Abstract
M.Tech. (Fine Art)
This study takes the form of an exploration of the relationship between the index and memory
within an art-making context, with reference to selected works by South African artist Bridget
Baker and my own artworks. It is revealed that my own works, which refer to the loss of my
brother and father, have some parallels to those of Baker, which are explorations of the loss of
her father and, more occasionally, her sister. These commonalities are investigated through a
focus on two of Baker’s early works, So It Goes (1996) and BAFA (Stell.), BA. Hons.
(FA)(Stell.), MFA Cand. (UCT) (1996-7) as well as two of her projected films, The Remains of
the Father – Fragments of a Trilogy (Transhumance) (2012) and Only Half Taken (1959/2011-
2012).
The index, according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1894: 5), is a sign that “shows something about
things, on account of their being physically connected with them” and is often referred to as an
imprint or a trace of its referent. Peirce’s understanding of the index has also been linked to
theories pertaining to the workings of memory as well as ideas about photography. Roland
Barthes (1980: 88) contends that the presence of an index in personal mementoes such as family
photographs makes it possible to tap into a past reality as well as be continuously linked to it.
It is suggested that Baker’s altering and archiving of objects and images associated with her
father and her childhood may be interpreted in light of these ideas. Equally, it is revealed that
they underpin my own work where I explore how indexicality as well as memory is at play
through printmaking and printing processes that involve transference from a matrix to a
substrate.
The study is positioned within a post-structuralist paradigm, within which aspects of feminist
theory are used as strategic frames. While Peirce’s theory on the index and Barthes’s writings
on photography in relation to indexicality form the focus of the dissertation, reference is made
to theorists such as Marianne Hirsch and Annette Kuhn, who have contributed to understanding
connections between memory and personal artefact within a feminist paradigm.