Civilising grass: the art of the lawn on the South African highveld
Date
2016
Authors
Cane, Jonathan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The
central
object
of
concern
for
this
thesis
is
the
South
African
lawn:
a
colonial
idea
and
ideal
with
far-‐reaching
implications
for
the
environment,
for
the
expression
of
ownership
and
national
belonging,
the
articulation
of
race,
the
representation
of
labour
and
the
viability
of
sexed
and
sexual
subjects.
Theoretically,
I
advance
the
notion
that
landscapes
aren’t
‘nouns’
but
are,
in
fact,
more-‐or-‐less
powerful
‘verbs’,
part
of
a
complex
and
vibrant
process
of
human-‐nonhuman
becoming.
By
way
of
a
discursive
analysis
of
scientific,
nonfiction
gardening
and
landscape
texts,
I
propose
a
definition
of
the
lawn,
asking
not
so
much
what
a
lawn
is
but
rather
what
a
lawn
does,
or
even
more
provocatively,
what
it
might
want.
The
common
sense
view
of
the
lawn
as
a
stable,
flat,
green,
family-‐friendly
and
apolitical
surface
is
measured
against
an
eccentric
archive
of
real
and
imagined
lawns
from
the
Highveld
between
1886
and
2016.
The
‘lawn
art’
archive
includes
maps,
(photographs
of)
geographic
spaces,
intentionally
and
unintentionally
unbuilt
architectural
proposals,
empty
spaces
on
the
page
and
the
ground,
patterns
of
lived
space,
uses
and
obscene
misuses,
reappropriations
and
rejection
of
spaces
on
paper,
in
person,
by
the
body,
against
and
with
other
bodies,
both
dead
and
alive.
Attention
was
paid
to
absences
and
ambivalence,
moments
where
the
landscape
arguably
failed—sometimes
almost
imperceptibly
and
at
other
times
in
spectacular
ways—to
approximate
the
colonial
ideal;
failed
to
be
successful,
modern
and
in
control.
What
the
thesis
shows
is
that
neither
the
real
nor
imagined
boundaries
which
supposedly
divide
civilised
nature
from
the
wilderness
are
able
to
provide
an
immutable,
safe,
impermeable
bulwark.
The
South
African
lawn,
like
many
other
postcolonial
landscapes,
is
muddy,
queer
and
alive,
resisting
optimistic
narratives
of
progress
and
growth.
Description
A
thesis
submitted
to
the
Faculty
of
Humanities,
University
of
the
Witwatersrand,
in
fulfilment
of
the
requirements
for
the
degree
of
Doctor
of
Philosophy.
Johannesburg,
2016