The dissertation explores how quality-judgments on works of art are created within the contemporary art world. The research starts with the examination of modernist art theories supported by the museum, and continues with the exploration of the impact of the art market on quality-judgments. Although the art market had already distorted the idea of quality, further contradictions and difficulties have risen within judgment-making after the 1960s due to the dematerialisation of the work of art. Art criticism should have been able to deal with this complexity, but it is demonstrated that art criticism is a subjective field and even if there is a universal theory on quality, it often fails when applied to the particular work of art. Throughout the dissertation it is demonstrated that although ‘good art’ is a subjective, power- and discourse-dependent concept, all art professionals seek something that is an inherent quality of the artwork. However, regardless of the existence of such inherent value, judgments on quality are constructed by and subjected to power-struggle. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology in Fine Art, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / The crux of my thesis is the study of the relationship of script and image in the work of contemporary arts. I chose to focus on three selected artists, i.e. myself, Celeste van der Merwe, a local South African male artist named Willem Boshoff and an international female artist, Barbara Kruger. My intention was to write a readable self-study thesis that would be both informative and educational while simultaneously appealing to the heart of the reader. In order to realise this intention, I focussed on how the above-mentioned artists used script and image to address social issues prevalent in society today. I also made social statements through the medium of my art based on the familiar allegory, Little Red Riding Hood. My aim has been to address the breakdown of the family structure by focussing on the suffering of teenagers as a result of dysfunctional family structures and behaviours. I explored the powerful and provocative manner in which Barbara Kruger effectively wields the combination of script and image in her work. Boshoff on the other hand is a South African linguist who incorporates script in a variety of disciplines such as installations, visual poetry, concrete poetry, sculpture. In my own art I deconstructed and transformed materials and found that the process of breaking down and rebuilding reflected the breakdown and restoration in/of the lives of children. By consciously investigating my practice as a creative artist using script and image I have gained a better understanding of myself and I believe I am now able to improve my practise. Through this self-study research I have grown in self-discovery and self-actualization as an artist and have developed as a researcher. Finally, I concluded that the relationship between script and image is open-ended, not conclusive and differs in each work of art. / Durban University of Technology Research Management Office. / M

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This thesis aims to assess the extent to which the African curated exhibition, Dak’Art: Biennale de l’art africain contemporain , succeeds in subverting hegemonic Western representations of African art as necessarily ‘exotic’ and ‘Other.’ My investigation of the Dak’Art biennale in this thesis is informed and preceded by a study of evolutionist assumptions towards African art and the continuing struggle for command over the African voice. I outline the trajectory of African art from primitive artifact to artwork, highlighting the prejudices that have kept Africans from being valued as equals and unique artists in their own right. I then look at exhibiting techniques employed to move beyond perceptions of the tribal, to subvert the exoticising tendency of the West and remedy the marginalised position of the larger African artistic community.

Orientador: Sérgio Mauro Romagnolo / Banca: Agnaldo Aricê Caldas Farias / Banca: José Leonardo Nascimento / Resumo: A pesquisa parte da observação de certos vazios percebidos na arte contemporânea e em minha própria produção, para uma investigação sobre alguns aspectos conceituais e estéticos do vazio relacionado às noções de existência e falta. O objetivo é entender porque alguns artistas contemporâneos parecem ter predileção pelo vazio e suas manifestações. Desta forma, o estudo apresenta uma reflexão sobre as mudanças ocorridas no período moderno relacionadas à queda da soberania religiosa, a ruptura da arte com as tradições e questões contemporâneas como narcisismo, indiferença e liberdade. Depois realiza-se um estudo sobre a falta comum a todos e as noções de recalque, sublimação e subjetividade na arte, aproximando o estudo da relação entre arte e psicanálise / Abstract: The beginning‟s point of this research was the perception of the often emptiness' representation in contemporary art and in my own production. From this, the next point was to investigate some conceptual and aesthetic aspects related with the notions of void, existence, freedom, indifference and lack. The research's purpose is to understand the reason for this kind of predilection in contemporary art. The study began through a short analysis of some artists and their works, where the empty takes place as privileged part of their poetic. After that, the second step was a reflection about the impacts and modifications in the modern time caused by: the religious' decrease, secession between art and traditions, contemporaries' questions such as individualism, indifference and freedom. Finally, the research traces a parallel between the common understanding of absence and psychoanalitical notions like repression, sublimation and subjectivity in art / Mestre

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-20T08:44:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Roseli Conceição de Moraes Rojas Demercian.pdf: 21774094 bytes, checksum: 95d38f47211b39dad7285d98ed51bcb6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-20T08:44:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roseli Conceição de Moraes Rojas Demercian.pdf: 21774094 bytes, checksum: 95d38f47211b39dad7285d98ed51bcb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-14 / Art in postmodernity does not survive by itself, without generating influxes in the social environment. It must make explicit the worldviews that structure reality, developing a multifaceted activity. As the art system expands throughout the world, so does the demand for curators who see a remarkable strengthening of their role. Thus, we discuss in the present thesis what should be expected of the art curator to develop criteria in the construction of an exhibition, with a new narrative communicational, raising the following hypotheses: what is the practical dimension of curatorial action and its characteristics current? Is it the art curator's job to educate the target audience? The general objective, therefore, is the study of how the curator's action should be, based on a legitimizing knowledge of contemporaneity; and its specific objective is the development of general criteria and models for this practical action, indent to utopias, in a method embodied in the space / time / occupation triad. The curator is an actor whose functions, methodology and activity have not yet been sufficiently explored in scientific research, which in practice have been diffused, marked by a strong empiricism that does nothing to develop curative theories. He must propose, through mediation, not only the orientation of the artist, but also the education of the gaze, thus revealing an effective interpretation of the world. The curatorship that served as a basis for this thesis was structured in four ethnographic concepts, namely: genocide of the Armenian people, memory, lectures and affective cartography. They were theorists: HANS ULBRICH OBRIST, who motivated the investigation of the materialization of the exhibition space, starting from conversations, meetings and exchanges, with the reinvention of a new meeting point with art, establishing relational and communicational criteria; JOHN DEWEY, whose concepts propitiated a new vision of research resulting from the junction between the new and the old, through the experience of the real, in which the impulsion gains form and solidity; and LÚCIA LEÃO, whose teachings raised the need to understand the process of creative construction of experience, resulting from a mapping of the global and panoramic view of the terrain on which the labyrinth would be projected. As a historical fact, the genocide of the Armenian people, recalled in its 100 years, the methodology used was eminently empirical based on reports, interviews and recordings, collecting files, documents of affection and memories. In order to achieve its purpose, it had, necessarily, an interdisciplinary character, involving, therefore, different areas of knowledge. The field survey lasted for approximately twelve months and its execution lasted for the same period. It is believed that the relevance of this research rests on its provocative character of affections because it revisits the memory and, at the same time, invites the dialogue. This aetiological construction requires study and repertoire acquisition, so that, based on these hypotheses, a great number of aesthetic, historical, political and social relations can be established. It has been demonstrated in this way that the final destination of the archive lies not in its own narrative but in the history that it makes possible / A arte na pós-modernidade não sobrevive por ela mesma, sem gerar influxos no meio social. Ela deve explicitar as visões de mundo que estruturam a realidade, desenvolvendo para tanto uma atividade multifacetada. Na medida em que o sistema das artes se expande pelo mundo, cresce também a demanda por curadores, que veem um notável fortalecimento do seu papel. Dessa forma, discute-se na presente tese o que se deve esperar do curador de arte para o desenvolvimento de critérios na construção de uma exposição, com uma nova narrativa comunicacional, suscitando as seguintes hipóteses: qual a dimensão prática da ação curatorial e suas características atuais? É tarefa do curador de arte a educação do público-alvo? O objetivo geral, portanto, é o estudo de como deve ser a atuação do curador, pautado num saber legitimador da contemporaneidade; e seu objetivo específico é o desenvolvimento de critérios e modelos gerais para essa atuação prática, indene a utopias, num método plasmado na tríade espaço/tempo/ocupação. O curador é um ator cujas funções, metodologia e atividade ainda não foram suficientemente exploradas nas pesquisas científicas, que, na prática, têm se mostrado difusas, marcadas por um forte empirismo que nada coopera para o desenvolvimento de teorias curatorias. Ele deve propor, pela mediação, não só a orientação do artista, como também a educação do olhar, descortinando, dessa forma, uma efetiva interpretação de mundo. A curadoria que serviu de base para a presente tese foi estruturada em quatro conceitos etnográficos, quais sejam: genocídio do povo armênio, memória, palestras e cartografia afetiva. Serviram-lhe de teóricos: HANS ULBRICH OBRIST, que motivou a investigação sobre a materialização do espaço expositivo, partindo de conversas, encontros e trocas reunidas, com a reinvenção de um novo ponto de encontro com a arte, estabelecendo critérios relacionais e comunicacionais; JOHN DEWEY, cujos conceitos propiciaram uma nova visão de pesquisa decorrente da junção entre o novo e o velho, por meio da experiência do real, em que a impulsão ganha forma e solidez; e LÚCIA LEÃO, cujos ensinamentos suscitaram a necessidade de se compreender o processo de construção criativa da experiência, resultante de um mapeamento do olhar global e panorâmico do terreno no qual o labirinto seria projetado. Como se abordou um fato histórico, o genocídio do povo armênio, rememorado nos seus 100 anos, a metodologia utilizada foi eminentemente empírica baseada em relatos, entrevistas e gravações, colhendo-se arquivos, documentos de afeto e memórias. Para a consecução da sua finalidade, teve, necessariamente, caráter interdisciplinar, envolvendo, portanto, diferentes áreas do conhecimento. A pesquisa de campo se prolongou por, aproximadamente, doze meses e a sua execução se estendeu por igual período. Acredita-se que a relevância desta pesquisa repousa no seu caráter provocador de afetos pois revisita a memória e, ao mesmo tempo, convida ao diálogo. Essa construção etiológica requer estudo e aquisição de repertório, para que, com base nessas hipóteses, se possa estabelecer um grande número de relações estéticas, históricas, políticas e sociais. Demonstrou-se, dessa maneira, que o destino final do arquivo está situado, não em sua própria narrativa, mas sim na história que ele torna possível

Scenario House, a gallery based installation, is comprised of a room constructed as a ???family room??? within a domestic space, a television with a looped video work and a sound componant played through a 5.1 sound system. The paper is intended to give my work context in relation to the processes leading up to its completion. This is achieved through clarification of the basis for the installation including previous socio-political discourses within my art practice. It then focuses on ways that the installation Scenario House is based on gun practice facilities such as the Valhalla Shooting Club. Further it gives an explanation of the actual production, in context with other art practices. It was found that distinctions between ???war as a game??? and the actual event are being lost within ???simulation revenge scenarios??? where the borders distinguishing gaming violence, television violence and revenge scenarios are increasingly indefinable. War can then be viewed a spectacle where the actual event is lost in a simplified simulation. Scenario House as installation allows audience immersion through sound spatialisation and physical devices. Sound is achieved by design of a 5.1 system played through a domestic home theatre system. The physical design incorporates the dual aspect of a gun shooting club and a lounge room. Further a film loop is shown on the television monitor as part of the domestic space ??? it is non-narrative and semi-documentary in style. The film loop represents the mediation of the representation of fear where there is an exclusion of ???the other??? from the social body. When considering this installation it is important to note that politics and art need not be considered as representing two separate and permanent realities. Conversely there is a need to distance politicised art production from any direct political campaign work in so far as the notion of a campaign constitutes a fixed and inflexible space for intellectual and cultural production. Finally this paper expresses the need to maintain a critical openness to media cultures that dominate political discourse. Art practices such as those of Martha Rosler, Haacke and Paul McCarthy are presented as effective strategies for this form of production.

published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This study examines metaphoric expression as an innovative phenomenon in This study examines metaphoric expression as an innovative phenomenon in the creative process and explor.es theO!i_~s_~f_ metap~or as a model for changing our perceptions of reality. Innovation is taken to be the creation and extension of meaning via metaphoric reference and projection, an imaginative -----------"----------- ------_.--- -_. _~~- _~ ---- str~Lct~rimLOf ~~!i~f!~ !h,at !:.E!!l1v~nt~ealit and esents it as~ fiC!ion~ While fiction refers to those worlds made in the creative act of producing works of art, worlds refer to both the exterior manifestations of works, as well as the interior world as a source of symbolic worlds. This study thus explores metaphoric reference and projection as a means by which we understand and figuratively express experience and the role metaphor plays in the creative strategies of my own practice as a visual artist and those of the contemporary British artist Tony Cragg. In my own recent working practice, in relation to the innovative role of metaphor, the notion of psychic or metaphorical disruption is explored. This is understood as a suspension of logical or literal reference to reality and as the condition for a metaphoric or analogical response to experience. This form of disengagement brought about by psychological and emotional upheaval, allows me to disembark from dominant conceptual and emotional frameworks and corresponds to the semantic openings brought about by metaphoric reference and interpretation. These disruptions manifest themselves as primitive iconic conditions that provide routes in the creative process conducive to discovery, restructuring and invention. In my work this is principally achieved by the activity of drawing. I describe drawing as a mythic activity of attempting to close the gap on an elusive empirical world and as a means of making new worlds. Interpretation or reading the drawings, their surfaces and calligraphic marks, is' also part of the lyrical process of making ii fidions, metaphorical digressions and progressions towards deciphering and re-organising worlds. These worlds are both virtual and material spaces. In all the work, what appears to be disruptive or discordant brings about the condition for renewal and reorientation in the world. The \YOrk of Tony Cragg (b.1949) is discussed as an example of contemporary art pradice where metaphor is evident as a model for changing perceptions. Early in his career Cragg explored scientific models of investigation, as explanatory means for understanding the world. His work refleds an endeavour to 'humanise' these scientific models by making images that fundion as alternative and complementary 'thinking models' (Cragg in Celant :172). His working process is understood as an attempt to construct a novel referential scheme for our encounters with the physical \YOrld of objeds both natural and manufadured. His sculptures are thus interpreted as visual manifestations of metaphorical disruption and innovation. Often made from discarded waste, his sculptures emerge from the material ruin of a prior physical order, and an evolving mental order. In both instances, physically and conceptually, they carry traces of former selves, with the potential to .extend into something new. As a loose framevvork for this discussion, certain theories of mind and metaphor that provide some insights into my own \YOrking pradice and what I perceive to be those of Tony Cragg, are briefly examined. Principally, these include the theory of metaphor of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, but also some more general views concerning cognition and imagination. These include the early theories of Giambattista Vico concerning the creative role of the imaginative and metaphorical capacities of the mind.. the creative process and explor.es theories of metaphor as a model for changing our perceptions of reality. Innovation is taken to be the creation and extension of meaning via metaphoric reference and projection, an imaginative -----------"----------- ------_.--- -_. _~~- _~ ---- str~Lct~rimLOf ~~!i~f!~ !h,at !:.E!!l1v~nt~ealit and esents it as~ fiC!ion~ While fiction refers to those worlds made in the creative act of producing works of art, worlds refer to both the exterior manifestations of works, as well as the interior world as a source of symbolic worlds. This study thus explores metaphoric reference and projection as a means by which we understand and figuratively express experience and the role metaphor plays in the creative strategies of my own practice as a visual artist and those of the contemporary British artist Tony Cragg. In my own recent working practice, in relation to the innovative role of metaphor, the notion of psychic or metaphorical disruption is explored. This is understood as a suspension of logical or literal reference to reality and as the condition for a metaphoric or analogical response to experience. This form of disengagement brought about by psychological and emotional upheaval, allows me to disembark from dominant conceptual and emotional frameworks and corresponds to the semantic openings brought about by metaphoric reference and interpretation. These disruptions manifest themselves as primitive iconic conditions that provide routes in the creative process conducive to discovery, restructuring and invention. In my work this is principally achieved by the activity of drawing. I describe drawing as a mythic activity of attempting to close the gap on an elusive empirical world and as a means of making new worlds. Interpretation or reading the drawings, their surfaces and calligraphic marks, is' also part of the lyrical process of making ii fidions, metaphorical digressions and progressions towards deciphering and re-organising worlds. These worlds are both virtual and material spaces. In all the work, what appears to be disruptive or discordant brings about the condition for renewal and reorientation in the world. The \YOrk of Tony Cragg (b.1949) is discussed as an example of contemporary art pradice where metaphor is evident as a model for changing perceptions. Early in his career Cragg explored scientific models of investigation, as explanatory means for understanding the world. His work refleds an endeavour to 'humanise' these scientific models by making images that fundion as alternative and complementary 'thinking models' (Cragg in Celant :172). His working process is understood as an attempt to construct a novel referential scheme for our encounters with the physical \YOrld of objeds both natural and manufadured. His sculptures are thus interpreted as visual manifestations of metaphorical disruption and innovation. Often made from discarded waste, his sculptures emerge from the material ruin of a prior physical order, and an evolving mental order. In both instances, physically and conceptually, they carry traces of former selves, with the potential to .extend into something new. As a loose framevvork for this discussion, certain theories of mind and metaphor that provide some insights into my own \YOrking pradice and what I perceive to be those of Tony Cragg, are briefly examined. Principally, these include the theory of metaphor of the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, but also some more general views concerning cognition and imagination. These include the early theories of Giambattista Vico concerning the creative role of the imaginative and metaphorical capacities of the mind. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

This dissertation is intended as an investigation into the art of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.The aim of thisinvestigation is to assess the possibility that the art produced by Johns and Rauschenberg during the 1950s and 1960s constitutes a transition from modernism to postmodernism in the visual arts in America. This dissertation is introduced by means of a broad outline of relevent developments within the visual arts during the1950s and 1960s in America. This outline also contains explanations of modernism and postmodernism and looks at how these terms are presented throughout this text. In the outline I describe how Johns and Rauschenberg can be identified with a shift that occurred in the visual arts in America during the mid 1950s away from two prominent modes of painting within modernism, namely' action' painting, as described by Harold Rosenberg (1982:28), and Clement Greenberg's 'American-type' painting (1973:208). Both Johns and Rauschenberg actively produced art during the 1970s and 1980s the period in which postmodernism is generally regarded to have been most prominent. However, in an attempt to assess the possibility that their art is transitional from modernism to postmodernism, this investigation focuses upon a selection of artworks produced during the 1950s and 1960s. I intend to discover whether or not these works signalled a departure from modernism and if they did, at what point this occurred and what the specific nature of this departure was. These works are examined from conceptual, formal, iconographical, stylistic and technical viewpoints. Throughout this dissertation I attempt to describe how Johns and Rauschenberg anticipated and embraced various postmodem tendencies that have subsequently emerged in the arts and other related disciplines. Parallels are drawn between the artworks of Johns and Rauschenberg and the disciplines of architecture and literary theory. These parallels are drawn with the intention of aligning Johns and Rauschenberg's attitude towards making art in the 1950s and 1960s with a relatively widespread mood in literary theory, philosophy and the social sciences concerning the inability of these disciplines to deliver totalising theories and doctrines, or enduring answers to fundamental dilemmas and puzzles posed by objects of inquiry, and a growing feeling, on the contrary, that chronic provisionality, plurality of perspectives and incommensurable appearances of the objects of inquiry in competing discourses make the search for ultimate answers or even answers that can command widespread consensus a futile exercise. (Boyne and Rattansi 1990: 12). / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Scenario House, a gallery based installation, is comprised of a room constructed as a ???family room??? within a domestic space, a television with a looped video work and a sound componant played through a 5.1 sound system. The paper is intended to give my work context in relation to the processes leading up to its completion. This is achieved through clarification of the basis for the installation including previous socio-political discourses within my art practice. It then focuses on ways that the installation Scenario House is based on gun practice facilities such as the Valhalla Shooting Club. Further it gives an explanation of the actual production, in context with other art practices. It was found that distinctions between ???war as a game??? and the actual event are being lost within ???simulation revenge scenarios??? where the borders distinguishing gaming violence, television violence and revenge scenarios are increasingly indefinable. War can then be viewed a spectacle where the actual event is lost in a simplified simulation. Scenario House as installation allows audience immersion through sound spatialisation and physical devices. Sound is achieved by design of a 5.1 system played through a domestic home theatre system. The physical design incorporates the dual aspect of a gun shooting club and a lounge room. Further a film loop is shown on the television monitor as part of the domestic space ??? it is non-narrative and semi-documentary in style. The film loop represents the mediation of the representation of fear where there is an exclusion of ???the other??? from the social body. When considering this installation it is important to note that politics and art need not be considered as representing two separate and permanent realities. Conversely there is a need to distance politicised art production from any direct political campaign work in so far as the notion of a campaign constitutes a fixed and inflexible space for intellectual and cultural production. Finally this paper expresses the need to maintain a critical openness to media cultures that dominate political discourse. Art practices such as those of Martha Rosler, Haacke and Paul McCarthy are presented as effective strategies for this form of production.