Although the South-African artist, William Kentridge has practised his creativity in many domains (as observer, activist, artist, storyteller and thinking director) in a wide range of media (including land art, sculpture, etching and stage and theatre productions), it is chiefly his large charcoal drawings in process (drawings for animation) and his unique, short, handmade, animated films and their projection that have given him international fame. The question has arisen how technological media underwent a process of retrospect-tive alienation in William Kentridgeâs animation processes. The development of Kentridgeâs large wall drawings to drawings for animation and projection is discussed, while mark making, montage and editing within the greater filmic whole, are emphasized. For Kentridge his drawings for animation (1988â1996) and drawings for projection (1996 to the present) remain central themes in all the new media and multimedia performances. In this study research was done to determine which methods and techniques Kentridge used, as a film director to edit a sequence of drawings into an animated film. Consequently, his dramatic, narrative and critical combination of interdisciplinary media like drawing, language, photography and film, video and theatre productions are emphasized. The drawing as an image creating process and Kentridgeâs agency (his sleight of hand, drawing actions, unique mark textures, gramma and graphein, mark making and superimposition) were explored in order to create a unique image. The emphasis has been on how Kentridge made his drawings by means of charcoal, pastel and an eraser by making marks on paper, then erasing certain marks and again making new marks over those previous ones, while constantly filming the creation process (his so-called stone age animation). The focus has been on his use of the drawing hand as an intelligent, mark making and mark changing tool (performance). Through his use of outdated film and animation technologies, techniques and technological media which he transposed to a contemporary environment and current technological infrastructure and made comments on, he exhibited the meta-referential and expressive features of his medium. Kentridge has created art that connects with the new media concepts through his skilful integration of the charcoal drawing medium with existing technologies. By means of editing, montage, special effects and film tricks he opened new possibilities to animation as an art and cinematic form that would eventually be projected as an imaginary artwork (animated fiction). Even after nine films in the Drawings for projection series Kentridge still used his unique stone age animation technique and made new films. After some time Kentridge started to make existing literary works, dramatic texts and librettos his own and gave it an African flavour. His use of projection technology and various projection techniques contributed to the success of the visual narrative element. Kentridgeâs expression of the shadow as image, profile image drawings and his moving silhouette processions are discussed. From the late 1980s William Kentridge added projection to his Drawings for projection, his animated film and video images. By means of some old (for example Baroque theatre) and contemporary theatre technology (like projectors and computers) he projected his animations in galleries, on miniature theatre models, the stage space, stage décor and screens, while live actors, opera singers, puppets, marionettes and their manipulators, as well as mechanical dolls/automata performed in the foreground of the multimedia stage productions. By adding marionettes and automata to his animated drawings, he created full-fledged narrative and dramatic artworks. Kentridgeâs appropriation of discarded and outdated visual technologies, âretrospec-tive alienationâ of various processes of visualizing and medializing (in the early stages of the history of modernism of the Western visual media) and their addition to animation procedures have become distinctive of his art.

Old age has always evoked diametrically opposed opinions. On the one hand, the elderly are respected, regarded as benevolent repositories of wisdom and comfort; on the other, they are considered as decrepit vestiges of life, who pointlessly linger on, wasting the world for the vibrant and useful. These views were particularly topical in the last decades of the nineteenth/first decade of the twentieth centuries, when there was increasing concern in many countries about the aged and their vulnerability. In England and Wales this resulted in the 1908 provision by the government of an old age pension. In the United States, however, provision of support from the state was introduced significantly later, in the 1930s. How, if at all, was this variation in view reflected in the painting of the elderly in the two countries? This study addresses this question by firstly considering how the elderly are portrayed in genre painting in each country. It then moves on to the world of portraits, looking in more detail at the work of individual artists, both American and English, including Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent and Hubert Herkomer. In England it emerged that the elderly were often shown as happy if shabby, with a more submissive attitude to fate; there was also a significant segment of painting which recorded the poverty and difficulties which may face the old. In contrast, in the United States the elderly were shown as vibrant, assertive and materially better off, with few indications of the troubles they may undergo. In both countries, however, it became clear that the elderly were regarded in a positive way by artists, who delighted in the excellent practice of artistic skills provided by the time-ravaged faces and features of the old.

梁志和. / 論文(藝術碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院藝術學部, 1997. / 參考文獻: leaves 45-46. / Liang Zhihe. / 前言 --- p.1 / 歷史意識 / 當代藝術 / 當代藝術中的歷史意識 / 歷史意識中的時間觀念 --- p.9 / 線性的時間 / 循環的時間 / 時間之謎 / 藝術創作中的歷史意識 --- p.17 / 藝術中的歷史 / 由個人至集體 / 死亡與記憶 / 不一樣的歷史觀照 / 特定的歷史空間 --- p.33 / 香港歷史 / 香港藝術中的香港歷史 / 本土歷史意識 / 結語 --- p.41 / 藝術與生活相連 / 藝術家的自我肯定 / 參考書目 --- p.45 / 圖片來源 --- p.47 / 鳴謝 --- p.48

The artistic medium must be thought of not simply in terms of the materials of art-making, but rather as the condition of the possibility of certain modes of expression, and in this regard one can only identify the medium of a particular artwork by looking at how this work achieves its meaning. In the case of the AIDS Quilt, the medium is neither the fabric nor the quilting, but rather the independently created panel that is then stitched into the AIDS Quilt by the NAMES PROJECT organizers. With the panel and its invitation to independent production as the medium of the artwork, the AIDS Quilt carries with it the promise of unfettered expression. This promise, however, is not actualized in the AIDS Quilt, and perhaps could never have been. Yet rather than signaling the failure of the work, this failure relocates the meaning of the work to the tension between the promise of the medium and the artwork as actualized. It is in precisely this tension that the meaning of the AIDS Quilt is disclosed.

Examining concepts of the archival in the work of three Brazilian artists of different generations, Anna Bella Geiger (born 1933), Rosângela Rennó (born 1962) and Jonathas de Andrade (born 1982), this thesis proposes a genealogy of archival art practices in Brazil. This thesis argues that the art practices of these three artists re-order and re-contextualise images in relation to issues on identity, memories and historical constructions in Brazil. In the 1970s Geiger critically incorporated and mixed appropriated images, creating artworks that form an 'incidental archive' which challenges Brazil's official narratives on national identity and history. Since the 1990s Rennó has also been examining official historical and memorial narratives. Her art practice re-signifies abandoned photographs and archives, reflecting the country's social and institutional amnesia. Working since the 2000s, de Andrade mixes images from varied archival sources. His archival artworks point to both local and global references present in the construction of the society he inhabits. Considering that the art practices are connected to Brazil's specific historical and social context, as well as informed by a wider process of re-signification of the archival, this thesis examines points of intersection and distance between the three specific art practices and an 'international' turn to archives and memory in contemporary art.

Includes bibliographical references. / In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, a small group of capitalists, many of whom were from middle-class German-Jewish backgrounds, made vast fortunes from exploiting deposits of gold and diamonds in South Africa, using local labour. These mining magnates accumulated their wealth first in Kimberley in the 1870s and, later, in Johannesburg in the late 1880s. Thereafter, most of them moved to Britain, where they lived for the rest of their lives. By the mid-1890s, as their aspirations became increasingly pronounced, the term 'Randlords' was coined in the London press to describe them. In this study, I have used this collective term in reference to the men who took part in the rough-and-tumble scramble for gold and diamonds before adopting an upper class lifestyle in Britain. Critical discussion of almost all the Randlord collections is hampered by the scarcity of primary material relating to the formation of their collections and, in some cases, even to what was in them. A point of departure for this thesis therefore was to reconstruct an inventory for each of the collections. These inventories (which are included as appendices) list each painting in the collection, possible changes in its attribution (where this is known), its title, its provenance (from whom and when the painting was purchased, and at what price), the present-day whereabouts of the painting (where this is known), and, wherever possible, an appropriate reference to the painting in a catalogue raisonne or sale catalogue or, in the absence of the latter, in the art historical literature The thesis is primarily concerned with the manner in which the identities of the Randlords were shaped and redefined through the acquisition of works of art and other material goods. It demonstrates that their eventual efforts to construct new upper-class identities were strenuous and pronounced. An integral component of this strategy to assert their social position was to participate in the accumulation and display of highly symbolic goods and properties to convey their new-found status in Britain. Throughout this thesis, the Randlords' acquisition of art is treated as one facet of their conspicuous · consumption. In keeping with this argument, the purchase and furnishing of country 11 houses, lavish expenditure on entertaining, the ownership of town houses, and the acquisition of titles are considered in relation to their an collections. The introduction includes a survey of the literature on the Randlords, a brief overview of the history of their involvement in the South African mining industry, an overview of their collections, and the context in which they assembled these collections. This is followed by five chapters focusing on the collections of Sir Julius and Lady Wernher, Alfred Beit and his brother Sir Otto, Sir Max and Lady Michaelis, Sir Lionel and Lady Phillips and Sir Joseph (and Lady Robinson). A range of issues are foregrounded in each of these chapters. For example, the widespread preference for seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings is considered in the Beit chapter, and for eighteenth- century British portraits in the Beit and Robinson chapters. The limited interest in Italian and Renaissance paintings is explored in the Wernher and Robinson chapters, and the strong interest in eighteenth-century French furniture is discussed in the Wernher chapter. Issues relating to philanthropy are discussed in the Michaelis and Phillips chapters, and the Randlords' connections to South Africa are explored through an examination of Michaelis' gift of Dutch and Flemish pictures to the Union of South Africa in 1912, and through Lady Phillips' involvement in founding an art gallery in Johannesburg in 1909. The thesis argues that works of art served a range of functions for the Randlords - acting as a store of wealth, providing public confirmation of the extent of their wealth, and in this way, assisting them in realising their social aspirations.

Bibliography: p. 247-263. / In this dissertation I demonstrate that in many Western and Soviet texts the work of so called formalist leftists and figurative artists are viewed as diametrically opposed to one another. I argue against the perpetuation of this polemic and the assumptions that inform this view. These assumptions are that the leftists produced self-referential works indicative of an anti-realist philosophy and that figurative artists produced social commentaries informed by a philosophy of realism which led 'inevitably' to Socialist Realism. Although a few recent texts warn against oversimplifying this debate, none go far enough in deconstructing the view that there were two groupings diametrically opposed to one another. In fact, many simply repeat the argument as it was articulated in the twenties and thirties, which is to ignore the possibility of a critical analysis of the theoretical principles and constraints informing the debates current at that time. Categorising leftists as anti-realist and figurative artists as realist is not satisfactory firstly because neither the leftists nor the figurative artists existed as homogenous groupings and secondly because many figurative artists (the so-called realists) in fact challenged the idea of a coherent world order existing external to the art work. Nevertheless there are artists from both these categories who asserted the importance of an objective world that was external to and a primary determinant of the art work. In this dissertation I demonstrate that these figurative artists often shared the same ideological goals with leftists. Instead of working with the idea of viewing artists of the twenties and thirties as realist or anti-realist, figurative or so-called formalist, I discuss their philosophical and stylistic choices in relation to the political and economic project of the period, namely the empowerment of the proletariat and the attempt to foster a proletarian culture.

Bibliography: pages 112-119. / This dissertation considers the role both verbal and visual culture played in the growth and articulation of Afrikaner nationalism. For this reason it focuses not only on the central topic under discussion, namely the Voortrekker tapestries, but also on the discourses that informed the production of these tapestries and the circumstances surrounding the decision to commission them. The Voortrekker tapestries were commissioned in 1952 by the Vrou-en Moederbeweging van die A1XV (Suid-Afrikaanse Spoorweё en Hawens) and presented to the Voortrekker Monument in 1960. It was decided that the tapestries should depict the Great Trek of 1838 and, due to his widely acclaimed status as an authority on visual representations of Afrikaner history and culture, the artist WH Coetzer was approached to be the designer of the tapestries. But Coelzer's version of the Great Trek of 1838 perpetuates many popular myths about the Afrikaner past and, in examining this version, I have identified certain discourses as being influential. For example, the role of Gustav Preller in the formation of Coetzer's historical consciousness; the precedent set by the 1938 centenary celebrations of the Great Trek for later verbal and visual depictions of the Great Trek; the period 1948 to 1952, marked by significant historical events such as the triumph of the National Party, the inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument and the tercentenary Van Riebeeck celebrations and, finally, the rolevolksmoeder ideology played in shaping Coetzer's vision of the Great Trek. Drawing on these discourses, I proceed to examine the iconography of the Voortrekker tapestries. A number of themes in the tapestries are identified and elucidated with reference to a range of contemporary theoretical writings. Finally, the dissertation moves beyond a consideration of the iconography of the tapestries, investigating instead the status of needlework. I argue that the gender ideology embedded in the production of the tapestries is parallel1ed in the historically sanctioned separation of 'art' from 'craft'. Just as 'craft' has been marginalised in relation to 'art', so the Voortrekker tapestries and, with them, the women who made the tapestries, were marginalised in the public spheres which were inhabited and controlled by Afrikaner men.

Interfaces of location and memory is a conceptual framework that invites an understanding of context-led arts practice that is responsive to the particularities of place, rather than a model of practice that is applied to a place. ‘Socially engaged’ and ‘relational’ practice are examples of contemporary arts field designations that suggest a modus operandi – an operative arts strategy. The presence of such concepts form the necessary conditions for investment in public art sector projects, biennales, community outreach and regeneration programmes. The problem here is that the role of the artist/artwork can be seen as promising to be transformational, but in reality this implied promise can compromise artistic integrity and foreclose a work’s potential. This research project proposes that a focus on operative strategies applied to a situation (as a prescribed or desired effect) is counter-productive to the context-led processes of responding to the relational complexities of a particular place. As such, Interfaces of location and memory calls for an integrative conceptual framework to make sense of the immersive, durational and relational processes involved. Practices and theoretical texts concerned with place and process within the fields of arts, geography and anthropology inform the development of the research and the fieldwork project – caravanserai – an arts residency based at a caravan site in Cornwall, UK. Expanding on Lippard’s educative proposal for ‘place ethical‘ arts practice (1997: 286-7) Interfaces of location and memory offers a contribution to existing knowledge in the field of contemporary public arts; as well as being of interest to disciplines beyond the arts, concerned with the understanding and future visioning of the places we inhabit.

No description available.