Abstract
M.Tech.
My practical and theoretical research is informed by Johannesburg, the city in which I live. My thesis is positioned within postcolonial academic and theorist Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of a “Third Space” and within South African academic, Colin Richards’ (In: Enwezor 1997:234-235) theory of a graft that operates within an enculturated semiosphere. In this instance, I identify spaces in which a graft operates in the form of two examples: garments designed by Strangelove and Stoned Cherrie and selected suburban boundary walls in Parktown West, Westcliff, Houghton, Melville and Emmarentia. These two examples are used to argue whether a graft ‘takes’ to ‘open out’ a space for cultural difference or whether it does not ‘take’, thus closing off space. I understand my examples as hybrid forms and manifestations of identities in a process of re-definition in the context of postcolonial Johannesburg. My practical work explores my hybrid identity in my lived context. The artworks are constructed through a similar process to that of a fashion designer by grafting diverse elements. The visual references used in my artworks are informed by the boundary wall and meaning is incorporated by selecting diverse materials to construct my artworks. My practical work therefore ties together the two examples that I use and informs my art-making process.