known professionally as Marietjie, aka Mariki, Marikie) between 1960-1988. The text consists of three chapters. The first chapter will outline the life of Marietjie van der Merwe, discuss her political and religious affiliations and ends with a chronological outline of her ceramics. This introductory chapter will help the reader to gain an insight into her character and personality which influenced the work she produced. The second chapter comprises two main sections. The first deals with the ceramists who influenced Marietjie's work. In her early art training years Laura Andreson, her teacher, played a key role in inspiring and influencing Marietjie's work. The Natzlers influenced Marietjie indirectly through Laura Andreson who in turn had been taught by them. Rudolf Staffel manipulated aspects in porcelain inspired Marietjie's later works of the 1980s. The second half of this chapter deals with the influence that Marietjie had on institutions and her students. The works of Katherine Glenday, a student and later colleague, are discussed and comparisons made. Marietjie van der Merwe's contributed significantly to the modernist foundations of South African studio ceramics, was mentor and studio advisor to the ceramists of Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre and was a lecturer at the former Department of Fine Art and History of Art, University of Natal. Links with Nordic countries and Malin Lundbohm (now Sellmann) are drawn. Throughout this chapter the artist's work is compared and discussed with that of Marietjie's. This dissertation concludes with a documentary study of six selected pieces. Original photographs facilitate visually what is been discussed in the text. These samples are found in Iziko South African National Gallery, Tatham Art Gallery and from the private collection of Lara Du Plessis.Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.
49
Baker, Siobhan. "Interpretations of the garden in the work of selected artists." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10321/1695.
Full textAbstract:
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Fine Art, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015.This dissertation sets out to investigate the interpretation of the garden in the work of Marianne North (1840-1926), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) and my art practice. The garden has historically been a site for man’s interaction with nature and has been the subject of interpretation by Fine Art and Botanic artists throughout history. Marianne North’s (1830-1890) interpretation of the garden is positioned somewhere between Victorian flower painter and Botanic artist. An intrepid traveller, she could be considered as a topographical artist in that she documented the gardens and the flora and fauna of the countries she visited. The focus is on her visit to South Africa in 1883. Claude Monet (1840-1926), in his late Impressionist interpretation of the garden, focused on the seasonal play of light on his Japanese inspired garden at Giverny. Artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) in his interpretation of his garden Little Sparta, acknowledges the transience of the garden and its constant metamorphosis. His three dimensional poetry in the form of inscribed rocks and sculptures reflects his interpretation of the garden as a location of contestation. In an exhibition titled Hortus Conclusis I explore the fragility of the garden through the use of porcelain as a metaphor for the transience of life.
M
50
Omar, Fahmeeda. "Thelma Marcuson's porcelain vessels in the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/10622.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this dissertation is to contextualise the use of porcelain by the South African
ceramist Thelma Marcuson (1919-2009). This paper focuses on her ceramics in the Tatham
Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection in Pietermaritzburg. I hope to give recognition to
Marcuson as she is considered one of the pioneer South African studio potters by Garth Clark
and Lynne Wagner’s in Potters of Southern Africa as she is ranked amongst the top fifteen in
that distinct group (appendix 4: Potters’ art demo).
This dissertation is divided into three chapters. Chapter one primarily focuses on the
influence of contemporary European studio potters on Marcuson’s work, in particular that of
Lucie Rie, Mary Rogers and Ruth Duckworth. This chapter also examines the development
of ceramics from industrial ceramics, involving mass productions in factories, to the
modernist revival of studio ceramics by Bernard Leach, where each piece was handmade and
often regarded as an art form, as in the work of the twentieth century British ceramist
William Staite-Murray. Chapter two focuses on Marcuson and South African studio ceramics
and considers South African potters who had an influence on Marcuson’s early training, and
also looks at her involvement with the Association of Potters of Southern Africa (APSA)
founded in 1972. In the last section of this chapter I will discuss ceramic practices and
technical issues about porcelain and high-firing glazes, specifying how they are made and
used, with particular reference to South African developments and local studio potters. As
Marcuson was particularly interested in porcelain, this chapter also outlines glaze
applications with specific reference to porcelain and firing methods. Chapter three focuses on
Marcuson’s ceramics and offers in particular an analysis of the nine pieces of her work in the
Permanent Collection of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg. Through my research I
was able to acquire photographic documentation from other South African museums for
comparative purposes, such as the Durban Art Gallery and the William Humphreys Art
Gallery in Kimberley, as well as some private collections (see appendix 1).Thesis (M.A)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.