This study, entitled African modernism and identity politics: curatorial practice in the Global
South with particular reference to South Africa, postulates that perceptions of African identity in
curatorial exhibitions are changing, moving towards the intercultural views generated by
Africans themselves. African identity politics is investigated in relation to critical ideas on African
modernism and post-Africanism, in conjunction with similarities with Nicholas Bourriaud’s
concept of altermodernism. The research focus falls within the Global South as a geo-political
location, with particular reference to South African artworks and their curation. In this qualitative study, an investigation is launched of curated exhibitions dealing with
identitarian issues. A critique is set up on curatorial approaches on African identity as presented
at seminal exhibitions, from the 1985 exhibition, Tributaries: a view of contemporary South
African art (curated by Ricky Burnett), through the 1990s Johannesburg Biennials, to more
recent exhibitions such as Documenta XI (2002, curated by Okwui Enwezor) and Africa remix:
contemporary art of a continent (2004-2007, curated by Simon Njami), as well as the Tate
Liverpool exhibition Afro modern: journeys through the black Atlantic (2010, curated by Tanya
Barson and Peter Gorschlüter). Along with a critique of curatorial intentions, these exhibitions
are reviewed in order to explore the representation of African modern identity.
This study considers how, after postcolonialism and postmodernism, binary differences such as
Western/African and black/white have become less pronounced, due to globalising processes,
resulting in interculturalism and transnationalism. This study captures the shift away from the
centrality thinking of postmodernism and postcolonialism, not in terms of white superiority, but in
terms of a reconstruction of the modern, in order to situate Africa as a product of globalisation.
The study hypothesises that transmutation has occurred, rendering society as culturally
intermixed, and thus dismantling essential racial stereotypes. The study rather investigates
identity exchange in terms of translation, where the understanding of difference is considered in
terms of changing understandings of difference itself through globalisation. In order to surpass
stereo-racial boundaries, this study postulates that identitarian understanding is now transconscious,
pluralised to the point of being racially exchanged. The exhibition Trans-Africa: Africa
curating Africa challenges and transmutes stereotypes of backwardness, exoticism and
dislocation in perceptions of Africa within the curatorial realm, and aims to elicit new frameworks
to interpret African art. The curatorial objective is to posit a contemporary understanding of African identity within the public domain: in a space where terms like race, culture, tradition or
self/other need not form the basis of identitarian understanding in Africa.
The outcome of such an understanding is explained through the concept of the transmutation of
culture, that problematises differences in cultural translation and trans-consciousness. This
results in a transnational and global understanding, no longer limited to the understanding of
African identity with regard to diasporic or nomadic conditions. As such, cultural intermixing and
trans-consciousness conveys that within changing curatorial perceptions, the issue of who has
the right to comment on whom is fading. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Visual Arts / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/33358 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Crawshay-Hall, Jayne Kelly |
| Contributors | Dreyer, Elfriede, jaynekellycrawshayhall@yahoo.com |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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