Thesis (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by an interest in a host of idiosyncratically interrelated phenomena that can
be understood, in my view, as symptomatic of a primary interest in representing experiences of
affect, loss, alienation and objectification of an “other”, which in turn, necessitates a critical
interrogation of the notion of self. These phenomena include notions of the body (animal and
human), private and public spaces, voyeurism, transgression, desire, fetishization, sentimentality
and most critically, nostalgia as understood through experiences of homesickness and heimwee.
My focus is on the affective potential of contemporary lens-based (photographic and video) art. I
approach this study by way of three central ideas: the longing for home (the relationship between
self/space); the longing for the body (the relationship between body/self); and the longing for the
other (the relationship between self/other). I make use of psychoanalytic and feminist theory, as
well as theoretical interpretations of photography and screen-based media, in the broader context
of visual art and culture, to frame my discussion. As such, this study draws on the theoretical work of
Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag to introduce basic concepts such as the relationship between
photography and memory, and develops these to include ideas of the gaze, self and alientation from
the self read through Judith Butler and Jacques Lacan’s image of the mirror phase; home and
homesickness read through Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud’s notion of das unheimlich (uncanny)
and Julia Kristeva’s notion of abjection; and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s objectification of the
animal-other.
This study is intimately linked with, and critically informed by my personal artistic practice, which
focuses specifically on the photographic or filmic representation (projection) of separation,
displacement and longing for an absent other (home, partner & domestic animal). I discuss my own
work relation to selected examples by artists including Shizuka Yokomizo, Sophie Calle, Penny Siopis
and Jo Ractliffe, among others, framing the art object and related processes as cathartic, mnemonic
and talismanic; acknowledging the paradoxical aspect of photography as simultaneously distancing
and acting as a trace of the real; and analysing the evocative (metaphorical or conceptual) allusions
made possible by lens-based processes and their presentation as print and projection, image and
screen. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: My navorsing is gemotiveer deur ʼn belangstelling in ʼn menigte idiosinkratiese onderling verbonde
verskynsels wat myns insiens beskou kan word as simptomaties van ʼn primêre belangstelling daarin
om ervarings van affek, verlies, aliënasie en objektivering van ʼn “ander” weer te gee. My fokus sal op
die verband tussen kontemporêre kuns en affek wees.
Hierdie onderling verbonde verskynsels sluit in: die self en nosies van “die ander”/aliënasie,
identiteit, die liggaam, die verbeelding; veiligheid, die huis, huishoudelike
ruimte/plek/ontheemdheid; beheer, grense, oortreding, voyeurisme en geweld; verlange, nostalgie
(heimwee), misnoegdheid; verlies, gemis, rou, woede, depressie met inbegrip van melancholie;
liefde, romanse, sentimentaliteit, kitsch, besit; begeerte, obsessie, objektivering, tot fetisj maak (met
inbegrip van objektivering van die huisdier). Ek benader ʼn bespreking van bogenoemde verskynsel
deur diskoerse van psigoanalise en feminisme binne die raamwerk van my navorsing.
Ek beoog om, met behulp van psigoanalitiese teoretiese verwysings, in hierdie verhandeling die
verlange na die huis (die verband tussen self/ruimte, hoofstuk een), die verlange na die liggaam (die
verband tussen liggaam/self, hoofstuk twee) en die verlange na die ander (die verband tussen
self/ander, hoofstuk drie) te verken. Ek sal voorbeelde van kontemporêre fotografie en videokuns,
asook voorbeelde bespreek om kontekstuele verwysing na ʼn bespreking van die uitoefening van my
eie kreatiewe kuns te verskaf. Ek sal die uitbeelding (projeksie) van skeiding, ontheemding en
verlange na ʼn afwesige ander (huis, maat en huisdier) bespreek.
Die veld van my teoretiese ondersoek sal put uit sleutelteorieë van Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag,
Sigmund Freud, JaquesLacan, Julia Kristeva, Gilles Deleuze en Felix Guattari, Martin Heidegger en
Judith Butler ten einde basiese begrippe in gebruik te kan neem soos die verband tussen fotografie
en geheue (die kunsvoorwerp/proses as suiweringsmiddel, mnemoniek en besitter van bonatuurlike,
veral beskermende magte), paradokse in fotografie, uitbeelding en verlange/aliënasie, huis en
heimwee (die bonatuurlike, ellende), kontemporêre kuns en affek, die starende blik en die
objektivering van die dier-ander en die stemmingsvolle (metafories of konseptueel) sinspelings wat
deur fotografiese prosesse en aanbieding (druk en projeksie, afbeelding en skerm) moontlik gemaak
word.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/6578 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Harmsen, Corlia |
| Contributors | Bull, Katherine, Smith, Kathryn, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 99 p. : ill. |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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