Elfriede Dreyer | University of South Africa (original) (raw)
Accredited articles, Book and exhibition reviews by Elfriede Dreyer
Communicatio, 2016
In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a hum... more In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a human entity is produced. A complex mix of the visual and nominal vocabularies of early ‘rudimentary’ technological invention, scientific experimentation and contemporary digital language
characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher Michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. The construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention, science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. Interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. Examination of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time is conducted, including mention of the early development of
automatons; Modernistic French thought; advancements in Physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.
Third Text, 2016
The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork... more The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork, Rubber duck (2007-2016); in the media images of migrant refugees arriving at European destinations by boat since 2015; and in British artist Paul McCarthy’s Ship Adrift, Ship of Fools (2010). Functioning as a hybrid vessel containing conceptions of global and nomadic transitivity, the image of boat forms the coalescing crux of the discourse in this article. The boat is interpreted as figuratively representing vessel transporting the nomadic individual as an autobiographical subject positioned in liminal and polycultural circumstances. Following Russell West-Pavlov, it is argued that autobiographical discourse continues to manifest as one of the most potent forms of ideology and that subjective nomadic ideology is utopianistically coloured. In the course of the argumentation, notions of polyculturalism; rhizomatic identity: the Foucauldian notion of a Ship of Fools; minor; minority; difference; and Otherness are explored as core aspects of the constructions around autobiographical trajectory in the nomadic context.
Litnet, 2017
Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietyd... more Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietydse buitestanderkunstenaar − is 'n waardevolle bron vir die bestudering van die begrippe geokartering en flânerie in eietydse Suid-Afrikaanse kuns. In hierdie artikel word die kunstenaar se panoramas geproblematiseer in terme van geokartering as 'n uitdrukking van utopie, transendensie en bemagtiging van die plaaslike Suid-Afrikaner in die lig van koloniale en apartheidsgeskiedenisse. Die kunstenaar word as 'n karterende flâneur geïnterpreteer en sy kunswerke word vertolk beide as produkte van verbeelde flânerie en, as gevolg van die groot skaal daarvan, as fisiese " plekke " wat verkenning en flânerie ontlok. In sy panoramas word die alledaagse werklikheid getransformeer in 'n globale simulakrum van utopiese eksotisme en glans waar die kunstenaar as flâneur die stad virtueel kan besoek en deurwandel. Jeremy Bentham se panoptikon en Michel Foucault se interpretasie hiervan is verdere teoretiese raamwerke wat die interpretasie van die kunswerke belig. Daar word bevind dat Matiyane 'n model vir globale, transnasionale identiteit daarstel deur middel van die oorskryding van sy eie fisiese en materiële beperkinge en sy dekonstruksie van die magshiërargieë van Eerste-en Derdewêreldstede. Matiyane word uiteindelik geïnterpreteer as 'n outentieke stem in die dekoloniale vestiging van Afrikaïese moderniteit.
The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from 30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal ... more The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, Artesis University College, Antwerp, as part of
their 350th anniversary celebrations. It was concerned with
research on notions of the urban walker, the flâneur, transience,
nomadic cultural patterns and movement, transgenderism
and volatile transtechnology usage. The research
project’s main aim was to set up critical encounters with a
range of visual contexts in their digital, curatorial, archival,
creative and theoretical dimensions. Such encounters have
the potential to develop and engage trans- and cross-disciplinary discourses within the spatial, informational, medial
and conceptual technologies of visual culture.
Nomad Bodies presents critical visual representations of nomadism as it relates to embodied technologies, materials
and concepts.
The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Art... more The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria engaged thematically with the notion of capital
cities. Recoding a diverse and massive - ‘invisible’ - archive of stories and experiences, the exhibition offered visual representations of reflections on urban environments (and Pretoria in particular) that have been shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces. Metromusings endeavoured to present a visual mapping of the social and political power geographies and complexities that dominate cities and how urban culture can be voiced, claimed, negotiated and contested. A defining question in the context of the city was how space can be translated into place.
Communicatio, 2012
In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century c... more In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century conception of the flâneur who merely consorted with prostitutes and shopgirls, never seeing them as equals or as having a rightful ‘place’ in the public arena of the city. The concept of the flâneuse is investigated to ascertain the possibility of her existence and presence in the city. The article thus questions the gender of the flâneur and suggests that flâneuse does not have the same freedom to stroll the streets as her male counterpart as a result of the intricate connection women have with consumerism, specifically by being an object sa well as a subject of consumerism. On this account women’s position in consumer society is explored from the position of the prostitute and being the object of male gaze and desire.
Artist's catalogue, 2015
A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Thr... more A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Threshold exhibition at the University of Cape Town, presents a revisionist and self-reflexive discourse on the aftermath of the apocalypse-like event, which can be interpreted as a response to both environment pollution and, in my view, post-apartheid burial and catharsis.
The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indic... more The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indicates a deconstructionist sensibility . Parergon forms a core concept in Jacques Derrida's aesthetics and is illuminated specifically in his influential work, The Truth in Painting (1987) (the translated version of La Vérité en Peinture of 1978). Although Derrida has expounded the concept of parergon in particular, it has wider application to interpretation in general so that reference to other writers is also relevant.
Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery... more Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery & Studio, Pretoria, and Bell-Roberts at Lourensford Wine Estate
Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South Afr... more Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South African contemporary artists' work, the notion of terra is used in a dualist sense by referring to human beings’ metaphoric relationship to physical soil and space, as well as to
spatiality.
Third Text, 2012
In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Tit... more In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Titus Matiyane and Kwazulu Natal community mural artists are driven by the functional power of the naturalist art object in order to expound on the socio-political conditions of underdevelopment. This hypothesis does not corroborate a return to the totalising idea of an ‘undifferentiated’ Africa investing objects with functionality (and anonymity) through ritualistic meaning, but is instead a mobilisation of the works as resourceful platforms for examining notions of modernity, difference and transculturality.
De arte, Jan 1, 2009
In this article Patricia Piccinini’s We areFamily of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of... more In this article Patricia Piccinini’s
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of the genetic homunculus, whichcan be understood as the product of artifice.The genetically engineered human being isinvestigated within the context of alchemic andpost-human discourse, with specific referenceto the ideas of Donna Haraway and JeanBaudrillard. It is maintained that, although itis as yet impossible to accurately predict whatthe outcomes of such forays into the realms ofthe natural or the divine may be, post-humanfutures are already imagined and simulated inthe milieu of artistic licence.
Image&Text, 2008
As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Vis... more As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Visuality/Commentary was held in May 2008 to commemorate a history of more than fifty years of teaching and learning in the discipline of the visual arts. In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial “world” of learning; artists in a globalising world; and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist.
De arte, 2008
The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the sp... more The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the spiritual in a wide range of works spanning from the late nineteenth century to the
present day.
International Journal Of The Inclusive Museum, 2008
The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid Sout... more The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid South Africa, an environment tainted by socio-political conflict, xenophobia and survival strategies.
Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing socio-political turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project, Jan 1, 2008
At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the gl... more At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the globalising impulse in South Arica.Due to raging political changes in sub-Saharan Arica over the past few centuries, cities have become hybrid, nomadic and pluralist. The depiction of urban dystopia, which contradicts the ideologies ofglobalism, is evident in many South Arican artists’ work dealing with themes of urban collapse, violence, forced separation of families, transitivity,
loss of identity through the intermingling of different culturess and languages, and the production of divergent patterns and styles of living. In this essay, I investigate the dystopian impact of globalisation processes on Johannesburg as manifest
in the paintings of the Johannesburg artist, Kudzanai Chiurai, with specifc reference to volatile identity. A incognito voyeur and flâneur in the hub of transcultural and cosmopolitan activityy,Chiurai experiences xenophobia and loss o identity, being in the city and part of it all, yet not belonging.
In Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project: 127-136.
Image & Text, Jan 1, 2008
In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the ... more In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial ‘world’ of learning; thereafter, the place of artists in a globalising world and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist are explored. All the artworks referred to here were part of the Visuality/Commentary exhibition (2008).
Tydskrif vir letterkunde, Jan 1, 2006
Communicatio, 2016
In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a hum... more In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a human entity is produced. A complex mix of the visual and nominal vocabularies of early ‘rudimentary’ technological invention, scientific experimentation and contemporary digital language
characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher Michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. The construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention, science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. Interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. Examination of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time is conducted, including mention of the early development of
automatons; Modernistic French thought; advancements in Physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.
Third Text, 2016
The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork... more The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork, Rubber duck (2007-2016); in the media images of migrant refugees arriving at European destinations by boat since 2015; and in British artist Paul McCarthy’s Ship Adrift, Ship of Fools (2010). Functioning as a hybrid vessel containing conceptions of global and nomadic transitivity, the image of boat forms the coalescing crux of the discourse in this article. The boat is interpreted as figuratively representing vessel transporting the nomadic individual as an autobiographical subject positioned in liminal and polycultural circumstances. Following Russell West-Pavlov, it is argued that autobiographical discourse continues to manifest as one of the most potent forms of ideology and that subjective nomadic ideology is utopianistically coloured. In the course of the argumentation, notions of polyculturalism; rhizomatic identity: the Foucauldian notion of a Ship of Fools; minor; minority; difference; and Otherness are explored as core aspects of the constructions around autobiographical trajectory in the nomadic context.
Litnet, 2017
Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietyd... more Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietydse buitestanderkunstenaar − is 'n waardevolle bron vir die bestudering van die begrippe geokartering en flânerie in eietydse Suid-Afrikaanse kuns. In hierdie artikel word die kunstenaar se panoramas geproblematiseer in terme van geokartering as 'n uitdrukking van utopie, transendensie en bemagtiging van die plaaslike Suid-Afrikaner in die lig van koloniale en apartheidsgeskiedenisse. Die kunstenaar word as 'n karterende flâneur geïnterpreteer en sy kunswerke word vertolk beide as produkte van verbeelde flânerie en, as gevolg van die groot skaal daarvan, as fisiese " plekke " wat verkenning en flânerie ontlok. In sy panoramas word die alledaagse werklikheid getransformeer in 'n globale simulakrum van utopiese eksotisme en glans waar die kunstenaar as flâneur die stad virtueel kan besoek en deurwandel. Jeremy Bentham se panoptikon en Michel Foucault se interpretasie hiervan is verdere teoretiese raamwerke wat die interpretasie van die kunswerke belig. Daar word bevind dat Matiyane 'n model vir globale, transnasionale identiteit daarstel deur middel van die oorskryding van sy eie fisiese en materiële beperkinge en sy dekonstruksie van die magshiërargieë van Eerste-en Derdewêreldstede. Matiyane word uiteindelik geïnterpreteer as 'n outentieke stem in die dekoloniale vestiging van Afrikaïese moderniteit.
The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from 30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal ... more The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, Artesis University College, Antwerp, as part of
their 350th anniversary celebrations. It was concerned with
research on notions of the urban walker, the flâneur, transience,
nomadic cultural patterns and movement, transgenderism
and volatile transtechnology usage. The research
project’s main aim was to set up critical encounters with a
range of visual contexts in their digital, curatorial, archival,
creative and theoretical dimensions. Such encounters have
the potential to develop and engage trans- and cross-disciplinary discourses within the spatial, informational, medial
and conceptual technologies of visual culture.
Nomad Bodies presents critical visual representations of nomadism as it relates to embodied technologies, materials
and concepts.
The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Art... more The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria engaged thematically with the notion of capital
cities. Recoding a diverse and massive - ‘invisible’ - archive of stories and experiences, the exhibition offered visual representations of reflections on urban environments (and Pretoria in particular) that have been shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces. Metromusings endeavoured to present a visual mapping of the social and political power geographies and complexities that dominate cities and how urban culture can be voiced, claimed, negotiated and contested. A defining question in the context of the city was how space can be translated into place.
Communicatio, 2012
In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century c... more In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century conception of the flâneur who merely consorted with prostitutes and shopgirls, never seeing them as equals or as having a rightful ‘place’ in the public arena of the city. The concept of the flâneuse is investigated to ascertain the possibility of her existence and presence in the city. The article thus questions the gender of the flâneur and suggests that flâneuse does not have the same freedom to stroll the streets as her male counterpart as a result of the intricate connection women have with consumerism, specifically by being an object sa well as a subject of consumerism. On this account women’s position in consumer society is explored from the position of the prostitute and being the object of male gaze and desire.
Artist's catalogue, 2015
A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Thr... more A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Threshold exhibition at the University of Cape Town, presents a revisionist and self-reflexive discourse on the aftermath of the apocalypse-like event, which can be interpreted as a response to both environment pollution and, in my view, post-apartheid burial and catharsis.
The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indic... more The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indicates a deconstructionist sensibility . Parergon forms a core concept in Jacques Derrida's aesthetics and is illuminated specifically in his influential work, The Truth in Painting (1987) (the translated version of La Vérité en Peinture of 1978). Although Derrida has expounded the concept of parergon in particular, it has wider application to interpretation in general so that reference to other writers is also relevant.
Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery... more Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery & Studio, Pretoria, and Bell-Roberts at Lourensford Wine Estate
Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South Afr... more Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South African contemporary artists' work, the notion of terra is used in a dualist sense by referring to human beings’ metaphoric relationship to physical soil and space, as well as to
spatiality.
Third Text, 2012
In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Tit... more In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Titus Matiyane and Kwazulu Natal community mural artists are driven by the functional power of the naturalist art object in order to expound on the socio-political conditions of underdevelopment. This hypothesis does not corroborate a return to the totalising idea of an ‘undifferentiated’ Africa investing objects with functionality (and anonymity) through ritualistic meaning, but is instead a mobilisation of the works as resourceful platforms for examining notions of modernity, difference and transculturality.
De arte, Jan 1, 2009
In this article Patricia Piccinini’s We areFamily of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of... more In this article Patricia Piccinini’s
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of the genetic homunculus, whichcan be understood as the product of artifice.The genetically engineered human being isinvestigated within the context of alchemic andpost-human discourse, with specific referenceto the ideas of Donna Haraway and JeanBaudrillard. It is maintained that, although itis as yet impossible to accurately predict whatthe outcomes of such forays into the realms ofthe natural or the divine may be, post-humanfutures are already imagined and simulated inthe milieu of artistic licence.
Image&Text, 2008
As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Vis... more As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Visuality/Commentary was held in May 2008 to commemorate a history of more than fifty years of teaching and learning in the discipline of the visual arts. In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial “world” of learning; artists in a globalising world; and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist.
De arte, 2008
The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the sp... more The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the spiritual in a wide range of works spanning from the late nineteenth century to the
present day.
International Journal Of The Inclusive Museum, 2008
The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid Sout... more The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid South Africa, an environment tainted by socio-political conflict, xenophobia and survival strategies.
Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing socio-political turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project, Jan 1, 2008
At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the gl... more At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the globalising impulse in South Arica.Due to raging political changes in sub-Saharan Arica over the past few centuries, cities have become hybrid, nomadic and pluralist. The depiction of urban dystopia, which contradicts the ideologies ofglobalism, is evident in many South Arican artists’ work dealing with themes of urban collapse, violence, forced separation of families, transitivity,
loss of identity through the intermingling of different culturess and languages, and the production of divergent patterns and styles of living. In this essay, I investigate the dystopian impact of globalisation processes on Johannesburg as manifest
in the paintings of the Johannesburg artist, Kudzanai Chiurai, with specifc reference to volatile identity. A incognito voyeur and flâneur in the hub of transcultural and cosmopolitan activityy,Chiurai experiences xenophobia and loss o identity, being in the city and part of it all, yet not belonging.
In Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project: 127-136.
Image & Text, Jan 1, 2008
In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the ... more In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial ‘world’ of learning; thereafter, the place of artists in a globalising world and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist are explored. All the artworks referred to here were part of the Visuality/Commentary exhibition (2008).
Tydskrif vir letterkunde, Jan 1, 2006
Although classical utopian models professed dogmatic but clear nation-state designs with the purp... more Although classical utopian models professed dogmatic but clear nation-state designs with the purpose of resulting in good Endings, more often than not history has shown that political regimes and utopian leadership models function in non-transparent manner, deliberately propositioning that it is for the good of the nation. In this paper, it is argued that burial imagery suggesting layered histories of secrets and concealed realities is antidotal to the construction of utopian ideologies and expresses a dystopian sense of loss of teleology. The depiction of burial in selected works of the South African artists Carolyn Parton, Diane Victor and Colleen Alborough is explored within the context of the expression of apocalypse in early and recent works of the German artist Anselm Kiefer, motivated by the similarities in past traumatic events that need dissolution. Burial is interpreted as indicative of an ongoing search for meaningful Ending, in this case propelled by the discovery of unspeakable terrors which lie beneath the surface of identity construction. The artists’ espousal of burial in the representation, construction and installation of ravished planes and surfaces both render sites of traumatic memory and the raw, virginal soil of potentiality and recovery. These are interpreted as speaking about reclamation, the (un)fulfilment of destinies and, most importantly ‘spent’ ideologies. Paint, paper and found materials applied as physical matter become environmental and social strata in the expression of post-apocalypse in late twentieth-century deconstruction of Besetzung and contemporary expressions of South African post-colonial dystopia.
Although French/American artist Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968) never thematised or theorised colour... more Although French/American artist Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968) never thematised or theorised colour in any formal way, a distinctive set of ideas underlies his art. His work demonstrates a metaphorical orientation to colour that presumably was part of a general Zeitgeist just after the turn of the second millennium. However, his colour usage was far more revolutionary and conceptual than that of his contemporaries, being more specifically of the order of the parlêtre. During most of his mature period, he produced work in which the names of images and objects he utilised, as well as the inflected figures of speech in titles, constitute a defining part in the evocation of meanings and the articulation of his concepts. In view of the prevalent instrumental role of language in Duchamp’s art, I interpret his use of the
colour brown as operating more as a nominal reference to the real world and expressing tropes of fusion and rot than fulfilling an aesthetic, compositional or structural role.
Il ne peut plus être question d'un Beau plastique Marcel Duchamp (Hulten 1993:29). Bien que l'art... more Il ne peut plus être question d'un Beau plastique Marcel Duchamp (Hulten 1993:29). Bien que l'artiste français/Américain Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968) jamais thematised ou n'ait théorisé peignent en n'importe quelle voie formelle, une orientation métaphorique pour rougir est découverte dans son travail qui doit avoir fait partie de général Zeitgeist juste après le tour du deuxième millénaire quand artmaking était sous l'influence d'une révolution émergeant du point de vue de la réflexion scientifique, la physique quantique et la géométrie non-Euclidian. En considérant l'oeuvre de l'artiste dans son ensemble, pourtant, il devient clair que son usage chromatique était bien plus révolutionnaire et conceptuel que ce de ses contemporains, étant plus spécialement de l'ordre du parlêtre (l'être parlant). Pendant la plupart de sa période adulte, Duchamp a produit le travail dans lesquels les noms d'images et d'objets il a utilisé, aussi bien que les figures de rhétorique flexionnelles dans les titres, a constitué une partie définissante dans l'évocation de sens et de l'articulation de concepts. Un tel rôle instrumental de langue est évident aussi dans son utilisation du marron chromatique que je fais l'interprète comme faisant marcher plus comme une référence insignifiante au monde réel et exprimant des tropes de fusion et de pourriture que la réalisation d'un esthétique, compositional ou d'un rôle structurel. Presque dans le sens d'un objet 'trouvé', l'utilisation qui prévaut de Duchamp de fonctions marron d'une façon 'trouvée', 'natale' qui est évidente dans un travail comme le Broyeur de Chocolat No. 2 (1914), un travail indépendant aussi bien que partie du Grand Verre (1915-1923). Bien que le broyeur de chocolat comme trouvé l'objet soit commercialement disponible dans de différentes couleurs, Duchamp l'a rendu dans les ombres de marron comme une référence illustrée à la couleur 'natale' de chocolat bien quant au chocolat comme un concept de sa propre configuration symbolique.
de arte, 2002
In this article, representations of`real' are investigated in selected technological contexts. 1 ... more In this article, representations of`real' are investigated in selected technological contexts. 1 It is maintained that, at present, the prevalent technological sophistication in artmaking processes creates diffused boundaries between notions of the real and the non-real due to the naturalism inherent in digital artmaking processes in which photographs or video often forms the`raw' or foundation material. 2 It is demonstrated that the development of photography as well as Surrealism as a stylistic movement have been key forces in the shaping of the current dominant mode of naturalism in visual expressions of virtuality and artifice.
CURATING LIMINALITY IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN FEMALE ART PRODUCTION by Delaida Adéle Adendorf... more CURATING LIMINALITY IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN FEMALE ART PRODUCTION by Delaida Adéle Adendorff A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree DPhil in Fine Arts (with specialisation in Curatorial Practice) in the DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ARTS at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA in the FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Promoters: Prof. Elfriede Dreyer & Prof. Amanda du Preez February 2017
Le sacre, voila l'ennemi! (translated as 'The sacred, that is the enemy!') is the tit... more Le sacre, voila l'ennemi! (translated as 'The sacred, that is the enemy!') is the title of a special edition of art press 2 (May/June/July 2008, trimestriel No. 9) on the exhibition, Traces du sacre, currently on show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. This outcry of disgust at the choice of concept of the mega-exhibition expressed through an exploration of the relationship of art to religion, similar to Gauguin's old question on human beings' destiny (Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?), is an outright demonstration of the depth and width of the nihilism and agnosticism of our time.
Apocalypse: Imagining the End, 2013
Third Text, 2016
Abstract The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's travelling p... more Abstract The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman's travelling public artwork, Rubber duck (2007–2016); in the media images of migrant refugees arriving at European destinations by boat since 2015; and in British artist Paul McCarthy's Ship Adrift, Ship of Fools (2010). Functioning as a hybrid vessel containing conceptions of global and nomadic transitivity, the image of boat forms the coalescing crux of the discourse in this article. The boat is interpreted as figuratively representing vessel transporting the nomadic individual as an autobiographical subject positioned in liminal and polycultural circumstances. Following Russell West-Pavlov, it is argued that autobiographical discourse continues to manifest as one of the most potent forms of ideology and that subjective nomadic ideology is utopianistically coloured. In the course of the article, notions of polyculturalism; rhizomatic identity: the Foucauldian notion of a Ship of Fools; minor; minority; difference; and Otherness are explored as core aspects of the constructions around autobiographical trajectory in the nomadic context.
The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 2007
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2008
The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in postapartheid South... more The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in postapartheid South Africa, an environment tainted by socio-political conflict, xenophobia and survival strategies. Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing sociopolitical turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
Third Text, 2012
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or s... more This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Literator, 2012
This article explored the conception, historical context and theoretical underpinnings of Leora F... more This article explored the conception, historical context and theoretical underpinnings of Leora Farber’s 2010 artwork entitled The Futility of Writing 24-Page Letters, which forms an extension of the work on her exhibition entitled Dis-Location/Re-Location. The Futility of Writing 24-Page Letters falls within Dis-Location/Re-Location’s thematics, but focuses on one aspect thereof, namely, how fin-de-siècle Jewish colonial women who were immigrants to southern Africa, as exemplified in the persona of Bertha Marks (1862–1934), experienced nineteenthcentury Victorian gender ideologies. Their life experiences often entailed resistance to their positions as subjects of a patriarchal social system; yet, as women, they were simultaneously complicit in upholding discriminatory colonial ideologies and in maintaining the racial,social and cultural prejudices and forms of subjugation that underpinned them. Bertha Marks is shown to have occupied a personalised heterotopia: whilst operating from...
Communicatio, 2012
Flânerie 1 as an activity of strolling and looking carried out by the flâneur is a persistent mot... more Flânerie 1 as an activity of strolling and looking carried out by the flâneur is a persistent motif in literature, sociology and art concerned with urban and specifically metropolitan culture. During the nineteenth century the flâneur was
The premise in this thesis is that in the context of the late twentieth-century visual culture of... more The premise in this thesis is that in the context of the late twentieth-century visual culture of the West, a condition of dystopia is distinct. I argue that since the Sixties, developments in computer technology (‘new technologies’) have unleashed worlds of artifice and that the visual media are the prime mediators in perpetuating dystopia. I argue that the human sensory real has always been and still is intertwined with the artifice of dream worlds, but demonstrate that most utopian constructs, such as the current ones regarding globalism and technological utopia, are still not pleasant places although they intend and purport to be exactly that. My interpretation of the late twentieth century is that there are many coexisting worlds and different concomitant and layered spaces of both real and virtual kinds. It seems to have become impossible to fully verify the ‘real’ observed experiences and observations, and cyberspace can become as real as the ‘real’. The main argument is that...
In her introduction to the exhibition, Tamar Garb states that the curatorial intention of Home La... more In her introduction to the exhibition, Tamar Garb states that the curatorial intention of Home Lands - Land Marks was to bring together recent work of David Goldblatt, Nicholas Hlobo, William Kentridge, Vivienne Koorland, Santu Mofokeng, Berni Searle and Guy Tillim in order to present images and constructs of the specificity of South Africa's past, 'while confronting the ongoing traumas and triumphs of living in the aftermath' (p. 7). The three essays included in the catalogue, 'A land of signs' by Tamar Garb, 'The indeterminate structure of things now' by Okwui Enwezor and 'Modderfontein Road' by Ivan Vladislavic, articulate the multi-layeredness of the South African landscape in terms of experiences, shifts in paradigms and especially 'threats' to the notion of home, homeland and ownership.
Image & Text : a Journal for Design, 2008
It is fair to maintain that every world construction, also a "world" of learning such a... more It is fair to maintain that every world construction, also a "world" of learning such as a tertiary institution, is blueprinted in some form of ideology. The lecture halls at a large university such as the University of Pretoria also speak about this expanding cultural horizon and it is not uncommon to have a class where there are students from Korea, Zimbabwe and Namibia mingling with a range of South African ethnicities. The picture now is very different from the picture of years ago when South African universities were predominantly "white" as a result of the ideological patterns of the time.
It is fair to maintain that every world construction, also a “world” of learning such as a tertia... more It is fair to maintain that every world construction, also a “world” of learning such as a tertiary institution, is blueprinted in some form of ideology. The lecture halls at a large university such as the University of Pretoria also speak about this expanding cultural horizon and it is not uncommon to have a class where there are students from Korea, Zimbabwe and Namibia mingling with a range of South African ethnicities. The picture now is very different from the picture of years ago when South African universities were predominantly “white” as a result of the ideological patterns of the time.
In this article, representations of 'real' are investigated in selected technological con... more In this article, representations of 'real' are investigated in selected technological contexts. It is maintained that, at present, the prevalent technological sophistication in artmaking processes creates diffused boundaries between notions of the real and the non-real due to the naturalism inherent in digital artmaking processes in which photographs or video often forms the 'raw' or foundation material. It is demonstrated that the development of photography as well as Surrealism as a stylistic movement have been key forces in the shaping of the current dominant mode of naturalism in visual expressions of virtuality and artifice.
It has been a while since a publication on a South African artist has been done in such a compreh... more It has been a while since a publication on a South African artist has been done in such a comprehensive and attractive format as the recent major monograph on Claudette Schreuders, published by Jacana and Prestel. Of its 239 pages, 188 consist of high-quality documentation of the artist's complete oeuvre up to 2011, ending with the Close, close series, which makes the publication border on a coffee-table book. Illustrations are included of Schreuders' major works, her sculptures in carved wood, as well as her series of lithographs based on the sculptures, selected commissions, and some thumbnail, preparatory and finished drawings. A handful of photographs are shown of the artist in her studio, with family and in suburban surroundings, covering her thirteen-year-long career as a professional artist which had already commenced at the time of her student days at the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
de arte
Abstract In this article, the concept of liminality is examined as it relates to the photographic... more Abstract In this article, the concept of liminality is examined as it relates to the photographic process. It is examined how, at the time of exposure, light enters the darkened space of the camera through the aperture, and is then inverted and transformed to create an image on the light-sensitive medium inside the camera, using either film or digital sensors. Photographic images represent objects and data in front of the camera at the time of exposure. The discussion in this article, however, is focused on the transformation of such visual data captured in the light that emanates from the objects in the ambit of the aperture of the camera at the time of exposure. The contention is that since the captured light is transformed during the photographic process, an indexical character (that is, a one-to-one reference of the moment captured) cannot be ascribed to the photographic image representing the captured moment. To explain the argument, this process of transformation is related to the concept of liminality and how it affects the indexical nature of the photographic image, with specific reference to the photographic imagery of Michael Wesely and Jurek Wajdowicz.
This dissertation investigates the notion of parergon, a term denoting the unseen elements or &qu... more This dissertation investigates the notion of parergon, a term denoting the unseen elements or "supplements" of any artwork. Parergon is a central concept in the deconstruction of French phenomenologist Jacques Derrida. The parergon escapes accurate description, since it concerns the interpretations and associations which are made in reponse to evocative images and titles. Consequently, the parergon reveals a subjective, pluralistic and alterable nature, since both interpretation and association are dependent upon specific individuals, as well as on a specific time and place. In this investigation, I mostly refer to my own and Anselm Kiefer's artworks. A Romantic spirituality is detectable in all the works under discussion. Although the investigation of the parergon is of primary interest in this dissertation, a sub-theme regarding such Romanticism threads through the dissertation. The very idea of parergon is Romantic, an aspect which necessitates such secondary investigation.