List of Titles

Mapping linkages between image and text : an investigation of Willem Boshoff's Bread and pebble roadmap in relation to emergent Afrikaner identities

- Richardson, Adena

Authors: Richardson, Adena
Date: 2015-07-14
Subjects: Boshoff, Willem, 1951-. Bread and pebble roadmap , Afrikaners - Ethnic identity , Women - Identity , Group identity in art , Language and culture , Islam and art
Type: Thesis
Identifier: uj:13719 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/13985
Description: M.Tech. (Fine Art) , In this research, I map emergent female Afrikaner identities in relation to Willem Boshoff‟s artwork Bread and Pebble Roadmap, which acts as the central focus to this study and informs my own body of practical work. In order to constitute a key to unlock questions regarding emergent female Afrikaner identities in a South African context from colonial to post-apartheid, the relationship between image and text in Bread and Pebble Roadmap is investigated. The investigation of this relationship is interwoven with a discourse of an early form of the literary tradition that has come to be known as Arabic-Afrikaans script, a term used to describe the "literary work which is written in Afrikaans with Arabic letters" (Van Selms 1951). This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach. The research incorporates textual analysis and visual analysis. The study presents a visual semiotic analysis of Bread and Pebble Roadmap, in order to map possible links between this artwork and a literature review of an early form of Arabic-Afrikaans script, as a contextual framework in which to situate the study. Arabic- Afrikaans, in turn, acts as a link which forges a relationship between two kinds of identities: an Islamic influence on South African culture, and an Islamic influence on my life experience as an Afrikaans-speaking woman who lived in Egypt for four years. These two identities, represented by artist Lalla Essaydi in relation to an Islamic identity and artist Lizelle Kruger in relation to an Afrikaner identity, are investigated through a comparative visual analysis. The study intends to show how Essaydi and Kruger form a link with Boshoff, where each of these three artists subverts, questions, and breaks down prevailing cultural and linguistic stereotypes, and in so doing operationalises the notion of an emergent identity. Identity construction, in the context of this study, is characterised by Stuart Hall‟s (in Rutherford 1990:222) concept of identity being in a continual state of flux, identity as “a production, which is never complete; always in process and always constructed within, not outside representation”. I therefore map my Afrikaner identity, previously seen as fixed, unproblematic and in line with the national discourse under apartheid (Van Heerden 2006), but now seen as „becoming‟ and „transitioning‟, situated „betwixt and between‟ (Turner 1969). This notion informs my own practical work, which becomes visual metaphors of maps, in order to navigate a sense of self. My practical work therefore attempts to embody a temporary space of an emergent identity. I understand this in-between space (Bhabha 2004) as a liminal space, as a continuum of spaces in which my emergent female Afrikaner identity resides. An important conclusion that I make from my research is that Boshoff‟s conflation of image and text, which is consistent with Derrida‟s (1981) deconstructive strategy, unhinges the conditions of the stereotype, which conventionally privileges a dichotomy in which different polar relations reside. Drawing a connection between Bread and Pebble Roadmap and Arabic-Afrikaans, and applying the conditions found in Bread and Pebble Roadmap to Arabic-Afrikaans, I view Arabic- Afrikaans as able to unhinge its own seeming dichotomies: between Arabic and Afrikaans, and thus between Islam and Christianity. In this way, I am able to argue that Arabic-Afrikaans is able to reverse stereotyping and point a way forward towards the construction of emergent non-racial stereotyping.
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Use of material and biomorphic form as a means to convey aspects of gendered and cultural identity constructs with emphasis on selected works by Nicholas Hlobo

- Van Wyk, Sophia Albertina

Authors: Van Wyk, Sophia Albertina
Date: 2015-07-15
Subjects: Hlobo, Nicholas, 1975- - Criticism and interpretation , Van Wyk, Sophia , Biomorphism (Art movement) , Group identity in art , Gender identity in art , Sculpture, South African
Type: Thesis
Identifier: uj:13754 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14019
Description: M.Tech. (Fine Art) , In this study, I explore the way in which materials and biomorphic forms are used in selected artworks to convey aspects of gendered and cultural identity constructs. This is done with specific reference to Nicholas Hlobo’s work and to the artwork I produce as part of the practical component of my research. I have chosen Hlobo’s installation Izithunzi (2009) because it is a pertinent example of the way in which he uses biomorphic form and typifies his use of materials, both of which have some similarities to my work. Although Hlobo’s use of materials is widely discussed in the available literature on his work, little has been written on his use of biomorphic form. To address this gap in the literature, I look specifically at how Hlobo uses biomorphic form in Izithunzi to represent what I argue to be the hybridity of his gendered and cultural identity. In the practical component, I present a series of sculptures made from second-hand furniture, polystyrene, concrete, plastic, stuffing, fabric, thread, steel pipe and fibreglass. As Hlobo does in Izithunzi, I consciously make reference to biomorphic forms.
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The Anti-Embassy

- Mkize, Ayanda

Authors: Mkize, Ayanda
Date: 2016
Subjects: Architecture and race - Cabo Verde , Group identity in art
Language: English
Type: Masters (Thesis)
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/226332 , uj:22883
Description: M.Tech. (Architectural Technology) , Abstract: This proposal is driven by an interest in architectural expressions of identity, relating to contemporary discourses around black identity, mixed-race identities and the marginalisation of non-white subjectivities. The American architect and theorist, Mario Gooden, states that, ‘architecture historically privileges the construction of perspectival space through the gaze of the white male subject. In both architectural representation and architectural discourse, black bodies are either invisible, occupy unspoken spaces of colonial subjugation, or dismissed to locations of repressive difference.’4 The influential French philopsher, Jacques Derrida, best known for developing a form of semiotic analysis known as deconstruction, is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy. He has also had a considerable impact on the world of architecture, having directly been associated in the actual design process through his collaboration with the American architect Peter Eisenman on a section of the Parc de la Villette in Paris, France. Using Derrida’s notion of ‘binary opposites’, first articulated in his seminal text, Positions (Derrida, 1992), the proposal seeks to test Derrida’s understanding of paired opposites (black/white; male/female; inside/outside) in a number of spatial, representational and formal short projects, leading to the major design project, The Anti-Embassy. In particular, it draws on Derrida’s notion of ‘pairs in a permanent state of play’5, where neither term takes precedence over the other. The theorist Homi Bhabha’s writings on hybridity have also been a major influence in the development of this proposal, and in particular, his writings on the act of translation which is seen as fundamental to the architectural project. Cape Verde is one of the most hybrid cultures on the planet. Its population is neither African nor European but rather a hybrid of both, with almost infinetismal variations. In such cultures/socieities, the question of identity is both complex and contested. The Anti-Embassy is an attempt to translate these questions of self/Other; black/white; hybrids and ‘wholes’ into architectural form. It opposes and rejects the idea of fixed constructs, and aims to shed light on the complexities of contemporary cultural hybridity by ‘solidifying’ these contradictions in formal, material and programmatic ways. It is situated in Plateau, the Portuguese colonial centre of power in the capital city, Praia, in the heart of the Alexandre Albuquerque Square. The symbolic siting of the project at the heart of the city’s colonial administration recognises the role that architecture plays in the production and maintenance of national narratives of identity, and at the same time, destabilises those notions by providing an alternate narrative. This proposal aims to bring awareness to the supression and marginalisation of black subjectivity and cultural expression by reminding us of the power of architecture to reinforce authority and control cultural expression. The proposal blurs and subverts Derridean notions of the binary construction to create a more nuanced form of hybrid cultural identity. Architecture is a deeply cultural activity: how can architecture interpret and translate the historical, social, and political and contemporary contexts of place and culture?
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