Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Please refer to full text for abstract.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by my own art practice, which exhibits a keen interest in objects and activities historically associated with the domestic, specifically with relation to needlework, in the making or producing of contemporary jewellery. Visual analysis of the work of other contemporary jewellers resulted in my realisation that the use of domestic objects and needlework in contemporary jewellery can refer to the idea of “home” through the use of phenomenological devices such as memory and nostalgia. My own art practice makes specific use of memory and nostalgia, and references trauma as experienced in the home. I investigate these themes specifically as they are depicted in contemporary jewellery. I begin my study by discussing how humans go about forming relationships with the objects with which they surround themselves. I discuss Martin Heidegger’s theory of hermeneutic phenomenology, regarding human interaction with objects and our relationship to them with regard to their specific functionality. I argue that taking the domestic objects out of their context, and in so doing ‘removing’ their functionality, allows the subject (maker, viewer, wearer) to suggest a new ‘background or horizon’ (Thomas 2006: 47) against which the object can now be read and understood. I discuss how jewellery can function as a mnemonic device, and how the domestic objects used in the specific jewellery pieces that I discuss add to this reading, identifying memory and nostalgia as the main devices facilitating a discussion of these themes. From here I work towards a definition of the domestic. By tracing the ways in which the domestic has come to denote a “space” traditionally gendered female, I look at the material culture represented within this “space” and how it relates to women. I draw on Svetlana Boym and Susan Stewart’s thoughts regarding nostalgia and its appearance in contemporary culture. Trauma and how it manifests in individual identities is then discussed with the aid of Michael S. Roth and his discussion surrounding Memory, Trauma, and History (2012). I discuss specific contemporary jewellery projects by Manon van Kouswijk (Lepidoptera Domestica, 2007); Gesine Hackenberg (Ceramic Jewellery, 2006-2011); Esther Knobel (My Grandmother is Knitting too, 2000-2002); and Iris Eichenberg (Heimat,2004). In my final chapter I discuss my own work, and highlight the ways in which I use domestic objects and needlework to reference memory, nostalgia and trauma thematically with relation to my own recollections of home. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is gemotiveer deur my eie kunspraktyk, wat my belangstelling toon in voorwerpe en aktiwiteite wat histories verband hou met die huis, spesifiek met betrekking tot naaldwerk, in die vervaardiging van kontemporêre juweliersware. Visuele analise van die werk van ander kontemporêre juweliers het gelei tot die besef dat die gebruik van huishoudelike voorwerpe en naaldwerk in kontemporêre juweliersware kan verwys na die idee van "huis" deur die gebruik van fenomenologiese idees soos herinneringe en nostalgie. My kunspraktyk maak spesifiek gebruik van herinneringe en nostalgie, en verwys na trauma soos in die huis ervaar. Ek ondersoek hierdie temas spesifiek soos hulle uitgebeeld word in kontemporêre juweliersware. Ek begin my studie deur die wyses te bespreek waarop mense te werk gaan in die vorming van verhoudings met die voorwerpe waarmee hulle hulself omring. Ek verwys na Martin Heidegger se teorie van hermeneutiese fenomenologie, ten opsigte van menslike interaksie met voorwerpe en die verhouding wat met hulle gevorm word met betrekking tot hul spesifieke funksies. Ek argumenteer dat deur die huishoudelike voorwerpe uit hulle oorspronklike konteks te neem, en sodoende hul funksie te ‘verwyder’, kan die subjek (maker, kyker, draer) 'n nuwe “agtergrond of horison" (Thomas 2006: 47) voor stel waarteen die voorwerp gelees en verstaan kan word. Ek bespreek hoe juweliersware kan funksioneer as 'n mnemoniese toestel, en hoe die huishoudelike voorwerpe wat gebruik word in die spesifieke juweliersware wat ek in hierdie studie bespreek kan toevoeg tot hierdie bespreking, deur die identifisering van herinneringe en nostalgie as die hoof toestelle. Van hier het ek gewerk aan 'n definisie van wat die huishoudelike behels. Deur ondersoek in te stel na die manier waarop die huishoudelike as 'n tradisioneel vroulike "ruimte" geïdentifiseer is, kyk ek na die materiële kultuur verteenwoordig binne hierdie "ruimte" en hoe dit verband hou met vroue. Ek verwys na Svetlana Boym en Susan Stewart se idees rakende nostalgie en die voorkoms daarvan in hedendaagse kultuur. Trauma en die maniere waarop dit in individuele identiteite manifesteer word vervolgens bespreek met die hulp van Michael S. Roth en sy bespreking van “Memory, Trauma, and History” (2012). Ek analiseer spesifieke kontemporêre juwelierswareprojekte deur Manon van Kouswijk (Lepidoptera Domestica, 2007), Gesine Hackenberg (Ceramic Jewellery, 2006-2011), Ester Knobel (My Grandmother is Knitting too, 2000-2002), en Iris Eichenberg (Heimat, 2004). In my laaste hoofstuk bespreek ek my eie werk, en verwys veral die maniere waarop ek huishoudelike voorwerpe en naaldwerk gebruik om tematies na geheue, nostalgie en trauma met betrekking tot my eie herinneringe van die huis te verwys.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I examine the extent to which interpretations of African material culture play a role in the creation and visualisation of an ‘African aesthetic style’ in South African contemporary jewellery practices. My investigation of an ‘African aesthetic style’ in this thesis is informed by the production, display and writings on African cultural objects. I demonstrate contemporary jewellery design to derive from a critical methodology, particularly as it facilitates a renegotiation of the relationship and dialogue between the producer and viewer of contemporary jewellery objects. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis ondersoek ek die wyse waarop interpretasies van Afrika materiële kultuur 'n rol speel in die skepping en die visualisering van 'n 'Afrika estetiese styl' in Suid- Afrikaanse kontemporêre juwelierspraktyke. My ondersoek van so 'n styl is ingelig deur die produksie en uitstalling van, sowel as diskoerse rondom Afrika kulturele objekte. Ek ondersoek kontemporêre juweliersontwerp as 'n kritiese metodologie, veral ten opsigte van die wyse waarop dit 'n nuwe verhouding tussen die vervaardiger en toeskouer van kontemporêre juweliersobjekte fasiliteer.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis provides a critical discussion of, and motivation for, my jewellery practice, in which fat from the human body is transformed into adornment. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s theory of ‘abjection’, this research scrutinises the grotesque status of body substances in the modern media, with the intention of changing viewer reactions to these substances from repulsion to aesthetic enjoyment. I consider the influence of popular culture, where idealised bodies are promoted as ‘better’ than non-normative body types, and then consider how (or whether) the abject remainders of the ‘ideal body’ can successfully be refigured as adornment. In order to situate my practical Masters work in the wider field of contemporary avant-garde jewellery practice, I study the work of select jewellers, who also refer to, or use, body substances in critical ways in their work. Through this, I hope to scrutinise both normative notions of the body and of jewellery as adornment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis dien as ’n kritiese bespreking van en motivering vir my praktiese juwelierswareontwerp, waarin vet afkomstig van die menslike liggaam verander word in versiering. Die navorsing gebruik Julia Kristeva se teorie van ‘abjection’ om die groteske status wat liggaamstowwe in die moderne media het, uit te pluis, met die doel om die toeskouer se reaksie op hierdie stowwe van afkeer in estetiese genot te verander. Ek oorweeg die invloed van populêre kultuur waarbinne geïdealiseerde liggame as ‘beter’ as nie-normatiewe liggaamstipes aangebied word. Ek kyk verder na hoe (en of) die vernederende (‘abject’) oorblyfsels van die ‘ideale liggaam’ suksesvol as versiering omvorm kan word. Om my praktiese werk vir die Meestersgraad binne die wyer veld van kontemporêre avant-garde juwelierswarepraktyk te vestig, ondersoek ek ook werk van sekere juweliers wat ook liggaamstowwe in hulle werk gebruik, of daarna verwys. Hierdeur hoop ek om die normatiewe idees van beide die liggaam en juweliersware as versiering uit te pluis.

Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The thesis deals with the notion that individuation in drawing provides visible evidence of experiential cognition as embodied action. It asserts that trait as enaction signifies constructive and inventive processes that involve the body-mind. Trait emerges as nonrepresentationist, non-expressive component of drawing that marks the pre-conceptual as conceptual. Therefore, drawing functions as a complex interface between drafter and world that unifies antimonies such as inside and outside; convention and invention; remoteness and intimacy; body and mind; and subject and object. The thesis outlines drawing as a self-reflexive research process that constructs and invents. An understanding of trait as invention, the thesis proposes, can aid the drawing facilitator at higher education level to develop individual student drafters’ creativity. The thesis therefore argues for a form of drawing facilitation that is responsive to the complex interaction between the self and the world. Responsive mediation develops and celebrates diversity in socio-cultural heritage, personal history, and individual differences. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die idee dat verpersoonlikte trekke in tekenkuns sigbare aanduiding van enaktiewe vergestalting van kognisie is, vorm die onderwerp van hierdie tesis. Die tesis stel dit dat vergestaltende ervaringskognisie, as die tekenaar se ervaringsbetrokkenheid, geïndividueerde begrip, vaardigheid, sintese en betekenisvorming moontlik maak en ontwikkel. Verpersoonlikte trekke in tekenkuns blyk van non-representatiewe en non-ekspressiewe oorsprong te wees aldaar dit die prekonseptuele as die konseptuele merk. Dit ondersteun die gedagte dat tekenkuns as ’n komplekse koppelvlak tussen tekenaar en omwêreld funksioneer. As koppelvlak word die tekenkuns verwesenlik as ’n sigbare samevloeiing van dualiteite soos binne en buite, die gewone en verdigting, afstand en intimiteit, subjek en objek, liggaam en gees. Ingevolge ’n enaktiewe beskouing van die tekenkuns kan die tekenhandeling beskryf word as ’n selfrefleksiewe navorsingsproses wat kreatiwiteit ondersteun. Sodanige beskouing van die tekenkuns, lui die argument, kan die fasiliteerder op ’n hoër onderwysvlak help om individuele tekenstudente se kreatiwiteit te bevorder. Daaruit vloei die voorstel vir ’n vorm van fasilitering wat gevoelig is vir die ingewikkelde interaksie tussen die self en die omgewing. ’n Vorm van mediasie wat dit in ag neem, skep nie alleen ruimte vir diversiteit wat betref sosio-kulturele herkoms, persoonlike geskiedenis en individuele verskille nie, maar ontwikkel en vier ook dié soort diversiteit.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The purpose of the thesis is to contextualise my art works in theoretical terms. As counterpart to my art practice and consistent with its subject matter, the thesis deals with the handbag as subject and investigates the formation of an idiomatic, metaphorical or symbolic visual language that emerges in my handbag Collections. The thesis traces how such language pertains to social, cultural and personal history as sources of its conception to also serve as foundation for the conception of my art works. Its central questions are formulated around ‘how’, thus investigating the formative, the developmental and the process. Its thinking is relativist, embracing the belief that no option is absolute, but rather as susceptible to change as it is open to interpretation. As events of change and change inducing events, developmental processes are posed in a framework of generative structuralism that comprises the internalisation of externalities and the externalisation of internalities. As such it structures an attempt to define the genesis of my aesthetic idiolect in and from a cultural context. The thesis therefore posits its secondary aims as investigative rather than determinist of how social and cultural context informs my art-making processes and how generation and development occur in my art-making processes in order to determine how these factors contribute to a personal voice becoming evident in my work. My art practice and art works serve as primary sources of information and the thesis partially serves as a process of textual re-articulation of my own art-making practices to reveal the relationships between habitus as generative structure, enaction of identity and aesthetic idiolect.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / As manufacturing jewellery artist, I have found that it is now most often women rather than men who commission or purchase jewellery. These women often earn substantial salaries and therefore they are in a position to indulge freely in what traditionally was considered the frivolous pursuit of beauty. Consequently, women are challenging expectations that they be submissive and desirable display objects, thereby signifying their dependence on male economical power. The aim of this research is to encourage transformation and the development of an individual and independent feminine identity by exposing the pressures placed on women to construct their identities as prescribed by patriarchal institutions, dress codes, fashion, science and therefore also gender stereotyping and gender inequalities. The three chapters of my thesis are titled Restriction, Change and Liberation?, which is followed by a discussion of my practical work in the addendum. The thesis and practical work were developed in support of one another.

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This investigation draws on theories of sacrifice to explore Wim Botha’s sculpture Premonition of War: Scapegoat in relation to nationalist and patriarchal thought. Since the artist deals with myth, his approach is discussed in terms of Barthes’ formulation of myth as a meta-language. It is maintained that Botha is using a meta-mythical language to deconstruct the narratives he deals with. Sacrifice is seen as an act that binds communities together but that also separates them from threats (Nancy Jay 1992:17). It is argued that the crucifix has been used as symbol of sacrifice to denote immortality, and that this over-emphasis of continuity has been to the detriment of those that do not fall within the boundaries of the “same” as defined by white men. The incorporation and exclusion of the feminine into male structures are discussed, as well as the role that institutionalised religious thought has played in South African Nationalism. An interpretation of Scapegoat using Freud and Žižek seems to point to the necessary compromise made by the Church with the dualisms it has created between its definitions of good and evil. Nietzsche’s conception of sacrifice as a system of debt when applied to the Scapegoat also seems to point to a contradiction inherent within it, since Botha’s inversion puts into question the idea of a gift given outside of a creditor/debtor system. The burnt appearance of the Scapegoat appears to indicate that the attempt to sacrifice the act of sacrifice is futile, since sacrifice eternally returns. However, the “pure gift”, or don pur that Derrida writes of, seems to point to a way beyond dialectics, towards a morality freed from duty.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbsoch University, 2012

Thesis (MA(VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This work explores alternative ways of doing research within the field of art and design; ways that respect complexity and acknowledge the expansive, relational and performative nature of signifi- cation in arriving at ‘new’ knowledge. Through processes of designing in-between, I have been moving through opposites, connecting connections, and de(re)constructing structure. I have used my immediate locations as triggers to forge relations between an array of seeming disparate, albeit kindred, concepts. The scope of the work seems to have perpetually broadened, while theory and practice have dissolved in mercurial in- between states. Such exuding expansiveness has, at times, unsettled and unnerved, but ironically it has also intensely resembled our everyday ‘realities’. Designing in-between - compared to traditional, science-based research methods operating in barricaded systems of thought - thus allows for more faithful interrogation of the complexity of the world we live in. I believe this can be of great value in any attempt at innovative knowledge production, but especially attempts from within the field of art and design - a field often defined by its ability to challenge conventional ways of knowing. My work should not be regarded as yet another predetermined guideline for future research. It should rather be read as an example of a “conceptual tool” or “thought strateg[y]” (Hurst, 2010:242) suited to the complexity of the open systems we form part of every day. Neither the challenging, nor the advantageous, aspects of my work should be regarded as superior and exclusive to the other. The existence of dissonance and contrast is productive; a life force propelling the search for new significance and knowledge. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werkstuk ondersoek alternatiewe maniere van navorsing doen binne die veld van kuns en ontwerp; maniere wat die kompleksiteit en ewig-groeiende, verhoudingsgebaseerde en performa- tiewe aard van betekenis-konstruksie in die soeke na ‘nuwe’ kennis erken en respekteer. Deur prosesse van tussen-in ontwerp, het ek my weg probeer baan deur teenoorgesteldes, het ek konneksies gekonnekteer, en strukture gede(re)konstrueer. Ek het my onmiddellike omgewingskonteks as stimuli gebruik om verhoudings tussen ‘n verskeidenheid van kontrasterende, dog verwante, konsepte te bewerkstellig. Die omvang van hierdie navorsing het sodoende gedurig verbreed, terwyl teorie en praktyk in verstrengelde tussen-in toestande ontbind het. Alhoewel hierdie uitgestrekte, deurdringende kompleksiteit my dikwels ontsenu en laat weifel het, versinnebeeld dit ironies genoeg ons alledaagse ‘realiteite’ redelik getrou. Tussen-in ontwerp - in vergelyking met meer tradisionele, wetenskap-geba- seerde navorsingsmetodes wat binne begrensde gedagtesisteme funksioneer - laat ‘n mens dus die ruimte toe om die onvoorspelbare wisselwerking tussen die magdom veranderlikes aktief in die wêreld waarin ons leef, in ag te neem. Ek glo dat so ‘n benadering tot navorsing van besondere waarde kan wees in enige poging tot die innoverende bou van kennis, veral in pogings vanuit die veld van kuns en ontwerp - ‘n veld wat geken word aan sy/haar vermoë om gedurig konvensionele maniere van verstaan uit te daag. Ek wil nie hê dat my werk as net nog ‘n voorafbepaalde riglyn vir toekomstige navorsing gesien word nie. Dit moet eerder gelees word as ‘n voorbeeld van ‘n konseptuele instrument (“conceptual tool”) of gedagtestrategie (“thought strategy”) (Hurst, 2010:242) wat geskik is vir die kompleksiteit van die inherent oop sisteme wat ons alledaagse lewens definieer. Nie die uitdagende, nog die voordelige, aspekte van my werk moet as superieur en eksklusief tot die ander geag word nie. Dit is juis die bestaan van teenstrydighede en kontras wat produktiwiteit bewerkstellig. Dit voorsien ‘n lewenskrag wat die soeke na nuwe betekenis en kennis voortdryf.