In an attempt to understand the multiple lives of an object - specifically a death inquest register from the year 1976 - this dissertation examines five moments in the objects life (referred to as the Ledger) that invest it with ‘capital’. They are; • The Cillié Commission of Inquiry. • Sam Nzima’s photograph of Hector Pieterson. • The destruction of apartheid documents in the early 1990’s. • Kendell Geers’ appropriation of the Ledger. • Museum Africa’s purchase of the Ledger. By applying a biographical methodology to this object, this dissertation examines how the shifts in the multiple lives of the Ledger address the different roles that the archive plays in the construction of memory in South Africa.

M.Tech. Fine and Applied Arts. / This study explores the Platonic notion of idealism, specifically applied to the botanical imagery represented in Renaissance paintings and its enamelled jewellery counterparts, as an aid in contemporary enamelled jewellery design. The same process of idealisation found in Renaissance painting and enamel jewels, is applied to South African botanical motifs, which creates a stylistic departure from the botanical images used during the Renaissance. This research employs a literary review on the thought and theory of idealism and its link with Renaissance painting and enamelled jewellery. Images and information on selected Renaissance paintings and enamelled jewellery incorporating botanical motifs are compared and analysed in order to investigate the progression of the idealised motif. Through the analysis of Renaissance jewellery, the basic design framework that was employed in the designing of the piece becomes apparent. The enamelling techniques, types, colours and motifs are re-applied using the notion of idealisation, to South African botanical motifs and a design framework is constructed for contemporary enamel jewellery. This study demonstrates the application of an historical design principle to contemporary jewellery design. As a result, unique collections of enamelled contemporary jewellery are created, translated from the Renaissance idealised botanical motifs into a South African context.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The social and spatial dimensions of any settlement are widely recognised in the international literature as having been shaped notably by art in some of the so-called cities of art or culture, such as Florence, Venice and other, smaller cultural nodes around the world. Arts resources have an impact on the socio-spatial dimension of a locale in a multitude of ways, and an understanding thereof can be hugely beneficial to a town‟s development and success. When developed, utilised and protected correctly, the full positive effects of such resources can be achieved to stimulate an inclusive and diverse art town setting. The Western Cape town of Stellenbosch is reputed for its rich arts and cultural heritage, yet there has not been extensive academic research concerning the incidence and effects thereof. Hence, Stellenbosch provides a platform from which to study the socio-spatial influence that visual art brings about in the interplay between art, people and space. Enhanced planning and decision making can then be undertaken for the current and future protection and management of art resources, equipping Stellenbosch to be part of a world that is both a competitive global market and diverse sphere of social constructs and discourses. The exploration of notions such as commoditisation, the places and spaces of art, formal and informal public art, artwork defacement, and the sense of place brought about by the art in Stellenbosch to obtain an overarching impression of the nature and extent of the influences of art on the socio-spatial dimension was the primary aim of this study. A descriptive overview of the socio-spatialities brought about by art in the so-called art town of Stellenbosch is provided by utilising in-depth interviews in combination with a minor GIS component. This enables an overall view of the public perception of art in Stellenbosch, as well as a visual overview of the distribution of the available art resources, hence providing new attribute and spatial data that can inform future initiatives in the town. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die internasionale literatuur word die sosiale en ruimtelike dimensies van ‟n nedersetting wyd erken as deur kuns gevorm te wees in sommige sogenaamde stede van kuns of kultuur, soos Florence of Venesië, en ander, kleiner kulturele nodes regoor die wêreld. Kunsbronne het op ‟n magdom van maniere ‟n impak op die sosio-ruimtelike dimensie van ‟n land, en ‟n begrip daarvan is uiters voordelig vir ‟n dorp se ontwikkeling en sukses. Wanneer dié bronne toepaslik ontwikkel, benut en beskerm word, kan die volle positiewe uitwerking daarvan bereik word om ‟n inklusiewe en diverse kunsdorpomgewing te stimuleer. Die Wes-Kaapse dorp Stellenbosch is bekend vir sy ryk kuns- en kulturele erfenis, maar uitgebreide akademiese navorsing oor die voorkoms en gevolge daarvan is nog nie onderneem nie. Stellenbosch bied dus ‟n platform waarop die sosio-ruimtelike invloed van visuele kuns in die wisselwerking tussen kuns, mense en die ruimte bestudeer kan word. Verbeterde beplanning en besluitneming kan dan gedoen word vir die huidige en toekomstige beskerming en bestuur van kunsbronne, wat Stellenbosch sal toerus vir ‟n wêreld wat beide ‟n kompeterende globale mark en diverse terrein van sosiale konstrukte en diskoerse is. Die ondersoek van begrippe soos kommodifikasie, die plekke en ruimtes van kuns, formele en informele openbare kuns, kunswerkskending, en sin van plek wat deur die kuns in Stellenbosch teweeg gebring word, verskaf ‟n oorkoepelende indruk van die aard en omvang van die invloede van kuns op die sosio-ruimtelike dimensie, wat die primêre doel van hierdie studie was. ‟n Beskrywende oorsig van die sosio-ruimtelikheid wat deur kuns in die sogenaamde kunsdorp Stellenbosch teweeg gebring word, is verskaf deur gebruik te maak van in-diepte onderhoude in kombinasie met ‟n kleiner GIS-komponent. Dit lewer ‟n geheelbeeld van die openbare persepsie van kuns op Stellenbosch, sowel as ‟n visuele oorsig van die verspreiding van die kunsbronne wat beskikbaar is, wat dus nuwe attribuut- en ruimtelike data verskaf wat toekomstige inisiatiewe op die dorp kan inlig.

It was both by luck and by accident that Dirk Charley van der Mescht's creations were discovered as a topic for research ... a recluse who lived out in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. It was said of this man that he was a strange person who produced even stranger works. On investigation it was discovered that he was an Outsider sculptor by the name of D. C. van der Mescht. He and his family live at a small railway siding, known as Zuney, eighteen kilometres west of Alexandria. Isolated, uneducated and untutored, he had created an environment of sculptures for no apparent reason at all. The only explanation he appeared to be able to offer is that: he just does it. Intro. p. 1.

This thesis investigates the concepts of revolt and de-reification and how these can be perceived and implemented within the context of performance. The argument focuses on the ability of revolt to question and unsettle processes of reification which in turn manifest a strategy of de-reification. I investigate the potential in contemporary performance practice to challenge prevailing modes of perception and restore the production of desire to the spectator through strategies of de-reification. This research is approached through a qualitative process which entails a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. This reading/application is engaged in a dialogue with the interpretative and experiential aspects of the two works selected for analysis. Chapter One functions as an introduction to the concept of reification and the necessity of a process geared towards de-reification through revolt. I argue that revolt is already embedded in avant-garde artistic practices through an experimental and questioning approach to artistic practice and the production of meaning. Chapter Two is an analysis of Vera Mantero’s solo work, one mysterious Thing said e.e cummings* (1996). This is structured around two identifiable elements, one being the resistance to signification (designification), which is argued as a strategy of revolt within the piece. The second is the notion of abjection, which works doubly to aid the resistance to signification as well as working as a strategy of revolt by its implication in the work. Chapter Three analyses Jaco Bouwer’s Untitled (2008), specifically dealing with the notion of absence as a strategy of revolt and de-reification. The discussion is focused on the potential complication of desire through absence as enacting a larger project of revolt. As in Chapter Two, this is similarly related to the fragmentation of signs through designification which emphasises the strategy of absence. This thesis concludes with the idea that meaning-making in performance can be considered a process. Instead, the lack or failure of meaning within these selected performance practices enables a return to the individual (performer and spectator) as the agent of desire.

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

The study is practice-led in visual art and it explores the impact of intermediality to validate that new knowledge emerges via processes that lead to possibilities of transformative hybridity. Intermediality was established and generated through a productive reciprocity between practice and theory as well as between analogue and digital art. The research created a community of enquiry through an exhibition entitled TRANSCODE: dialogues around intermedia practice (2011) in order to model innovative approaches towards improvement of transmedial artistic practice. The diversity of work by artists involved in this exhibition allowed exploration of a range of creative processes to investigate and understand characteristics of productive intermediality. The concept of transcoding in this study was derived from Deleuze and Guattari, which describes how one milieu functions as a foundation for another, implying an intermedial tension. TRANSCODE alludes to the mediation that transcribes meanings across boundaries and within complexity. Selected characteristics of narratives, space, embodiment and visual systems were researched through the lens of mediamatic thinking, which refers to thinking via media. The study proposes that intermediality is best seen as a construct of the tensional differences that become enriched within the grey areas. In applying Deleuze and Guattari‘s metaphor of the rhizome and Tim Ingold‘s concept of the mycelial mesh, the research project not only prompted structured collective thinking through practice, but also captured various case studies relevant to practice-led methodology. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Art History)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Botanical art consists of a complex combination of scientific fact and aesthetic awareness, and is concerned with more than the realistic representation of a plant and its flowers. It goes beyond the visual description of scientific information and speaks about the contributions artists have made through history to the conventions of both art and science. It contains a unique visual language, conventions which we read intelligently and an evolved tradition, and it is this language and the development of these conventions within the genre of South African botanical art, which this thesis investigates. In South Africa botanical art developed as a direct result of European interest in the flora and the colonisation of this country by the West. A brief history of responses to South African plants is discussed in the Introduction in order to begin to establish an understanding of this tradition and to contextualise the contributions made by 19th-and 20th -century South African botanical artists. Now that postmodernity has called for the reassessment and questioning of 'given truths', alternative ways of assessing botanical art are slowly evolving. Through study and the comparison of botanical art and artists of South Africa their evaluation as artists is reconsidered. This issue of defining art and artists is the subject of Chapter One of this study. Some of the factors that have a bearing on this include: relationships between text and image; art and science; art and illustration; and how society's expectations of gender roles affect the production of botanical art. In order to establish a context from which to discuss plant imagery in South Africa, it is important to study the history and development of botanical art in this country. Chapter Two discusses the emergence and development of this art form and its artists, starting with a short description of people and events from the 1600s and then takes a comprehensive look at developments in the 19th and 20m centuries. For the artists working within the genre of botanical art, the conventions and inventions are often explicitly formulated. It is an art based on the logic, scrutiny and informative tradition of science, where the main objective is to represent a plant's structural essence. Fundamental to our response to botanical art, however, is the style and technique employed by the artist. Chapter Three is devoted to a detailed discussion of the work of selected contemporary South African botanical art and artists. By comparing their work it is possible to establish trends and developments in representation and the role played by mediums and techniques in this highly skilled art form. Since this research has both a theoretical and a practical component, Chapter Four is devoted to discussion of my own work within the botanical art genre. I describe and illustrate several related series of paintings and explore established conventions and ways of developing my own stylistic identity as a botanical artist. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Botaniese kuns bestaan uit 'n komplekse kombinasie van wetenskaplike feite en estetiese bewustheid, en is gemoeid met baie meer as net die realistiese voorstelling van 'n plant en sy blomme. Dit gaan verder as net die blote visuele uitbeelding van wetenskaplike informasie, en behels die bydraes wat kunstenaars deur die geskiedenis tot die konvensies van beide kuns en die wetenskap gemaak het. Botaniese kuns besit 'n unieke visuele taal, konvensies wat intelligent gelees word, en 'n ontwikkelde tradisie. Hierdie tesis ondersoek juis hierdie spesiale taal en ontwikkeling van konvensies binne die genre van Suid-Afrikaanse botaniese kuns. Botaniese kuns in Suid-Afrika het ontwikkel as In direkte gevolg van Europese belangstelling in die flora, en Westerse kolonialisasie van hierdie land. In die Inleidingword daar kortliks gekyk na die geskiedenis van die hantering van Suid-Afrikaanse plante, en het ten doelom eerstens 'n begrip van hierdie tradisie daar te stel, en tweedens om die bydraes van 19de en 20ste eeuse Suid-Afrikaanse botaniese kunstenaars te kontekstualiseer. Sedert Postmodernisme die herevaluering en bevraagtekening van gegewewe waarhede aangewakker het, is die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe maniere van kyk na botaniese kuns stadig besig om plaas te vind. Deur die bestudering en vergelyking van botaniese kuns en kunstenaars van Suid-Afrika, word die botaniese kunstenaar se status as kunstenaar uitgelig. Hierdie kwessie oor die defmieëring van kuns en kunstenaars is die onderwerp van Hoofstuk 1 van hierdie werkstuk. 'n Paar van die faktore wat In invloed op laasgenoemde het, sluit in: verhoudinge tussen beeld en teks; kuns en wetenskap; kuns en illustrasie; en hoe kwessies van geslag soos waargeneem deur die samelewing die produsering van botaniese kuns beïnvloed. Dit is belangrik om die geskiedenis en ontwikkeling van botaniese kuns in Suid-Afrika te bestudeer, sodat daar 'n konteks geskep kan word waarbinne die afbeelding van plante in hierdie land bespreek kan word. Hoofstuk 2 behandel die totstandkoming en ontwikkeling van hierdie kunsvorm en sy kunstenaars, en begin met 'n kort beskrywing van mense en gebeurtenisse van die 1600s wat gevolg word deur 'n uitgebreide kyk na ontwikkelinge gedurende die 19de en 20ste eeue. Vir die kunstenaars wat werk binne die genre van botaniese kuns, is die konvensies en bevindings van die medium dikwels breedvoerig geformuleer. Dit is 'n kunsvorm gebasseer op die logiese, navorsbare en insiggewende tradisie van die wetenskap, waar die hoofdoel die voorstelling van 'n plant se strukturele essensie is. Fundementeel in die benadering tot botaniese kuns is die styl en tegniek wat deur die kunstenaar gebruik word. Hoofstuk 3 word gewy aan 'n gedetailleerde bespreking van die werk van geselekteerde kontemporêre Suid-Afrikaanse bot~iese kuns en kunstenaars. Deur hul werk te vergelyk is dit moontlik om tendense en ontwikkelings in die voorstelling en aanbieding van botaniese kuns te bepaal, en wat die rol van verskillende mediums en tegnieke in hierdie hoogs geskoolde kunsvorm behels. Weens die feit dat hierdie navorsing uit 'n teoretiese en praktiese komponent bestaan, word Hoofstuk 4 gewy aan 'n bespreking van my praktiese werk binne die genre van botaniese kuns. Ek beskryf en illustreer verskeie verwante reekse werke en kyk na bestaande konvensies en die maniere hoe my eie stilistiese identiteit as botaniese kunstenaar kan ontwikkel binne die medium.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fine Art(Printmaking), Technikon Natal, 2000. / This dissertation is concerned with the effects of censorship on the arts community during the apartheid era in South Africa, and in the post apartheid era that followed. Through interviews and various sources, a picture will be presented that examines the contrasts and similarities of the two eras. Chapter One will present an overview of South African history, from its beginnings in 1653 to the first popular election in 1994. It will show how the religious beliefs and accompanying attitudes of the in-coming colonialists created a social atmosphere in which the system of apartheid was able to flourish and grow. It will also show how apartheid ultimately crumbled under pressure from growing resistance and violence among the people it sought to control. Chapter Two is comprised primarily of the results of several interviews with selected artists, showing how the various individuals thought about censorship, how they dealt with all the restrictive laws, and how they were able to pursue their art making under these conditions. Personal experiences illuminate the effects of such censorship, and opinions about the value and necessity of censorship are summarized. Various of the interviewees talk specifically about what actions they took under the apartheid regime, and how they viewed, and continue to view, the role of the artist in society. Chapter Three uses several case studies to illustrate what is currently happening concerning censorship and art in the post-apartheid era. Opinions and reactions to current conditions will be presented, and specific instances of censorship or attempted censorship will offer a comparison with the previous era. This will illustrate how much liberty artists today enjoy in South Africa. Several significant issues are raised by such examples; Issues of potency and importance to any culture. Finally, the artists themselves look ahead, and provide a picture of the future for arts in this society . / M

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.