A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY of FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG July 2015 / This research project explores the role of art exhibitions in bringing the work of African artists, in this case ‘rural’ South Africa artists, to the attention of the contemporary world. Broadly it seeks to explore questions that arise from the construction of the category of ‘African art’, its canonisation, representation and precarious transition from ethnology to art. By examining the conditions under which the work of black ‘rural’ artists in South Africa was included in major national art exhibitions of South African art during the 1980s, an inquiry is made as to why some or most of these artists have since disappeared and slipped away from the mainstream. There appears to have been very little written about these artists, with the exception of a handful, in the context of these exhibitions. As a result this study proposes a review of the content and contexts of these exhibitions so as to determine their role in generating written commentary and critiques that established the differentials that I will argue were at play in the ways in which ‘rural’ black artists were included, received and have ultimately disappeared from view in the high art arena

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Fine Arts by Dissertation. Johannesburg, 2014. / This practice based research project engages with the theme of safety and security through the conceptualisation and production of sculptures and drawings. The exhibition takes the form of an installation which is the primary source of interrogation into the broad topic of increasing securitisation in the contemporary urban environment. The components of this research project include 1) a body of practical artwork which explores the theme of safety and security in Johannesburg and 2) a dissertation which locates this exploration in theoretical, critical, historical perspectives. There is a particular focus on two other securitised cities namely São Paulo and London in relationship to the work of artists Marcelo Cidade and Mona Hatoum respectively, specifically sculpture/installation, which engages thematically and materially with notions of power, surveillance and security that responds to their immediate surroundings. The Johannesburg security context and works by the design team Dokter and Misses are analysed and finally a documentation and critical reflection of my own creative work produced in the context of this study.