Darkness after light: the visual portrait of Lefifi Tlad
Date
2022
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Abstract
This creative studio research investigates the work of Lefifi Tladi (b. 1949). Its significance
includes inserting Tladi into the historiography of South African visual art and intellectual life.
My study is framed through the theories of Black Consciousness and Afrocentrism to engage
portrait painting and biographical writing as a discursive mode into the visual arts discourse.
My methodology foregrounds visual forms to interpret Tladi’s first name, Lefifi, which implies
darkness after light. Portrait painting is key in my research, exploring its potential as both a
creative procedure and intellectual activity fusing attributes of likeness, realism, fiction, and
imagination. I engage theories of biography by Chabani Manganyi, Hlonipha Mokoena, and
Ciraj Rasool to articulate the dynamic and complex portrait of Tladi, who is a visual artist,
poet, musician and activist. At the end, I produced a body of portait paintings and a expansive
written text to explore the portait of Lefifi Tladi. This research attempted to render visible a
portrait of Tladi as a creative thinker whose work is peppered with the spirit of Black
Consciousness and Afrocentricity, and contributed to decoloniality.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022
Keywords
Afrocentric, Black conciousness, Black experience, Portraite painting