ETD Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/104


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Subject: search.filters.subject.Art--South Africa

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    In the weave: textile-based modes of making and the vocabulary of handcraft in selected contemporary artworks from South Africa
    (2017) Oltmann, Walter
    This research focuses on handcrafted artworks made by contemporary artists working in South Africa who employ textile-based materials and processes of fabrication related to weaving and/or unweaving in producing sculptural objects, installations and performances. The primary aim is to investigate how and to what ends contemporary artists working in South Africa have chosen to engage in practices that are common to textile-based handcraft traditions of weaving, stitching and tying. This is done with reference to indigenous southern African textile-based traditions of making where appropriate. The focus is on how artists have understood manual work and its philosophy, and how conceptualization in their creative practice is accessed through the physical act of repetitive making by hand, based particularly on those traditional textile craft practices associated with weaving. In examining selected examples, such ‘textilic’ making practice is considered from a generative perspective involving a process of ‘following materials’ through handcrafted fabrication (Ingold 2010a). Furthermore, the study considers a material-conceptual interplay between ‘text, textile and techne (craftsmanship)’ and the knowledge production that this intertwining generates (Mitchell 2012). In South Africa, craft materials and techniques are currently in use by contemporary artists in very particular ways, and in relation to the historically politicized context of the country. I critically examine how the selected artists’ works intersect with a politics of craft that is particular to the country’s post-apartheid context, and how they subvert or destabilize the hierarchical distinction between art and craft.
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    Beyond the readymade: found objects in contemporary South African art
    (2016-07-29) Kearney, Alison
    The use of found objects is evident in a range of contemporary artmaking practices. The use of found objects can, however, no longer be understood as a rupture from tradition as they were in the early decades of the twentieth century when they were first used by Picasso and later by Duchamp, because found objects have become part of a longer genealogy in art making. A new approach is needed in order to understand the significance of the use of found objects in contemporary art. This study explores the significance of the use of found objects in selected contemporary South African artworks in order to move beyond an understanding of the use of found objects as the anti-art gestures like those of the historical and neo-avant-gardes. I propose that a shift in focus, from the idea of the found objects as anti-art, to an exploration of the changing ontological status of the found object as it moves through different social fields is one such new approach. Chapter one introduces the study, while chapter two outlines the research methods and theoretical frameworks used. Chapter three explores the meanings that objects accrue in everyday practices, while chapter four focussed on the difference between artworks and more quotidian objects. Pursuing the question of the manner in which the ontological status of the object shifts as it enters into and becomes part of the field of exhibition, chapter five considers the ways in which meanings are constructed for objects in the field of exhibition through the conventions of display. I explore the ways in which artists make use of or invert these conventions as a means of challenging the field of exhibition. Acknowledging that the objects are also active agents within this process, in chapter six I explore the manner in which the materiality of found objects contributes to the meaning of the artworks, and by extension, I consider what new possibilities of meaning a focus on the materiality yields. In the final chapter, I use the concept of the everyday to draw the themes that have emerged throughout this study together. I conclude by situating the contemporary South African art practices within the genealogy of the avant-garde.
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    Aspects of South African art criticism
    (2015-09-11) Schmidt, Leoni
    Current art critical practice in South Africa has not been investigated previously. Statements have been made with regard to the low standards of art criticism in this country (see the introduction to this dissertation) However, such statements have not been motivated by an analysis is of examples of work contributed by South. This fact partly determined the decision to African art critics investigate current art critical practice in this country .
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    Safe as houses: art and (in)security
    (2015-02-13) Geldenhuys, Amber-Jade
    This practice based research project engages with the theme of safety and security through the conceptualisation and production of sculptures and drawings. The exhibition takes the form of an installation which is the primary source of interrogation into the broad topic of increasing securitisation in the contemporary urban environment. The components of this research project include 1) a body of practical artwork which explores the theme of safety and security in Johannesburg and 2) a dissertation which locates this exploration in theoretical, critical, historical perspectives. There is a particular focus on two other securitised cities namely São Paulo and London in relationship to the work of artists Marcelo Cidade and Mona Hatoum respectively, specifically sculpture/installation, which engages thematically and materially with notions of power, surveillance and security that responds to their immediate surroundings. The Johannesburg security context and works by the design team Dokter and Misses are analysed and finally a documentation and critical reflection of my own creative work produced in the context of this study.