Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-126). / In 2007, Brian O'Doherty's words still apply. The art object and its context are intrinsically intertwined. A variety of contexts make up the mechanisms of the contemporary art world. From established organizations to more informal platforms, each performs a necessary function. Representation in a national museum or a respected public collection bestows a measure of credibility on a piece. Outside of austere exhibition rooms and refined gallery spaces, more informal arenas have their own authority. An independent artistic intervention on a busy pavement or a remote beach can suggest an anti-institutionalist stance. The artist is not bound by the conventions of more traditional structures. Yet, a great deal of interventionist work ultimately makes its way into galleries and collections in the form of residue and documentation. These become marketable and collectable products. Similarly, reputed organizations sometimes orchestrate potentially disruptive insertions into the public sphere in the form of performances or temporary installations. Even when they appear to be at odds, the different forums in which artworks exist rely on each other.

Bibliography: leaves 94-98. / Painting presents an almost infinite range of possibilities to convey meaning through the versatility and potential of the medium. It is to this potential for mimicking and representing the real world that I wish to turn; for whilst the word painting refers to the manifestation of the physical object, it also, more importantly for this discussion, refers to the act of painting itself, the application of paint onto a surface in the articulation of an illusory reality. This ability to represent in paint, upon a two-dimensional surface, the real world in such a way as to cause in the viewer an experience which is somehow like that of looking at the world, is called naturalism.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 88-93). / I have produced a series of sculpted cast figures in the medium of cowhide as part of my Masters degree. This document, titled Locating Me in Order to See You, serves as an explication of the practical component. Initially I examine the broad context in which my sculpture has been produced, and that in which it will be presented and likely to be received. In attempting to position myself within Contemporary Art discourse, I have specifically considered how Contemporary Art from Africa is often read and comprehended by both those producing work on the continent and the Diaspora, and those interpreting, critiquing, collecting and marketing it, mainly in the West. The basic premise for this is a discussion of the inescapable labels of Black Artist and Black Art and what they imply within the context of Contemporary Art discourse with reference to Africa and more specifically, South Africa. As an emerging Contemporary African Artist I am faced with confronting some of the stereotypes and assumptions associated with art and artists of the continent and! or the legacy of the Apartheid regime.

Bibliography: leaves 76-86. / Racism is a phenomenon of inferiority. Our blackness is a phenomenon of pride. We are not out to hate Whites. We are out to treat them simply as people. The point, however, is that we can no longer care whether or not Whites understand us. What we do care about is understanding ourselves and, in the course of this task, helping the Whites to understand themselves. Now we are rejecting the idea their idea which unfortunately has also become deeply embedded in the souls of many of us - the idea that we live by their grace. We may live by the grace of God, but we do not live by the grace of the Whites. (Small, 1971)

Includes bibliographical references. / The focus of this dissertation is the establishment of various entry-points into my practical project, Postproduction (2007 -2009). My project entails re-printing Nicolas Bourriaud's Postproduction (2007) with outdated and superseded printing technology, specifically letterpress/movable type. The text is printed onto paper that was handmade from original copies of Postproduction . Standard letterpress ink was used in combination with a Vandercook 219 AB press for the printing. To compensate for the occurrence of various complications and errors during the production process there were three to five working copies of the book. After a Single volume was selected for presentation in the gallery space all the remaining copies of the text were destroyed.

Bibliography: leaves 63-68.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-102). / The purpose of this document is the elaboration of a system of thought that sees art as an empty structure, in a way that is analogous to the conceptual mechanics of Buddhism. What is meant exactly by the term Buddhism will I hope, become clearer as the reader moves through it. Likewise, it is hoped that a perspective on art that sees it as sharing certain conceptual tendencies with Buddhism will emerge. What must be borne in mind for the meantime is the following; firstly, that the concept of emptiness in Buddhism is not nihilism, and this holds true for the system that I describe; it is my position that much art is empty (in a way) and necessarily so. Secondly, that both systems (though not exclusively), are ways of relating, rather than bodies of text or specific images. Wittgenstein's view of philosophy is analogous to this last point in that he insisted on seeing philosophy as a method rather than a science (Perloff 1996: 46). This tendency of mode over product, or way of relating over the thing made, is a critical underlying component of what follows in this document and in my practical production.

Also available online. / The key to understanding my project lies in the assumption that the task of representation for contemporary painting is different from that of newer media such as photography and film. I see the role of painting as being the representation of the past; an engagement with history. Many of the painters who have inspired my way of seeing are artists who re-imagined the role of pre-modernist narrative painting and re-asserted it in contemporary practice. Contemporary narrative painting occupies a different role from that of its pre-modernist predecessors, such as Romantic painting. It also occupies a different role in relation to dominant narrative media of photography and film.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-75). / In this project melancholy and the related experiences of loss and longing as explanatory concepts, are the basis fromwhich visually interpret the body of practical work that emphasises the role of emotion and personal experience in locating meaning.

Bibliography: leaves 78-83. / I had just turned thirteen and it was the summer before high school started. My mother and I went over to the Roberts' house. Ruby had just matriculated from the same school and was handing down her faded old checked uniforms. To my amazement, there in the lounge bathed in afternoon January sunlight, was her father Billy, kneeling, deeply absorbed in a large strange chart that had been laid out on the floor. It was a school timetable and it was his task, as vice principle, to organise the day-to-day workings of the year ahead. The timetable was scattered with various coloured shapes that he shuffled back and forth across the gridded surface, trying to make a coherent system. This anecdote is important to my body of work for three reasons. The first is that Mr. Roberts' challenging activity that day is not unlike the process of sorting and reordering that is central to my work. The appearance of the chart is mimicked in the schemata-like quality of many of my pieces, as is its conceptual framework - an urge to order a set of already existing pieces into a new, meaningful and functional relationship. Ruby's uniforms are also important. I cherished these second-hand dresses precisely because of the qualities they acquired through having been worn already. These dresses were softer to touch, had a better fit and more beauty in colour --soft pink checks as opposed to harsh maroon-- than other girls' crisp new sacks.