Ann-Marie Tully | Durban University of Technology (original) (raw)

Papers by Ann-Marie Tully

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven ("pointured") forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to "pointured" mediums. I invoke Jacques Derrida's (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term "pointure", which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word "lace" (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing and haunting, I argue that the vacuum made by the stitch is a haunted site invested with themes and experiences of human frailty and desire; filled precipitously by the yarn, a wished for end is sympathetically effected.

Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walt... more Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walter Oltmann's solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, 20 June - 22 July 2013), the viewer can be forgiven for losing their grasp on the deep perspectival illusion of the strange, shimmering, lunar-like rocky landscape depicted. Instead, a descent into the patterned and entangled field of crocheted wire is perceived. A further sublime encounter with the chasm of the Penumbra awaits on closer inspection. The term 'penumbra' refers to the half-shaded fringe of light caused when an opaque object partially obstructs light (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]). The term is also associated with the astronomical phenomenon of the lighter outer rim of a sunspot; and in painterly terms, at the point where light and shade blend (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]).

de arte, 2014

Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walt... more Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walter Oltmann’s solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, 20 June – 22 July 2013), the viewer can be forgiven for losing their grasp on the deep perspectival illusion of the strange, shimmering, lunar-like rocky landscape depicted. Instead, a descent into the patterned and entangled field of crocheted wire is perceived. A further sublime encounter with the chasm of the Penumbra awaits on closer inspection. The term ‘penumbra’ refers to the half-shaded fringe of light caused when an opaque object partially obstructs light (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]). The term is also associated with the astronomical phenomenon of the lighter outer rim of a sunspot; and in painterly terms, at the point where light and shade blend (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]). The viewer’s meeting with Penumbra and other wire artworks on the exhibition is as much an encounter with the inner limits of the gaps between stitches, wh...

In describing the lace-like structure of human experience, the extraordinary Irish poet and schol... more In describing the lace-like structure of human experience, the extraordinary Irish poet and scholar John O’Donohue points to the frailty of the human interface with the eternal, but also to an unexpected notion: that it is the ruptures in our lives, the openings – punctured, trimmed, mended, and at times raw – that are the most sublime. The recent Pointure exhibition1 and colloquium2 ‘laced’ together a broad range of artworks and theoretical papers that relate to artistic acts of stitching and notional derivations of this material phenomenon. In retrospect I am convinced that many, if not all, of the works and papers represented at these related events are variable manifestations in thought and deed of these themes of human fragility. In these essays and artworks, the acts of stitching, pricking, suturing, tearing, rupturing, cutting, embroidering, appliquéing, grafting, spinning and weaving, and a myriad other incarnations of this practice of the ruptured mark, demonstrate and invo...

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums. I invoke Jacques Derrida's (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term "pointure", which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word "lace" (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing an...

The articles presented in this special edition of Image & Text may be likened to a fugue of contr... more The articles presented in this special edition of Image & Text may be likened to a fugue of contrapuntal voices expressed in textual modes and threaded around Jacques Derrida's (2009 [1978]) theoretical maxim of "pointure". The notion of "pointure" arises from Derrida's essay, "Restitutions de la verite en pointure" ("Restitutions of the truth in pointing") in which he explores the discursive theme of the "inside" and "outside" of a text. Derrida (2009:301) uses the metaphor of "pointure" as it pertains to the registration hole made by the small iron blade used in printmaking to fix the page to be printed onto the tympan, and the opening and connecting (threading) function of the stitch present in shoemaking and glovemaking (Derrida cited in Payne 1993:228). The etymology of the term "fugue" can be traced to the Latin word "fuga" ("to chase"), indicated in the fugue musical fo...

de arte, 2013

Abstract The artist Wilma Cruise's exploration of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (18... more Abstract The artist Wilma Cruise's exploration of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1865) as an iconic and thematic motif for her recent series of exhibitions, collectively titled ‘The Alice Sequence’ (2011–2012), presents a theoretically rich exploration of the human/ animal dialectic. This article explores key notions of inter-species communication and distinction that arise from Cruise's artistic exploration, also the practice-led component of her doctoral study. I argue that Cruise's interest in this fanciful text stems from the proliferation of distinctive animal characters in Carroll's oeuvre; in particular the credible ‘force’ of the creatures of Wonderland who, in their fictional veracity, resist (to some extent) a descent into becoming solely allegorical conduits. Carroll's fantastical realm, where humans and animals converse with each other, is fertile ground for an artistic and theoretical contemplation of human and animal cognisant difference (a concept at the core of anthropological distinction). In pursuing this direction I explicate Cruise's extension of Carroll's fictional trope into the Freudian and Lacanian terrain of the preconscious and pre-linguistic modality (Cruise 2012: 17–20), which Cruise links to the phenomenon of horse-training methodologies that foreground bodily modes of communication between horses and their human trainers (Cruise 2012: 18). The ‘bodily register’ of écriture féminine is also connected to this theoretical grouping as a repurposed framework for revising notions of human logo-centric supremacy over animal beings. Further theoretical formulations that disregard preconceived conceptions of human and animal capacity, such as Actor Network Theory, are discussed in relation to this premise. Selected artworks from Cruise's ‘The Alice Sequence’ are analysed in relation to these theoretical paradigms, with the conclusion that Cruise's disarticulated use of text and image enacts the estrangement of logo-centric reason from physical interspecies ontology. This artistic dislodgement of certainty in the prerogative of language to enforce human superiority over non-human beings, places emphasis on the bodily presence of Cruise's sculptural animal figures, in an artistic echo of pre-linguistic modes of communication.

Journal of Literary Studies, 2014

Summary Daniel Naudé's exhibition of photographic artworks, “African Scenery & Animals”, ... more Summary Daniel Naudé's exhibition of photographic artworks, “African Scenery & Animals”, is discussed in this article, to consider the ways in which images of animal beings are mostly received as figurative vehicles for anthropocentric narratives. Naudé's particularised portraits of AfriCanis dogs and other domestic creatures are considered in relation to figurative anthropocentric analysis of the artworks that the artist's gallery and other reviewers have undertaken. I argue that Naudé's oeuvre is more in line with J.M. Coetzee's fictional character Elizabeth Costello's notion of imaginative empathy, proposing the capacity of human beings to imagine what it might be like to be an(other) (Coetzee 2004: 79), and that Naudé's portraits of animal beings provoke imaginative empathetic (Coetzee 2004: 79) transposition in the viewer. I recount my imaginative empathetic encounters (Coetzee 2004: 79) with particular artworks from the “African Scenery & Animals” series, and consider the imperial legacy of the landscape genre and the photographic medium employed by Naudé in relation to the artist's use of destabilising formal and contextual devices.

Image & Text 17, 2011

Abstract: In this article, I address the liminal therianthropic body in contemporary art that emp... more Abstract: In this article, I address the liminal therianthropic body in contemporary art that employs hybridity (performed and represented), as a mode of rhetorical potency in the expression of marginal subjectivity. The Derridian position that postulates human identity ...

Journal of Literary Studies Volume 30, Issue 4, 2014

Daniel Naudé's exhibition of photographic artworks, “African Scenery & Animals”, is discussed in ... more Daniel Naudé's exhibition of photographic artworks, “African Scenery & Animals”, is discussed in this article, to consider the ways in which images of animal beings are mostly received as figurative vehicles for anthropocentric narratives. Naudé's particularised portraits of AfriCanis dogs and other domestic creatures are considered in relation to figurative anthropocentric analysis of the artworks that the artist's gallery and other reviewers have undertaken. I argue that Naudé's oeuvre is more in line with J.M. Coetzee's fictional character Elizabeth Costello's notion of imaginative empathy, proposing the capacity of human beings to imagine what it might be like to be an(other) (Coetzee 2004: 79), and that Naudé's portraits of animal beings provoke imaginative empathetic (Coetzee 2004: 79) transposition in the viewer. I recount my imaginative empathetic encounters (Coetzee 2004: 79) with particular artworks from the “African Scenery & Animals” series, and consider the imperial legacy of the landscape genre and the photographic medium employed by Naudé in relation to the artist's use of destabilising formal and contextual devices.

Art World China (founded in 1979 - leading art magazine in China), in its first January 2015 edi... more Art World China (founded in 1979 - leading art magazine in China), in its first January 2015 edition concentrates on the humble sheep to commemorate the Chinese Year of the Sheep (2015); and the myriad of ways that these docile yet resilient animals feature in contemporary art: thematically, iconographically, as media, and metaphor. An article on how sheep have figured in my 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' exhibition series (2013 - 2015) is featured on pgs 104-107. Mostly written in Chinese, there are some English bits, and the images of artists work are a journey through all things 'sheepish' in contemporary art!

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums. I invoke Jacques Derrida’s (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term “pointure”, which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word “lace” (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing and haunting, I argue that the vacuum made by the stitch is a haunted site invested with themes and experiences of human frailty and desire; filled precipitously by the yarn, a wished for end is sympathetically effected.

This link is too the full 'Pointure' special edition of 'Image & Text' (23). also see my co-editorial for the edition.

'Pointure' Special Edition of 'Image & Text' journal (university of Pretoria), 2014

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums.
I invoke Jacques Derrida’s (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term “pointure”, which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word “lace” (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing and haunting, I argue that the vacuum made by the stitch is a haunted site invested with themes and experiences of human frailty and desire; filled precipitously by the yarn, a wished for end is sympathetically effected.

"The artist Wilma Cruise’s exploration of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) as an iconic... more "The artist Wilma Cruise’s exploration of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) as an iconic and thematic motif for her recent series of exhibitions, collectively titled ‘The Alice Sequence’ (2011–2012), presents a theoretically rich exploration of the human/ animal dialectic. This article explores key notions of inter-species communication and distinction that arise from Cruise’s artistic exploration, also the practice-led component of her doctoral study. The author argues that Cruise’s interest in this fanciful text stems from the proliferation of distinctive animal characters in Carroll’s oeuvre; in particular the credible ‘force’ of the creatures of Wonderland who, in their fictional veracity, resist (to some extent) a descent into becoming solely allegorical conduits. Carroll’s fantastical realm, where humans and animals converse with each other, is fertile ground for an artistic and theoretical contemplation of human and animal cognisant difference (a concept at the core of anthropological distinction). In pursuing this direction the author explicates Cruise’s extension of Carroll’s fictional trope into the Freudian and Lacanian terrain of the preconscious and pre-linguistic modality (Cruise 2012:17–20), which she links to the phenomenon of horse- training methodologies that foreground bodily modes of communication between horses and their human trainers (Cruise 2012:18). The ‘bodily register’ of écriture féminine is also connected to this theoretical grouping as a repurposed framework for revising notions of human logo-centric supremacy over animal beings. Further theoretical formulations that disregard preconceived conceptions of human and animal capacity, such as Actor Network Theory, are discussed in relation to this premise. Selected artworks from Cruise’s ‘The Alice Sequence’ are analysed in relation to these theoretical paradigms, with the conclusion that Cruise’s disarticulated use
of text and image enacts the estrangement of logo-centric reason from physical inter- species ontology. This artistic dislodgement
of certainty in the prerogative of language to enforce human superiority over non-human beings, places emphasis on the bodily presence of Cruise’s sculptural animal figures, in an artistic echo of pre-linguistic modes of communication."

Art South Africa Vol 11, Issue 03, Autumn 2013

In this review I 'pitch in' to a debate about the 'value' of European collections in South Africa... more In this review I 'pitch in' to a debate about the 'value' of European collections in South African museums; in relation to the the 'French Connections' exhibition (2012-2013), at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. This exhibition utilised the JAG's collection of French and African/French art, and was staged in association with the France-South Africa Season. The review also notes the earlier Standard Bank collaboration with the France-South Africa Season, entitled, '20th Century Masters: The Human Figure'(2012).

While affirming the need to critically engage with [South] African epistemologies, I also question the notion of what constitutes an 'authentic [South] African identity' (and by extension notions of cultural authenticity in the museum context) in the global/local present.

This paper was featured in the Pointure supplement (edited by Leora Farber and I), published in D... more This paper was featured in the Pointure supplement (edited by Leora Farber and I), published in December 2012 in Art South Africa. This publication following the Pointure exhibition and colloquium hosted by the University of Johannesburg in 2013. This pdf contains this and other articles that emerged from these events:

In pointing to a lace structure in the human experience, the Irish poet and scholar John O’ Donohue chooses an apt model for the frailty of the human interface with the eternal. He also gestures to an unexpected notion: that it is the ruptures in our lives, the openings, punctured, trimmed and mended, and at times raw, that are the most sublime. The recent Pointure exhibition and colloquium ‘laced’ together a poignant range of artworks and theoretical papers that relate to artistic acts of stitching and notional derivations of this material phenomenon. In these written theses and artworks, the acts of stitching, pricking, suturing, tearing, rupturing, cutting, embroidering, appliquéing, grafting, spinning and weaving, and a myriad of other incarnations of this practice of the ruptured mark, demonstrate and invoke the incisive, deconstructive, cathartic and prophetic energy of the ‘stitch’.

Derrida’s rhetorical formulation – pointure – is employed as a probing theoretical frame for this ‘weave’ of medium and metaphor. Pointure is a metaphoric device in Derrida’s 1978 essay ‘Restitutions of the truth in pointing [Pointure]’, ‘poking holes through’ and ‘lacing together’ Heidegger and Shapiro’s exploration of themes of presence in Vincent van Gogh’s painting, Oude Schòenen (Old Shoes). This mimetic word relates to printing in terms of the “small iron blade with a point, used to fix the page to be printed on to the tympan” as well as the “the hole which it makes in the paper”; and serves the figurative purpose of opening the text for critique. Pointure also references the practice of cobbling (in an intertextual gesture to van Gogh’s shoes) in relation to the ‘sewing together’ of the shoe, and the ‘drawing together’ action of the lacing-eyelets. In the context of the Pointure exhibition and colloquium, pointure is employed as a trope through which complexes of visual culture involving ‘pointured’ mediums and ‘pointured’ literary approaches may be critically framed. In this sense, pointure serves as a textu[r]al ‘loom’ for weaving together theory and practice, with the ease that one might lace a shoe.

This extended conception of pointure is here entwined (by unisex design) with Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger’s intrauterine inspired matrixial theory – a “maternal-feminine” model for human discourse. In a leaning towards aesthetic application and revisionist thinking, matrixial theory and Derridian pointure share a common zeitgeist. Further to this Ettinger has also linked matrixial theory figuratively to the notion of weaving. In terms of the articulation of ‘pointure-type’ visual and textual practices, matrixial theory represents significant possibilities, as it allows for a complex ‘weave’ of subjectivities within visual representation and the ‘warp and weft’ of practice and being.

Ann-Marie Tully is an artist, writer, and Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg.

This review on the '20th Century Masters: The Human Figure' exhibition (13 July-15 September). wa... more This review on the '20th Century Masters: The Human Figure' exhibition (13 July-15 September). was published online in August 2012 in the art journal, Art South Africa. This premier exhibition on the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 & 2013 program is a collaborative project involving the French and South African governments and French and South African corporate sponsors. The exhibition includes artworks by a selection of early 20th Century French-affiliated painters, including Edgar Degas, Léonard Foujita, Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard and Pablo Picasso. More contemporary artists represented on the exhibition include Georg Baselitz, Francis Bacon, Marc Desgrandchamp, Jean Fabre, Michel Journiac, Annette Messager, Orlan and Cindy Sherman. In reviewing this ambitiously scoped offering I avoid the expansive overview approach and discuss two portrait related artworks that stand out in my reckoning of this unique event; and offer some insight into the 20th century zeitgeist of many of the works on the exhibition.

de arte, 2014

Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walt... more Gazing upon the monocular woven wire landscape that is Penumbra (2012) (also the namesake of Walter Oltmann’s solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, 20 June – 22 July 2013), the viewer can be forgiven for losing their grasp on the deep perspectival illusion of the strange, shimmering, lunar-like rocky landscape depicted. Instead, a descent into the patterned and entangled field of crocheted wire is perceived. A further sublime encounter with the chasm of the Penumbra awaits on closer inspection. The term ‘penumbra’ refers to the half-shaded fringe of light caused when an opaque object partially obstructs light (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]). The term is also associated with the astronomical phenomenon of the lighter outer rim of a sunspot; and in painterly terms, at the point where light and shade blend (Goodman Gallery 2013:[sp]). The viewer’s meeting with Penumbra and other wire artworks on the exhibition is as much an encounter with the inner limits of the gaps between stitches, wh...

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums. I invoke Jacques Derrida's (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term "pointure", which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word "lace" (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing an...

de arte, 2013

Journal of Literary Studies, 2014

Image & Text 17, 2011

Journal of Literary Studies Volume 30, Issue 4, 2014

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums. I invoke Jacques Derrida’s (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term “pointure”, which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word “lace” (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing and haunting, I argue that the vacuum made by the stitch is a haunted site invested with themes and experiences of human frailty and desire; filled precipitously by the yarn, a wished for end is sympathetically effected.

This link is too the full 'Pointure' special edition of 'Image & Text' (23). also see my co-editorial for the edition.

'Pointure' Special Edition of 'Image & Text' journal (university of Pretoria), 2014

Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to item... more Elizabeth Wilson (2004:378) discusses the magical properties of textile media in relation to items of clothing, affect and perception. In this article, I take this enchanted sensibility further in a discussion of the strong confluence of stitched and woven (pointured) forms with horned animal mysticism, discussing the historical and contemporary beliefs surrounding horned animals in both western and African contexts in relation to, and as an influence on, the mysticism relating to pointured mediums.
I invoke Jacques Derrida’s (2009 [1978]:301-315) critical term “pointure”, which stems from the stitched practice of cobbling. Two sub-metaphors employed by Derrida (2009:302-307) in his extrapolation of this term bear weight in this context: his constitution of the word “lace” (derived from the shoe lace), and his perception of a haunting implicit in the relation of the original shoes, to the painted shoes, to the viewer. Following this looped notion of lacing and haunting, I argue that the vacuum made by the stitch is a haunted site invested with themes and experiences of human frailty and desire; filled precipitously by the yarn, a wished for end is sympathetically effected.

Art South Africa Vol 11, Issue 03, Autumn 2013

Ann-Marie Tully is an artist, writer, and Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg.

The 37th Annual SAVAH Conference will be hosted by the Department of Fine Art & Jewellery Design,... more The 37th Annual SAVAH Conference will be hosted by the Department of Fine Art & Jewellery Design, Faculty of Arts & Design, Durban University of Technology, City Campus 20 - 22 September 2022.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Romancing the Stone: Lithic Ecologies & Hard Places in South African Visual Culture
[Breaking Rock]

‘Everything changes, even stone.’
- Claude Monet (with reference to the shifting face of light on the facade of Rouen Cathedral)

The relationship between human beings and stone as a medium, metaphor and artefact has a significant and contested history within the visual arts. We use the word in metaphors to signify impermeable ideas and hardened frameworks. We describe ideas
and ideologies as 'set in stone' when we feel that they cannot be changed or shifted. However, as Monet observed in relation to the shifting light on the Rouen Cathedral, ‘Everything changes, even stone’. A monumental observation that speaks also to the displacement or 'casting into shadow' of the grand narratives of the art canon, that have privileged occidental views.

The lithic metaphor is a broad habitus, particularly aligned with KwaZulu Natal, where much rock art and history from within and around the rock (archeology, history, and heritage) is drawn. Professor David Lewis Williams’ theories on the shamanic dimensions of San Rock Art in the Drakensberg are a primary example of this heritage, while touching on the ubiquitous 'romancing of stone' that pre-colonial culture is so often subject to – a fetishising of the unknowable past.

The Durban University of Technology is engaged in a lithic position, between a 'rock and a hard place' – emerging out of the technical college’s system into a contemporary institute of higher learning. There are many 'rocky outcrops' to negotiate: the challenging balance of technology and theory, productively engaged in the model of practice-based research; the pessimistic outlook of research funders, who often view Universities of Technology
with a suspicion tainted by the light of past 'edifices' and academic prejudices; and the
discursive project of decolonisation, in a city where the very buildings and town-planning
bear witness to a complex stratification of colonisation, segregation, migration, history,
and memory. The metaphor of 'romancing the stone' is an apt one for the development of Universities of Technology; it is also a warning to be vigilant of the prism of 'romancing' , using cultural, gendered, and fetishised lenses, which can obscure a clear view of new, surprising, and transitionary identities.

How can the metaphor of 'romancing the stone' assist us in navigating the 'rocky' , 'harder'
places in South Africa’s visual culture?

We propose this figurative theme of 'romancing the stone' as a productive framework to
cast a wide net amongst the 'hard places' in South African visual culture. We invite papers and visual presentations from scholars, researchers, and post-graduate students. Practice-based research is particularly welcome.

Please submit an abstract of between 300 and 400 words via the savah.org.za website
by 20 april 2022.