Thelma Van Rensburg | University of Pretoria (original) (raw)
Papers by Thelma Van Rensburg
2 9 J a n u a r y 2 0 2 1 The grotesque is a visual genre of disorder Exhibition catalogue
Drafts by Thelma Van Rensburg
The materiality of the female biological body has for the most part been excluded from representa... more The materiality of the female biological body has for the most part been excluded from representation in art and society. This exhibition is aimed at finding alternative forms of female representation: therefore forms that will re-present the material female body as volumnious body and not only two-dimensional surface as propogated by the mass media (Pollock 2003:191). Devices of the mass media such as advertising, advertorials and beauty advice impose nearly impossible standards of beauty on women, thereby convincing them that they are valued only for their appearance.
My art thus addresses representations of women that stress women’s corporeality as perfected surface and commodity. Such representations also serve the purpose of deconstructing phallocentric representations of women as objects of the male gaze.
My creative methods include fashion magazine’s idealised images of women as source material and the dripping and manipulation of ink on paper. I work with the immediacy of the flowing properties of the ink. I spontaneously react to what happens on the paper at the moment of execution. My goal is to let the figure ‘become what it wants to be’ thus following my conceptual goal of elevating female self-representation as a natural flow of power and becoming.
The ink images are digitally layered onto models in fashion magazines. The resultant image is rendered blurred, distorted and sometimes disfigured in the process. Hereafter the layout of the magazine spread is mirrored and digitally enhanced to create the illusion of a three dimensional magazine.
The formal modes of subversion therefore include a reliance on strategies associated with feminist modes of production such as the engagement with the tactility of the painting medium, layering, subversion and fragmentation. I am particularly interested in representing the female body as “a site of rupture and transgression of the patriarchal order” through the utilisation of the grotesque (Farber 2013:7).
Within a feminist framework, I explore representations of the female corpse as manifested in fas... more Within a feminist framework, I explore representations of the female corpse as manifested in fashion magazines. The disturbing idealisation of the female corpse manifests in Western culture, in fashion magazines, as expressed in depictions of the attractive/ seductive/fine-looking female corpse. Fashion photographs that fit this description are subverted as a strategy to undermine the aesthetic and cultural objectification of the female body. The utilisation of the abject and the grotesque in relation to my use of ink as artistic medium is therefore an attempt to create ambiguous and conflicting combinations of attraction and repulsion. Thelma thereby confronts the viewer with the notion of the objectification of the decease[d] feminine body as object to-be-looked-at.
Thesis Chapters by Thelma Van Rensburg
This mini-dissertation serves as a framework for my own creative practice. In this research paper... more This mini-dissertation serves as a framework for my own creative practice. In this
research paper my intention is to explore, within a feminist reading, representations of
the female corpse in fashion photography and art. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s
theories on the concept of representation are utilised to critically analyse and
interogate selected images from fashion magazines, which depicts the female corpse
in an idealised way. Such idealisation manifests in Western culture, in fashion
magazines, as expressed in depictions of the attractive/ seductive/fine-looking female
corpse. Fashion photographs that fit this description are critically contrasted and
challenged to selected artworks by Penny Siopis and Marlene Dumas, alongside my
own work, to explore how the female corpse can be represented, as strategy to
undermine the aesthetic and cultural objectification of the female body. Here the
study also explores the selected artists’ utilisation of the abject and the grotesque in
relation to their use of artistic mediums and modes of production as an attempt to
create ambiguous and conflicting combinations of attraction and repulsion (the
sublime aesthetic of delightful horror), thereby confronting the viewer with the notion
of the objectification of the decease[d] feminine body as object to-be-looked-at. This
necessitated the inclusion of seminal theories developed by the French theorist, Julia
Kristeva (1982) on the abject and the Russian theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin (1968) on the
grotesque.
The materiality of the female biological body has for the most part been excluded from representa... more The materiality of the female biological body has for the most part been excluded from representation in art and society. This exhibition is aimed at finding alternative forms of female representation: therefore forms that will re-present the material female body as volumnious body and not only two-dimensional surface as propogated by the mass media (Pollock 2003:191). Devices of the mass media such as advertising, advertorials and beauty advice impose nearly impossible standards of beauty on women, thereby convincing them that they are valued only for their appearance.
My art thus addresses representations of women that stress women’s corporeality as perfected surface and commodity. Such representations also serve the purpose of deconstructing phallocentric representations of women as objects of the male gaze.
My creative methods include fashion magazine’s idealised images of women as source material and the dripping and manipulation of ink on paper. I work with the immediacy of the flowing properties of the ink. I spontaneously react to what happens on the paper at the moment of execution. My goal is to let the figure ‘become what it wants to be’ thus following my conceptual goal of elevating female self-representation as a natural flow of power and becoming.
The ink images are digitally layered onto models in fashion magazines. The resultant image is rendered blurred, distorted and sometimes disfigured in the process. Hereafter the layout of the magazine spread is mirrored and digitally enhanced to create the illusion of a three dimensional magazine.
The formal modes of subversion therefore include a reliance on strategies associated with feminist modes of production such as the engagement with the tactility of the painting medium, layering, subversion and fragmentation. I am particularly interested in representing the female body as “a site of rupture and transgression of the patriarchal order” through the utilisation of the grotesque (Farber 2013:7).
Within a feminist framework, I explore representations of the female corpse as manifested in fas... more Within a feminist framework, I explore representations of the female corpse as manifested in fashion magazines. The disturbing idealisation of the female corpse manifests in Western culture, in fashion magazines, as expressed in depictions of the attractive/ seductive/fine-looking female corpse. Fashion photographs that fit this description are subverted as a strategy to undermine the aesthetic and cultural objectification of the female body. The utilisation of the abject and the grotesque in relation to my use of ink as artistic medium is therefore an attempt to create ambiguous and conflicting combinations of attraction and repulsion. Thelma thereby confronts the viewer with the notion of the objectification of the decease[d] feminine body as object to-be-looked-at.
This mini-dissertation serves as a framework for my own creative practice. In this research paper... more This mini-dissertation serves as a framework for my own creative practice. In this
research paper my intention is to explore, within a feminist reading, representations of
the female corpse in fashion photography and art. The cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s
theories on the concept of representation are utilised to critically analyse and
interogate selected images from fashion magazines, which depicts the female corpse
in an idealised way. Such idealisation manifests in Western culture, in fashion
magazines, as expressed in depictions of the attractive/ seductive/fine-looking female
corpse. Fashion photographs that fit this description are critically contrasted and
challenged to selected artworks by Penny Siopis and Marlene Dumas, alongside my
own work, to explore how the female corpse can be represented, as strategy to
undermine the aesthetic and cultural objectification of the female body. Here the
study also explores the selected artists’ utilisation of the abject and the grotesque in
relation to their use of artistic mediums and modes of production as an attempt to
create ambiguous and conflicting combinations of attraction and repulsion (the
sublime aesthetic of delightful horror), thereby confronting the viewer with the notion
of the objectification of the decease[d] feminine body as object to-be-looked-at. This
necessitated the inclusion of seminal theories developed by the French theorist, Julia
Kristeva (1982) on the abject and the Russian theorist, Mikhail Bakhtin (1968) on the
grotesque.