Nicholas Hlobo, a sculptor and performance artist, and Zanele Muholi, a photographer and activist, explore different ways of representing sexuality, particularly homosexuality. It is extremely difficult to discuss African sexuality in light of the stain of colonial attitudes that have exoticised and ascribed hypersexuality to African bodies. Moreover, sexuality is often not discussed in the construction of so-called African traditions and this has contributed to rendering African-ness as an exclusive identity. Tensions within and between categories of African-ness are compounded by constituted regulations. For example, Hlobo investigates the obligation of circumcision which seems to contrast the lifestyle and contexts in which he works and resides, and Muholi represents the existence of homosexual and transgender relations, even within conservative categories. The visual imagery of these two artists investigates the boundaries set by different social constructs. These set boundaries have also affected crimes against bisexual, transgender and homosexual individuals, which are reaching an alarming rate. Hlobo questions the validity of structures that marginalise homosexual individuals through drawing attention to the ambivalence of certain statutes. Muholi seeks to publicise the injustices imposed upon homosexual individuals in order to demonstrate the weight of that crisis. Although the South African legal system condones liberated expressions of sexual identity, due to social prejudices homosexual individuals are still treated as if they are not entitled to basic human rights. As a result, hate-crimes are not reported, and when they are they are not taken seriously. Hlobo and Muholi not only bring these issues to light, but also point out the dilemma inscribed in the social and political history of (South) Africa with regards to collective and individual identities. This thesis seeks to provide an analysis of the visual language used by Hlobo and Muholi to subvert the notion that homosexuality is “un-African” and to complicate concepts of gender, sexuality and identity.

This research involves a discourse analysis of several alternative video works produced by Paul Wong, an alternative video artist based in Vancouver, BC. Utilizing Judith Butler's "Subjects of sex/gender/desire," (1999) to comment and expand on Michel Foucault's four 'rules' for conducting discourse analysis, as laid out in The history of sexuality volume I: An introduction, Part Four, Chapter 2, "Method," (1978, 1990) I analyse Wong's 60 unit: Bruise (1976), Confused: Sexual views (1984) and So are you (1994). By focusing on discourses addressing the intersections of gender, race and sexuality in Wong's work, this analysis focuses on how alternative video art can be examined as activist work from a sociological perspective. Wong's video works reflect his engagements with intersecting queer and racialised identities and, through discourse analysis, can be shown to reflect, question and challenge mainstream queer and Chinese histories in Canada. Exploring Wong's contribution to discourses on gender, race and sexuality acts to underscore the contributions of alternative media artists to changing understandings of historical relations and to mainstream historical constructions of identity. Postmodern perspectives inform much alternative video practice and have worked to break down the distinctions between disciplines, recognize previously ignored mediums as legitimate and important forms and also to recognize a multiplicity of narratives and engage with marginalized perspectives. Utilizing postmodern perspectives, then, this research challenges notions of historical 'truths,' in mainstream narratives and histories. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is based on the belief that representations of women in contemporary Ugandan art serve cultural and political purposes. The premise is that the autonomous woman (seen as the new woman in this study), emerging in Uganda in the mid-1980s, agitated for the social, economic and political emancipation of women in Uganda. It has been demonstrated that the patriarchy attempted to subordinate, confine and regulate this new woman. The press, drama, music and film became powerful tools to force her into silence. This study posits that contemporary Ugandan art was part of this cultural discourse. Adopting a feminist art historical stance, it examines and assesses the gendered content of Uganda’s contemporary art masked as aesthetics. On the one hand, the study exposes the view that some men artists in Uganda use their works to construct men’s power and superiority as the necessary ingredients of gender difference. I demonstrate that some artists have engaged themes through which they have constructed women as being materialistic, gold-diggers, erotic and domesticated. I argue that this has been a strategy to tame Uganda’s new woman. On the other hand, the thesis attempts to show that some women artists have used visual discourse to challenge their marginalisation and to reclaim their ‘agency’ while revising some negative stereotypes about the new woman. This study makes an interdisciplinary contribution to Uganda’s art history, cultural studies and gender studies. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Art History)

This thesis is based on the belief that representations of women in contemporary Ugandan art serve cultural and political purposes. The premise is that the autonomous woman (seen as the new woman in this study), emerging in Uganda in the mid-1980s, agitated for the social, economic and political emancipation of women in Uganda. It has been demonstrated that the patriarchy attempted to subordinate, confine and regulate this new woman. The press, drama, music and film became powerful tools to force her into silence. This study posits that contemporary Ugandan art was part of this cultural discourse. Adopting a feminist art historical stance, it examines and assesses the gendered content of Uganda’s contemporary art masked as aesthetics. On the one hand, the study exposes the view that some men artists in Uganda use their works to construct men’s power and superiority as the necessary ingredients of gender difference. I demonstrate that some artists have engaged themes through which they have constructed women as being materialistic, gold-diggers, erotic and domesticated. I argue that this has been a strategy to tame Uganda’s new woman. On the other hand, the thesis attempts to show that some women artists have used visual discourse to challenge their marginalisation and to reclaim their ‘agency’ while revising some negative stereotypes about the new woman. This study makes an interdisciplinary contribution to Uganda’s art history, cultural studies and gender studies. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Art History)

My research investigates the habitual, the non-monumental, the mundane, the ordinary and the everyday. I conceive of this as those moments in life that are not socially or culturally recognised as important. Traditionally, such moments have not been considered worthy of documentation and have been omitted or overlooked by mainstream media. This exegesis examines the importance of the everyday and considers how to make it conspicuous. Historically, these moments have been identified with the feminine, in that much theoretical and artistic work has emerged exploring women's experience of the everyday and testifying to its importance. Three spheres in particular have attracted critical interest: namely the body, the domestic and personal identity. For example, in 1966 Yoko Ono's 'No 4 (Bottoms)' brought the issue of the body and its banality onto centre stage by showing an endless parade of bottoms. In 1975, Chantal Akerman's film 'Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles', showed the everyday routines of a self-contained housewife. More recently, numerous artists have explored the politics of identity. Sadie Benning has made numerous videos that show the mundane and also reveal her personal identity, by exploring large and especially small scale details. / While conventionally newsreels and big budget documentaries have focused on 'big' events, one of the arenas that have investigated the everyday is experimental film and video. My exegesis gives a brief historical overview of this genre. Testimony in this media is often used as a voice to express the everyday. My journal entries (testimonies) deal with everyday experiences, and are interspersed throughout my exegesis. They are also the main threads in my videos. In my studio work, I use movement and dance to express in an abstract manner issues about the everyday, which include personal identity, more specifically issues of illness and sexuality / My research draws on a variety of sources including: 1970's feminist artists and filmmakers (Chantal Akerman and Martha Rosler). Many artists who were involved in the women's movement used their bodies in various art forms including performance art to make radical statements about domesticity and feminism. Contemporary artists' depiction of personal identity that mostly informed my work (in particular, queer identity) are: experimental queer film and media makers Sadie Benning, Marlon Riggs, Isaac Julien and William Yang. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2006.

Purpose – This thesis investigates why archaeological museums tend to have a separate section for erotic and/or sexual objects. The aim is to understand why these rooms are needed and if they are considered outdated in the year 2020. Three case studies will be discussed in this thesis: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Altes Museum, and Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. Analysis – The qualitative data collected through interviews will be analyzed and presented in case studies. I apply two theories: power theory according to Michel Foucault and Clive Grey and queer theory. Method – To answer my questions, I interview museum workers responsible for the erotic display from the three case studies. All museums have a separate exhibition regarding erotic objects, so-called "secret museums". Methods that have been in use is qualitative method together with phenomenology. Findings – The findings show that the phenomenon “secret museum” was born in the mid-1700s when Pompeii and Herculaneum were excavated and several objects with erotic motives were found. Today several archaeological museums exhibit these objects in separate rooms, sometimes with restrictions. When these exhibitions were first formed only educated men were allowed to enter. It was considered that the objects would be misunderstood by the lower class and even hurt the relationship between men and women if women were to be exposed to pornography. The results from the three case studies show that people are still sensitive to objects regarding erotica or sexualities and that the separate area is for the visitors to choose if they want to enter or not. The result also shows that there is a respect for the history around this phenomenon and the rooms are in themselves museology history that needs to be preserved.  Paper type – Two years master's thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage studies.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Tübingen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 251-272) and index.

This thesis analyses selected paintings and aspects of life of the Italian Renaissance in terms of the aesthetic properties of sadistic and masochistic symptomatologies and creative production, as these have been explored by philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Marcel Henaff, and Gilles Deleuze. One question which arises from this analysis, and is considered in this thesis, is of the relation between sexual perversion and history, and in particular between experiences of violence, (dis)pleasure and desire, and historically specific forms of discourse and power, such as legislation on rape; myths and practices concerning marriage alliance; the depiction of such myths and practices in art; religion; and family structures. A second question which this thesis explores is the manners in which sadistic and masochistic artistic production function politically, to bolster pre-existing gender ideologies or to subvert them. Finally, this thesis considers the relation between sadism and masochism and visuality, both by bringing literary models of perversion to an interpretation of paintings, and by exploring the amenability of different genres of visual art to sadism and masochism respectively.

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