‘Becoming Animal’: Motifs of Hybridity and Liminality in Fairy Tales and Selected Contemporary Artworks serves as a theoretical examination of the concept of the hybrid. My research unpacks the liminal aspect of hybridity, locating the hybrid in the imaginative world of popular fairy tales, folk lore and mythology. In my accompanying MFA exhibition, Becoming(s), I explore these motifs through an installation of mixed-media sculptures which are based on the hybrid creatures that populated the fantasy world of my childhood. The written component of my MFA submission will relate directly to my professional art practise, developing it further and situating it within a relevant context. In my mini-thesis I will consider the liminal in relation to the ‘animal turn’ in contemporary art, with a particular focus on relevant artists working with the motifs of hybridity, such as Nandipha Mntambo, Jane Alexander and Kiki Smith. The ‘animal turn’ is a term used by Kari Weil (2010: 3) to describe a contemporary interest in issues of the nonhuman, and in the ways that the relationship between humans and nonhumans is marked by “difference, otherness and power”. Of key concern to my research will be Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of ‘becoming animal’. Rather than describing a transition from one stable state to another, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a radical dissolution of boundaries – not just between species (such as ‘human’ and ‘animal’) but between any essentialising binaries. As such, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a conception of identity as being fluid and mutable, rather than stable and fixed.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Setswana. Translated titles in Afrikaans and Setswana supplied / Dataset link: https://doi.org/10.25399/UnisaData.14101913.v1 / The gap between diverse cultures living in a globalized world is not intransigent nor unassumingly flexible. This space is an arena of dissimilarities and correlations, which result in interactions that incite unusual expectations. ‘Cultural hybridity’ is clearly mirrored within contemporary society. New methods and approaches are required to comprehend the lived experiences of escalating displacement. This research traces the trajectory of migration, identity, self and other from the point of view of contemporary diasporic artists. Notions of ethnicity, authenticity, identity, transnationality, singularity and duality are debated against the backdrop of the creative practices of Anish Kapoor and Yinka Shonibare. Informed by Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the third space, and also theories of hermeneutic translation by Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, this dissertation creatively and critically investigates the ambiguities and ambivalences in this field of inquiry. / Die gaping tussen uiteenlopende kulture wat in ’n geglobaliseerde wêreld woon, is nóg onversetlik nóg pretensieloos veerkragtig. Hierdie ruimte is ’n arena van ongelykhede en korrelasies wat lei tot interaksies wat ongewone verwagtings ontketen. “Kulturele hibridisme” word duidelik in die eietydse samelewing weerspieël. Nuwe metodes en benaderings word vereis om die werklike ervarings van toenemende ontheemding te verstaan. Hierdie navorsing spoor die trajektorie van migrasie, identiteit, self en ander vanuit die oogpunt van eietydse diasporiese kunstenaars na. Idees rondom etnisiteit, egtheid, identiteit, transnasionaliteit, enkelvoudigheid en tweevoudigheid word teen die agtergrond van die kreatiewe praktyke van Anish Kapoor en Yinka Shonibare bespreek. Hierdie verhandeling, wat geïnspireer is deur Homi K. Bhabha se konsep van die derde ruimte, asook teorieë van hermeneutiese verplasing deur Georg Gadamer en Paul Ricoeur, ondersoek op ’n kreatiewe en kritiese wyse die dubbelsinnighede en teenstrydighede in hierdie ondersoekveld. / Sekgala magareng ga ditso tse di farologaneng tse di tshelang mo lefatsheng le le susumetsanang ga se a tsepama le mme ga se obege bonolo. Sebaka seno ke serala sa dipharologano le dikamano tse di lebisang kwa dikgolaganong tse di tlhosetsang ditsholofelo tse di sa tlwaelegang. Tota 'motswako wa setso' o bonala sentle mo setšhabeng sa sešweng. Go tlhokega mekgwa le selebo se sentšhwa go tlhaloganya maitemogelo a phuduso e e oketsegang. Patlisiso eno e lebelela motlhala wa bofudugedi, boitshupo, jwa sebele le jo bongwe go tswa mo mogopolong wa batsweretshi ba sešweng go tswa mo mafelong a bofudugedi (diaspora) Go ganetsanwa ka megopolo ya lotso, boammaaruri, boitshupo, boditšhaba, bongwefela le bobedi go lebeletswe ntlha ya ditiragatso tsa boitlhamedi tsa ga Anish Kapoor le Yinka Shonibare. Thesisi eno e e theilweng mo mogopolong wa ga Homi K. Bhabha wa sebaka sa boraro, le ditiori tsa saense ya boranodi ka Georg Gadamer le Paul Ricoeur, e batlisisa ka boitlhamedi le ka tshekatsheko, ketsaetsego e e mo lephateng leno la dipatlisiso. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)