Abstract
In this study, I consider how essentialist notions of white masculinities can be negotiated within, and through, artwork by selected white male South African artists, specifically, Brett Murray, and myself. The impetus for this study are my experiences as an English-speaking, white male South African in his twenties and the complexities I have experienced in expressing myself with regard to politicised issues in South Africa, such as race, sex and gender, both verbally, and through my artwork. My experiences contributed to my growing awareness of the ways in which an essentialised identity can be imposed on an individual and the potential responsibilities that come with whitenes in post-Apartheid South Africa.
The manner in which the research is conducted is imperative to my study in that it establishes the authorial voice that contributes to the potential approaches in negotiating the ideologies of whiteness and masculinities. I therefore introduce narrative inquiry and autoethnography as the primary methodologies used to engage with my research topic.
Within these methodological frameworks I establish my positionality, as a white, South African, English speaking male. I base my discussion on Stuart Hall’s (1989) conception of cultural identity, which explores identity as being fluid, complex, and multiple. Creating an understanding of my positionality is done so as to further develop the idea that essentialised notions of identity can potentially come with responsibilities and a sense of self-awareness. I suggest that these responsibilities and sense of self-awareness requires negotiation to create a space in which nuanced experienced by an individual can be shared through artmaking practices. I suggest that ‘relational choreography’ is one such means.
Relational choreography – a term coined by Shona Hunter (2015), is explored as a potential means of negotiating ideological identities, specifically whiteness and masculinity. I unpack relational choreography and explain the various processes that contribute to the approach and how these processes can be utilised in forming a practice of self-reflexivity.
Relational choreography, is then applied to aspects of artist Brett Murray’s lived experience and artmaking practice. Following the trajectory of Murray’s career as an artist and the narrative that forms within his life, I propose that the approach of relational choreography can be seen to manifest and evoke Murray’s resistance to forms of censorship and essentialised identity.
The final section of the study explores how relational choreography functions within and through my lived experience and artmaking process. By utilising experiences, memories and anecdotes to enact the methods of narrative inquiry and autoethnography and exemplify how...
M.Tech. (Fine Art)