Traces of loss ander hemel bo aarde: a study on spatial and identity erasure in the

Abstract

In its wake colonialism left behind tangible and intangible traces on our physical and psychological landscapes. The research seeks to look at the interrelationship between the intangible landscapes and their affect on tangible ones, locating it somewhere between the boundaries of heaven and earth. Using post colonial theories the paper intends to interrogate the supposed importance and historical valuing of (western forms of cultural documentation) physicality and written history over historically under represented concepts of culture and identity. Suggesting that between what is documented exists the shadows and traces of all that was not. The research assumes that what is undocumented in written histories and architectural form can be made visible and is evident by it’s absence. Central to this research is the use of language as a implement of colonial power and control. A primary concern is how physically the language of colonial rule manifests itself spatially and architecturally. Using the deconstructivist typographic tool of erasure the project attempts to recontextualize the documented by bringing into greater consciousness suppressed and forgotten memories. Within the technique of erasure or ‘sous rature’ meaning is defined by its difference. In the literary arts erasure has been used as tool to accurately re-represent written documentation, the art form seeks to highlight areas in text where concepts are self-undermining (Derrida, 1967). It does not remove inaccuracies but rather recontextualizes them, noting that these terms are “inadequate yet necessary” (Sarup, 1988). This can be asserted as a possible challenge to over-dominant over documented western discourse