The imaging of sexuality and violence in Nandipha Mntambo's photographic work The Rape of Europa (2009)
Date
2013-11-05
Authors
De Oliviera, Gina van Zyl
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This research examines the imaging of sexuality and violence in Nandipha
Mntambo’s staged photographic work The Rape of Europa (2009). Mntambo’s
reference to European Renaissance paintings, her quotation of ancient Greek
mythology, and her reference to Picasso’s etching Minotaur Kneeling Over Sleeping
Girl (1933) become metaphors for historical narratives of violence that begin to
address issues associated with race and gender politics. The photograph is a layered
text that is implicated within political and ideological power structures. The concept
of rape, as it is implied in Mntambo’s photograph, is a metaphor for exploitation
associated with the female body, particularly the Black female body, and the broader
colonial project. Metaphors that relate to the imaging of both black and white female
bodies are collated in relation to one another as intertextual narratives. I use
Foucauldian and feminist theory on the social body, sexuality and the
power/knowledge paradigm in relation to feminist discourses on the Western gaze.
The relationship between violence and power is linked to the gaze as a site of
reclaiming power through a counter gaze. The above theories are used as entry points
into a critical discussion on the body of work produced for the practical component of
this degree.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanties, Fine Arts, 2013