This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

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.

Le travail de Willem Boshoff s’articule autour de la date charnière d’avril 1994, les premières élections démocratiques en Afrique du Sud. Il fait des sculptures en granite et des installations de matériaux accumulés. L’artiste revendique son attachement à un art basé sur le langage, il est écrivain de dictionnaires. En revisitant les questions posées par les artistes du XXème siècle, textes et œuvres produits en Europe sont systématiquement vérifiés au regard de leur contrepartie sud-africaine. L’attitude de Boshoff, une mélancolique interrogation de son rôle de créateur, s’explique par les conditions politiques et son milieu culturel. L’artiste découvre des façons plus dynamiques de faire geste quand il adopte ce persona du druide. Lors de son objection de conscience au service militaire il avait appris qu’il est mieux de cacher la véritable signification d’un signe ou d’inventer des façons de disqualifier les textes. Les “Notes pour une esthétique aveugle” où l’essentiel n’est pas visible, inventent un dictionnaire à être lu avec les mains. Boshoff interroge ici les théories de perception qui munissent l’artiste sud-africain d’une façon de faire basculer le monde occidental vers une pensée qu’il peut réclamer sienne. La multiplicité des langues en Afrique du Sud s’ouvre à des questions de mémoire, d’écologie, de disparition, d’espace mental, des limites de la ficticité. Boshoff incite son spectateur à une opération de traduction qui peut être envisagée de façon tangible dans des œuvres tels que “Writing in the Sand” et les “Jardins de mots”. Le druide est le berger des mots et des plantes en danger d’oubli. Par le même geste il les protège contre la possibilité d’être pétrifiés ou fossilisés dans une théorie ou dans un dogme. Un champ d’intelligibilité du travail de Boshoff est créé à l’aide d’esprits apparentés: Sarkis, Mofokeng, Baumgarten, Gette, Mudzunga, Ulrichs, Zulu, Kosuth, Wafer, Bochner, Filliou, Darboven, Alÿs, Acconci, Langa, Marshall McLuhan, Ivan Vladislavić. / Willem Boshoff’s work articulates around a pivotal date, April 1994, the first democratic elections in South Africa. He may choose to work gigantic rocks of granite or establish vast installations of accumulated material. The artist claims that his work is based on language, often taking the form of Dictionaries. While reviewing the main questions by artists of the twentieth century, texts or artworks from Europe are systematically tested against their South African counterpart. Boshoff’s attitude is determined by a melancholic questioning of his role as a creator linked to a political situation and cultural milieu. He discovers more dynamic ways of presenting gestures when his artistic activity is related to the way of life of a druid. As a conscientious objector he learnt that it is often better to hide the true signification of a sign or to disqualify a text. Boshoff’s “Notes towards a blind Aesthetic”, where the essential is not visible, invent a dictionary to be read with the hands. Questioning perception theories provides the artist with a way of capsizing the occidental world towards patterns of thinking that he can claim for himself. The multiplicity of languages in South Africa opens up to questions of memory, ecology, disappearance, mental space as a site of creation, experiments with the limits of the fictional. The druid is one exceptional character amongst others in the contemporary art world. Boshoff obliges his visitor to participate in an act of translation which is given provisional but tangible form in such works as “Writing in the Sand” and the “Gardens of Words”. The druid becomes the guardian of words and plants in danger of being forgotten also safeguarding them against being petrified or fossilized into a set theory or dogma. Kindred spirits working on all continents are: Sarkis, Mofokeng, Baumgarten, Mudzunga, Ulrichs, Kosuth, Wafer, Bochner, Gette, Filliou, Darboven, Alÿs, Acconci, Langa, Marshall McLuhan and Ivan Vladislavić.

M.Tech. (Fine Art) / In this research, I map emergent female Afrikaner identities in relation to Willem Boshoff‟s artwork Bread and Pebble Roadmap, which acts as the central focus to this study and informs my own body of practical work. In order to constitute a key to unlock questions regarding emergent female Afrikaner identities in a South African context from colonial to post-apartheid, the relationship between image and text in Bread and Pebble Roadmap is investigated. The investigation of this relationship is interwoven with a discourse of an early form of the literary tradition that has come to be known as Arabic-Afrikaans script, a term used to describe the "literary work which is written in Afrikaans with Arabic letters" (Van Selms 1951). This study adopts a qualitative methodological approach. The research incorporates textual analysis and visual analysis. The study presents a visual semiotic analysis of Bread and Pebble Roadmap, in order to map possible links between this artwork and a literature review of an early form of Arabic-Afrikaans script, as a contextual framework in which to situate the study. Arabic- Afrikaans, in turn, acts as a link which forges a relationship between two kinds of identities: an Islamic influence on South African culture, and an Islamic influence on my life experience as an Afrikaans-speaking woman who lived in Egypt for four years. These two identities, represented by artist Lalla Essaydi in relation to an Islamic identity and artist Lizelle Kruger in relation to an Afrikaner identity, are investigated through a comparative visual analysis. The study intends to show how Essaydi and Kruger form a link with Boshoff, where each of these three artists subverts, questions, and breaks down prevailing cultural and linguistic stereotypes, and in so doing operationalises the notion of an emergent identity. Identity construction, in the context of this study, is characterised by Stuart Hall‟s (in Rutherford 1990:222) concept of identity being in a continual state of flux, identity as “a production, which is never complete; always in process and always constructed within, not outside representation”. I therefore map my Afrikaner identity, previously seen as fixed, unproblematic and in line with the national discourse under apartheid (Van Heerden 2006), but now seen as „becoming‟ and „transitioning‟, situated „betwixt and between‟ (Turner 1969). This notion informs my own practical work, which becomes visual metaphors of maps, in order to navigate a sense of self. My practical work therefore attempts to embody a temporary space of an emergent identity. I understand this in-between space (Bhabha 2004) as a liminal space, as a continuum of spaces in which my emergent female Afrikaner identity resides. An important conclusion that I make from my research is that Boshoff‟s conflation of image and text, which is consistent with Derrida‟s (1981) deconstructive strategy, unhinges the conditions of the stereotype, which conventionally privileges a dichotomy in which different polar relations reside. Drawing a connection between Bread and Pebble Roadmap and Arabic-Afrikaans, and applying the conditions found in Bread and Pebble Roadmap to Arabic-Afrikaans, I view Arabic- Afrikaans as able to unhinge its own seeming dichotomies: between Arabic and Afrikaans, and thus between Islam and Christianity. In this way, I am able to argue that Arabic-Afrikaans is able to reverse stereotyping and point a way forward towards the construction of emergent non-racial stereotyping.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology in Fine Art, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / The crux of my thesis is the study of the relationship of script and image in the work of contemporary arts. I chose to focus on three selected artists, i.e. myself, Celeste van der Merwe, a local South African male artist named Willem Boshoff and an international female artist, Barbara Kruger. My intention was to write a readable self-study thesis that would be both informative and educational while simultaneously appealing to the heart of the reader. In order to realise this intention, I focussed on how the above-mentioned artists used script and image to address social issues prevalent in society today. I also made social statements through the medium of my art based on the familiar allegory, Little Red Riding Hood. My aim has been to address the breakdown of the family structure by focussing on the suffering of teenagers as a result of dysfunctional family structures and behaviours. I explored the powerful and provocative manner in which Barbara Kruger effectively wields the combination of script and image in her work. Boshoff on the other hand is a South African linguist who incorporates script in a variety of disciplines such as installations, visual poetry, concrete poetry, sculpture. In my own art I deconstructed and transformed materials and found that the process of breaking down and rebuilding reflected the breakdown and restoration in/of the lives of children. By consciously investigating my practice as a creative artist using script and image I have gained a better understanding of myself and I believe I am now able to improve my practise. Through this self-study research I have grown in self-discovery and self-actualization as an artist and have developed as a researcher. Finally, I concluded that the relationship between script and image is open-ended, not conclusive and differs in each work of art. / Durban University of Technology Research Management Office. / M

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis comprises a critical analysis of the relationship between form and function in contemporary iconography that contains religious themes. From the theoretical stance of Visual Culture iconography can be defined as ‘context-specific visual language’. I suggest that meaning is created not only through material usage but also through the hermeneutic content of images. By means of a comparison between an example of what I deem literal iconography and another of figurative iconography, I explore two divergent methods through which religiously-inspired iconography can be employed in the construction of visual texts. The two examples comprise of the evangelical poster Die Smal en Breë Weg (The Broad and Narrow Way) and Willem Boshoff’s Bread-and-Pebble Road Map (2004). / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie skripsie omvat ‘n kritiese analise van die verhouding tussen die aard en die funksionering van kontemporêre ikonografie wat religieuse temas bevat. Vanuit die teoretiese hoek van Visuele Kultuur kan ikonografie gedefinieer word as ‘konteks-spesifieke visuele taal’. Ek stel voor dat betekenis nie alleen gegenereer word deur die materiële gebruik van beeldmateriaal nie, maar ook deur die hermeneutiese inhoud daarvan. Deur ‘n vergelykende analise tussen ‘n voorbeeld van wat ek as letterlike ikonografie beskou en ‘n voorbeeld van figuurlike ikonografie, ondersoek ek twee uiteenlopende metodes waardeur religieus-geïnspireerde ikonografie werksaam kan wees in die konstruksie van visuele tekste. Die twee voorbeelde bestaan uit die evangeliese plakkaat Die Smal en Breë Weg en Willem Boshoff se Bread-and-Pebble Road Map (2004).

Le travail de Willem Boshoff s'articule autour de la date charnière d'avril 1994, les premières élections démocratiques en Afrique du Sud. Il fait des sculptures en granite et des installations de matériaux accumulés. L'artiste revendique son attachement à un art basé sur le langage, il est écrivain de dictionnaires. En revisitant les questions posées par les artistes du XXème siècle, textes et œuvres produits en Europe sont systématiquement vérifiés au regard de leur contrepartie sud-africaine. L'attitude de Boshoff, une mélancolique interrogation de son rôle de créateur, s'explique par les conditions politiques et son milieu culturel. L'artiste découvre des façons plus dynamiques de faire geste quand il adopte ce persona du druide. Lors de son objection de conscience au service militaire il avait appris qu'il est mieux de cacher la véritable signification d'un signe ou d'inventer des façons de disqualifier les textes. Les "Notes pour une esthétique aveugle" où l'essentiel n'est pas visible, inventent un dictionnaire à être lu avec les mains. Boshoff interroge ici les théories de perception qui munissent l'artiste sud-africain d'une façon de faire basculer le monde occidental vers une pensée qu'il peut réclamer sienne. La multiplicité des langues en Afrique du Sud s'ouvre à des questions de mémoire, d'écologie, de disparition, d'espace mental, des limites de la ficticité. Boshoff incite son spectateur à une opération de traduction qui peut être envisagée de façon tangible dans des œuvres tels que "Writing in the Sand" et les "Jardins de mots". Le druide est le berger des mots et des plantes en danger d'oubli. Par le même geste il les protège contre la possibilité d'être pétrifiés ou fossilisés dans une théorie ou dans un dogme. Un champ d'intelligibilité du travail de Boshoff est créé à l'aide d'esprits apparentés: Sarkis, Mofokeng, Baumgarten, Gette, Mudzunga, Ulrichs, Zulu, Kosuth, Wafer, Bochner, Filliou, Darboven, Alÿs, Acconci, Langa, Marshall McLuhan, Ivan Vladislavić.

An overview of global statistics on violence, country to country and worldwide, indicates that men are the main perpetrators of violence in our societies. Furthermore, the behavioural traits of risk-taking and self-harm are also associated with men. It is my contention that the formative processes involved in gender identity are at the root of these dysfunctions. In an attempt to present a positive alternative, I focus on a group I name the X- Men: white South African Generation X males. Drawing on Judith Butler‟s theory of performativity and its allowance for agency and resistance, I argue that they are not necessarily trapped by how their gender identities were formed through Apartheid‟s gendered institutions. These included schools, sport and the military. I posit that within the institution of art, self-aware artists may present visual representations of resistance and transformation. Acknowledging art as signifying text, the X-Men situate signs differently in an effort to accomplish a social and intersubjective raising-of-awareness. Additionally, this new identity and its associated positive performance have the potential to undermine certain stereotypical perceptions harboured by the broader society as a result of problematic behaviour associated with men. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.V.A.