Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-107). / My project is one of memorialisation, expressed as a creative process. A core theme throughout my work concerns the notions of absence and presence, as the project is founded on a personal loss and inspired by a desire to sustain the memories of my late brother. My investigation involves the exploration and preservation of the memories of my brother. The body of work manifests as the residue of my reflections on grief and memory that I have chosen to exhibit in a commemorative manner. In turn, my practice has functioned as a source of comfort in the course of my mourning.

From Introduction: Willem Boshoff was born in Vereeniging, South Africa, in 1951. The son of a carpenter, Boshoff developed an early interest in art. Although never taught formally by his father, he nevertheless acquired a knowledge of the craft of carpentry, a skill which he continues to utilize in much of his art-making today. Boshoff studied at the Johannesburg College of Art, and obtained a Master's Diploma in Technology in Fine Art in 1984. He taught at that institution for twelve years, becoming a full-time art practitioner in 1996. He produced some significant works prior to and during the time of his teaching tenure, including his KykAfrikaans visual poetry in 1979-1980, Bangboek between 1977-1986, and the researching and writing of the Dictionary of Perplexing English in 1986 (ending in 1999). In this study I will discuss Willem Boshoff's careful employment of language and materials, througb which he propagates his "study of ignorance" (Williamson and Jamal 1996:148). I will investigate two major works by Boshoff, namely The Writing in the Sand and The Blind Alphabet in Chapters 1 and 2 respectively. Both of these installations are concerned fundamentally with the subversion of power relationships and elitism. As I will show, both works offer an opportunity to investigate their objectives in relation to discourses surrounding language and hermeneutics. My study includes a third chapter, in which I discuss my own work entitled The Bread of the Presence in relation to Boshoff's own methodologies. As will be demonstrated with particular reference to The Blind Alphabet and my own work, a discussion of memory proves to be of some relevance within this dialogue.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-64). / As a South African artist I am in power to influence some manner of change, through my art, to the structure of national thought and hence national identity. Through my live art installation TOTANDERKUNTUlT, I offered South Africans the opportunity to engage in the cathartic process of resolution and reconciliation through dialogue. The aim of this dialogue is to engender a new method of practice for a non-racialised approach to the development of an integrated cultural identity that South Africans can work towards. I am not proclaiming to have this identity defined. I am positing saamtrekking as a method of practice for an identity that can be practiced by all race, colours and creeds of South Africans. Saamtrekking is a coming together, it is the acknowledged acceptance of some manner of change towards transformation. It requires acknowledgement in order to be practiced, the subject must practice acts of transformative behaviour in order to transform.