Abstract
From my observation, contemporary South African society is experiencing increasing
levels of violence. I attribute these violent acts to an erosion of ethical values within
South African society. In this dissertation, I analyse the way in which selected
contemporary South African artists respond to this perceived social decay. My
analyses consider the use of symbols of death and violence as a symptom of moral or
ethical decay in society. These symbols are in turn analysed in the context of
seventeenth-century Dutch still life conventions, which use symbols of death and
transience in a similar manner. My exploration of both the seventeenth-century Dutch
still life paintings and the imagery used in the selected contemporary artworks are
framed by iconographic and iconological analyses of the specific symbols used, to
ascertain their social implications. For the purpose of my own artmaking practice, I
make links between the approaches of seventeenth-century artists and contemporary
artists in order to compare how symbols and imagery of death and violence are used,
as well as why those specific symbols/images are used within their own historical and
contemporary context. The visual findings are framed by discourse analysis of postcolonial
and post-apartheid theory, which demonstrates the basis of social decay within
contemporary society in South Africa. Much like the visual responses of the selected
contemporary South African artists, my own work is a response to this perception of a
moral erosion in South Africa embedded in the visual language of seventeenth-century
Dutch still life paintings.
M.Tech. (Fine Art)