A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts
in Fine Arts by Dissertation / In this research I examine how the ineffable is addressed and explored in selected
artworks by British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor (b 1954) and South African artist Karel
Nel (b 1955). I introduce the notion of the ineffable, described as that which is too great
or profound to be expressed in words; the ungraspable, indescribable, indefinable. It is
often linked to the spiritual, the fluid and unfixed, the transcendent and the notion of the
revelatory. I consider it alongside related terms such as the sublime, the numinous, the
mystical etc. In examining how it can be seen to link to artists’ aesthetic pursuits, I
briefly consider the idea of the shamanistic role of the artist in providing a
‘transformative event’ of bringing the invisible into visible form. My primary focus is
on how both Kapoor and Nel can be seen to use their chosen materials, forms, and
means of display to engage with ideas that relate to the metaphysical and allude to the
intuitive and the spiritual. Their interest in Buddhist philosophy and the notion of
reconciliation of opposites as well as their exploration of space and the idea of the
immaterial becoming object is related to my discussion of their artworks in terms of
evoking the ineffable. Kapoor's biomorphic sculptural forms covered in powder
pigments, examples of his reflective stainless steel sculptures and two recent sitespecific
installation artworks using smoke and water are closely examined as are
examples of Nel's two-dimensional drawings using pastels, powdered earth pigments,
carboniferous salts and dust and two of his site-specific installation artworks involving
the use of water and refracted/reflected light. I finally discuss my own creative work in
relation to the above as presented in my exhibition titled Ātmān / MT2016
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21302 |
| Date | 28 October 2016 |
| Creators | Kalan, Sheekha |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (112 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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