Esta dissertação aponta para um caminho cuja trajetória é a busca e o entendimento da complexidade da arte e da cultura africana, especialmente da África subsaariana e, dessa forma, contribuir para uma reflexão sobre a formação da cultura brasileira nos seus modos de ser e de pensar, através das características atribuídas aos descendentes de africanos que para o Brasil foram trazidos na condição de escravos. Nosso ponto de partida é a religiosidade de matriz africana reinventada no Brasil, e o motivo pelo qual a escolhemos como base, sem nos aprofundarmos em seus significados, é que ela guarda, mesmo que recriados, traços importantes da linguagem e de um modo de ser que refletem uma maneira muito peculiar característica dos habitantes daquele continente. Aportando nossos estudos no citado território, especialmente nos sítios dos iorubás (Nigéria, principalmente), dos fons (Benim) e dos tchokwes (Angola e Congo), utilizamos a arte não somente como uma maneira de expressão da cultura, mas também apresentando a produção escultórica como uma forma de dialogar com a mitologia. História, arte, mitologia, ancestralidade, poesia e educação africana estão presentes nesta pesquisa que também visa contribuir com as Leis 10639/03 e 11.645/08, de ensino de história e culturas africanas e afro-brasileiras nas salas de aula. / This work points to a path whose trajectory is seeking and understanding of the complexity of art and African culture, especially Sub-Saharan Africa and thereby contribute to a reflection on the formation of Brazilian culture in their ways of being and thinking, through the characteristics attributed to the descendants of Africans who were brought to Brazil as slaves. Our starting point is the religiosity of African reinvented in Brazil, and the reason we chose as the base, without delving into their meanings, is that she keeps, even recreated important features of language and a way of being that reflect a very peculiar characteristic of the inhabitants of that continent. Bringing our studies in the said territory, especially in sites Yoruba (Nigeria, mostly), the fons (Benin) and tchokwes (Angola and Congo), we use the art not only as a way of expression of culture, but also showing the production sculpture as a form of dialogue with the mythology. History, art, mythology, ancestry, poetry and African education are present in this study also aims to contribute to the Laws 10639/03 and 11.645/08, teaching history and African cultures and african-Brazilian classrooms.

This thesis explores the tensions between nation building and globalisation in relation to state-sponsored visual arts projects, focusing on the Biennale project of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC). It explores the extent to which this project - aimed initially at internationalising and then globalising South Africa’s art world following the demise of apartheid in 1994 - was compatible with key nation building objectives for state funding of the arts, captured imperfectly in the country’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). It is found that the Biennale project was largely not compatible with the RDP’s objectives for state funding, namely to promote national unity while respecting the country’s cultural diversity, redress imbalances of the past in access to the arts, and promote culture as a component of South Africa’s development, in spite of the GJMC’s statements to the contrary. Rather the Johannesburg Biennale reproduced the dialectic of economic inclusion and exclusion endemic to the political project of globalisation, leading to the creation of economic and artistic ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ akin to the ‘First World’ and ‘Third World’ divide that the RDP warned against in its principle on nation-building, and proved to be an inappropriate use of state resources given the divided nature of the South African artworld. Furthermore, the GJMC imported uncritically an exhibition form associated with the discourse of internationalisation in the first Biennale, and then globalisation in the second, from other Biennales, based on contestable theoretical positions on nationalism and globalisation. This they did in an attempt to address a growing financial crisis in the city by using a ‘one size fit all’ set of policy prescriptions falling under the rubric of neo-liberalism, including culture-led methods of enhancing a city’s global status to attract foreign revenue. In particular, the Biennale did not learn the lesson that the shift in focus in other Biennales from internationalisation to globalisation, was also accompanied by growing discontent in these countries about the elitist nature of these events. I also consider whether it is possible to devise an alternative Biennale project that uses international contact to unite the South African artworld, rather than dividing it.

[pt] Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, realizada por meio de grupos focais e painéis visuais com interessados em objetos de arte africana no Brasil, com o objetivo de levantar crenças e preferências desses indivíduos. O estudo explorou o conceito de arte africana junto a esse público, imagens e emoções associadas a esse conceito, motivos que orientam a preferência por alguns objetos sobre outros e aspectos importantes do valor simbólico e estético dos objetos de arte africana. A pesquisa também trouxe observações sobre a adequação dos objetos de arte africana às propriedades encontradas em objetos de consumo hedônico e sobre alguns aspectos do consumo e posse de objetos de arte africana. / [en] This qualitative research uses focal groups and visual panels to elicit beliefs and preferences of some Brazilians interested in objects of African art. It hás explored the concept of African art, the images and emotions associated with it, the driving motives underlying the preferences for certain art objects over others. This study also discusses some important simbolic and aesthetic aspects of hedonic consumption related to African art.

Que ce soit au niveau des musées, du marché de l’art et des collections privées, Paris se défini aujourd’hui comme une place centrale de l’activité du monde des arts d’Afrique Noire. Outre l’actualité muséographique des arts d’Afrique Noire, avec l’inauguration en avril 2000 de la salle du pavillon des Sessions au musée du Louvre, puis l’ouverture du musée du quai Branly en juin 2006 ; Paris doit aussi sa place de capitale du monde des arts d’Afrique Noire par la centralisation des activités du marché de l’art de cette spécialité en son sein.D’ailleurs, nos travaux montrent que le rôle joué par la sphère privée des marchands et des collectionneurs est primordial dans l’homologation esthétique et la définition de la hiérarchie des valeurs esthétiques aujourd’hui admises dans la spécialité des arts d’Afrique Noire.Cette thèse de doctorat est aussi l’occasion de rappeler pourquoi le monde des arts d’Afrique Noire est une invention des pays de culture occidentale et permet d’appréhender avec plus d’objectivité l’appropriation occidentale du patrimoine artistique ancien et traditionnel issu de l’Afrique Subsaharienne / Whether it’s at the level of museums, the art market, or private collections, Paris is defined today as a central place of world activity, for ‘Black African’ arts. Beyond the reality, museographically speaking of Black African arts, with the inauguration of the Pavillion Hall of Sessions at the Louvre Museum in April 2000, and then the opening of the Quai Branly Museum in June 2006 ; Paris also credits it’s positions as the world’s capital of Black African arts by the centralisation of the art market’s activities of this speciality in it’s heart.Elsewhere, our works show that the role played by the private sphere of traders and of collectors is primordial in the aesthetic homologation and the definition of the hierarchy of aesthetic values today admitted in the speciality of ‘Black African’ arts.This doctorate thesis is also the occasion to recall why the world of ‘Black African’ arts is an invention of countries of western character, and allows to apprehend with more objectivity to western adapatation of ancient artistic heritage and traditional descent from the Sub-Saharan Africa.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie Debates about how best to test people from different contexts and backgrounds continue to hold the spotlight of testing and assessment. In an effort to contribute to the debates, the purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate the viability and utility of nonverbal figural reasoning ability items that were developed based on inspirations from African cultural artefacts such as African material prints, art, decorations, beadwork, paintings, et cetera. The research was conducted in two phases, with phase 1 focused on the development of the new items, while phase 2 was used to evaluate the new items. The aims of the study were to develop items inspired by African art and cultural artefacts in order to measure general nonverbal figural reasoning ability; to evaluate the viability of the items in terms of their appropriateness in representing the African art and cultural artefacts, specifically to determine the face and content validity of the items from a cultural perspective; and to evaluate the utility of the items in terms of their psychometric properties. These elements were investigated using the exploratory sequential mixed method research design with quantitative embedded in phase 2. For sampling purposes, the sequential mixed method sampling design and non-probability sampling strategies were used, specifically the purposive and convenience sampling methods. The data collection methods that were used included interviews with a cultural expert and colour-blind person, open-ended questionnaires completed by school learners and test administration to a group of 946 participants undergoing a sponsored basic career-related training and guidance programme. Content analysis was used for the qualitative data while statistical analysis mainly based on the Rasch model was utilised for quantitative data. The results of phase 1 were positive and provided support for further development of the new items, and based on this feedback, 200 new items were developed. This final pool of items was then used for phase 2 – the evaluation of the new items. The v statistical analysis of the new items indicated acceptable psychometric properties of the general reasoning (“g” or fluid ability) construct. The item difficulty values (pvalues) for the new items were determined using classical test theory (CTT) analysis and ranged from 0.06 (most difficult item) to 0.91 (easiest item). Rasch analysis showed that the new items were unidimensional and that they were adequately targeted to the level of ability of the participants, although there were elements that would need to be improved. The reliability of the new items was determined using the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient (α) and the person separation index (PSI), and both methods indicated similar indices of internal consistency (α = 0.97; PSI = 0.96). Gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) was investigated, and the majority of the new items did not indicate any significant differences between the gender groups. Construct validity was determined from the relationship between the new items and the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT), which uses traditional item formats to measure fluid ability. The correlation results for the total score of the new items and the pre- and post-tests were 0.616 and 0.712 respectively. The new items were thus confirmed to be measuring fluid ability using nonverbal figural reasoning ability items. Overall, the results were satisfactory in indicating the viability and utility of the new items. The main limitation of the research was that because the sample was not representative of the South African population, there were limited for generalisation. This led to a further limitation, namely that it was not possible to conduct important analysis on DIF for various other subgroups. Further research has been recommended to build on this initiative. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology

À travers l’exemple de la collection Lebaudy-Griaule de l’Université de Strasbourg, cette recherche s’efforce de répondre, selon une approche interdisciplinaire, aux interrogations relatives à l’évolution de la création africaine, en notre contexte mondialisé, et, particulièrement, au Burkina Faso, aire culturelle déterminée par la provenance des masques a-dunε koromba de notre corpus. La première partie consiste en une exploitation historique de la collection afin de comprendre les modalités de collecte des artefacts et les valeurs nouvelles dont ils furent investis par « décontextualisation ». La seconde partie est l’occasion de documenter les artefacts de notre corpus et d’analyser l’évolution de la création traditionnelle in situ. La troisième partie porte sur les rapports entre art contemporain et création traditionnelle africaine à l’ère de la mondialisation. / Through the example of Lebaudy-Griaule’s collection of the University of Strasbourg, this research tries to answer, according to an interdisciplinary approach, to interrogations related to the evolution of African creation, in our globalized context, and, particularly, in Burkina Faso, cultural area determined by the origin of the masks a-dunε koromba of our corpus. The first part consists of a historical exploitation of the collection to understand the conditions of collecting artifacts and the new values which they were invested by "decontextualization". The second part is the opportunity to document the artifacts of our corpus and analyze the evolution of traditional creation in situ. The third part focuses on the relationship between contemporary art and traditional African creation in the era of globalization.

This study focuses on Berni Searle’s art, in which she searches for alternative figurations of identity. For Searle, identity as a category seems insufficient, as it cannot account for individuals of mixed heritage. Searle’s body of work testifies to an attempt to position and locate herself and marginalised subjects within post-apartheid South Africa. History, tradition, culture, race and gender are pivotal to Searle’s visual examination of her body and her identity, as these inscribe the subject at both symbolic and physical levels. Identity was investigated within South African context and the contexts of various postcolonial, postmodern and feminist debates. Searle’s works were investigated revealing nomadic subjectivity, as philosophised about by Gilles Deleuze and theorised about by Rosi Braidotti. Nomadic subjectivity promotes the notion that identity is fluid and located in the interstitial spaces between dichotomies and various debates. The habitation of such liminal spaces in the interstices between binary oppositions and views relates to what Homi Bhabha has defined as the “third space” and the notion of hybridity. Searle constructs her identity by affixing disparate aspects of her self. This is a continuous process whereby the artist inserts and erases her body. Searle’s works are investigated by using the film as a format. In Cinema 1: the movement-image (1986) Deleuze outlined three core cinematic elements, namely the frame, shot and montage, which are employed in an attempt to investigate the various processes at work in Searle’s artistic production. In addition to this, these filmic components were considered for their conceptual implications both in terms of the medium of film and symbolically. The concept of time, as discussed in Cinema 2: the time-image (1989) was utilised to investigate the implications of time for the nomadic subject and the notion of memory. Copyright 2005, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Adendorff, A 2005, Nomadic figurations of identity on the work of Berni Searle, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-12072005-161121 / > / Dissertation (M (Visual Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

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This research investigates the Neo-Baroque aesthetic of excess in contemporary South African art, and explores reasons for the emergence of this style. It investigates artists who use their bodies as a site of resistance, to contest or reconstruct the dominant social values which establish differences between bodies to place them within the marginal position of ‘Other’. This investigation relates to post-colonial concerns. The artists’ exploitation of the Neo-Baroque aesthetic of excess as a comment on social concerns reveals a sense of crisis within South African society, similar to the conditions from which the seventeenth century Baroque style evolved. Neo-Baroque aesthetics of excess manifest in a variety of ways, and are particularly evident when artists transgress social boundaries placed on the body through abject and erotic associations. Excess ultimately arises from complexity, as hybrid art forms are created from the combination of media and content found within the art work. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

D. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Fine Art, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Studies on art made by women have been deprived of their place in the history of art, globally, however, within the South African context, white women were placed firmly within the arts while black women were marginalised. This study makes two assertions, that culture was used as a weapon during apartheid in the 1980s, and that black women, as artists, contributed to South African art history through conferences and exhibitions. The process adopted in securing these two stated positions was to use the frameworks of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and grounded theory as methods to elicit personal experiences through interviews with six women involved in the arts and who contributed to the apartheid struggle during the 1980s. The process used to structure the research and collect data, was an argumentative review of selective literature. Exhibition reviews, conference presentations and proceedings, as well as journal publications between 1982 and 1990. The review concentrated on ‘what’ and ‘how’ statements made on black artists, specifically black women, to understand the reasons for the neglecting of black women artists in the construction of South African art history in the 1980s. Culture as a weapon of the struggle constructed a substantial part of this research as the study considered aspects that constituted struggle culture during the 1980s and the role of black women within this culture. Important to the role of black women as cultural activists was the inclusion of the oppressive nature of class, gender and race as experienced by black women during apartheid to expose the complexities that impacted black women’s roles as activists. A discussion of conferences, and festivals (with accompanying exhibitions), and the cultural boycott against South Africa, the official adoption of culture as a weapon of the struggle, and the resolutions taken at these conferences is investigated. Also of importance was the inclusion of women as a point of discussion at these conferences: their poor position in society, and support for the inclusion of more women into the visual arts. In support of black women’s contribution to South African art history, a discussion on black women as cultural activists is included. This includes interviews with six activists who were part of the liberation struggle during the 1980s who shared their experiences. The study asserts that black artists, specifically black women artists, were prejudiced during the 1980s. This did not however serve as a deterrent to their contribution to a South African art history. Anti-apartheid movements such as the African National Congress (ANC) and the anti-apartheid movement (AABN), Amsterdam, played an integral role in creating alternative cultural platforms that supported a ‘people’s culture’, that enabled the use of culture as a ‘weapon of the struggle’ against apartheid.