Browsing by Author "Inggs, Stephen"

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    Absent Presence: an exploration of memory and family through printmaking
    (2022) Hambsch, Oliver; Inggs, Stephen; Siopis, Penny
    Visual and linguistic metaphors help to conceptualise memory by reducing its physiological and philosophical complexities to a degree that allows its processes to be easily understood. Two commonly used metaphors are ‘memory as an imprint' and ‘memory as a photograph'. However, these metaphors ignore vital aspects of memory, such as its fluidity, the interplay between remembering and forgetting, and the role of imagination. They can thus be considered misleading and problematic. Of particular interest is the ‘memory-as-imprint' analogy and how engagement with the visual language of printmaking can modify it to create a more comprehensive depiction that accounts for the physiological processes of individual memory and the retention and transmission of collective, familial memory. Through my practical work, I seek to address these concerns through both traditional and experimental printmaking techniques, which I reflect on and analyse through the theoretical framework of printmaking. I use photographs sourced from my family archive as references, focusing in particular on those from the German post-war period, and remediate them into various print mediums, each addressing particular facets of memory that I consider important. My work is intended to serve as a reflection on what memory is and how it is experienced, the theoretical aspects of printmaking and my own relationship with my family memory. I argue that through a conceptual engagement with printmaking, print can be used as a metaphorical device that extends beyond the simple ‘memory-as-imprint' analogy.
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    Avant lounge exotica
    (2012) Viljoen, Sunette; Inggs, Stephen
    Avant Lounge Exotica is a project that explores the poetics of interior living spaces, specifically in relation to print media and magazine imagery. Throughout this project I have engaged with ideas around intimacy and interiority, and the sensory experience within a space. By creating imaginary environments and presenting different iterations of these spaces, I try to acknowledge the personal, psychological experience in a private interior. This interior is one that exists as part of a larger sociological context that is based on consumerist aspirations and displays of wealth.
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    Chorus for chimeras: a series of etchings towards the development of a personal iconography incorporating symbols, mythologies and ritual
    (1988) Vorster, Alma; Skotnes, Pippa; Inggs, Stephen
    Aspects of mythologies, their associated rituals and shamanism, are the subjects of this thesis. In a portfolio of twenty-one etchings, I have modified and recontextualised images from a variety of sources as a means to developing a personal iconography. Ritual and the creation of mythologies offer humankind one way in which inexplicable aspects of experience can be confronted. Myths are expressed visually or verbally through the language of symbols. These symbols provide a means to transcend the physical world, and to create an environment in which knowledge and understanding of the cosmos is enriched. The rituals accompanying myths, and in particular the role played in these by the shaman, have been of major importance in the development of this body of work. The exploration of my field of study was principally based on visual reference material and recounts of myths. Source material was derived from rock paintings, ritualistic costumes, musical instruments and other objects found in the rites which accompany the narration of myths of n1ainly pre- . literate societies. In the section, SOURCES AND REFERENCES, such areas of interest are discussed. Rituals have been an important focal point of my examination of mythologies, as an abundance of symbolical connections to the metaphysical realm are included in them. These take the form of clothing and other adornments, such as headdresses and masks, and a variety of ritualistic objects and instruments. The meanings of mythologies are distilled, through the participation of the observers or listeners, by personally interpreting the symbols they perceive. Often symbols are obscure and in their understanding assistance is required. This aid is offered by those individuals who, in a given culture, specialize as interpreters - prophets, sages, priests and shamans. 1 The shaman, as mediator, has been a special concern in my research. I have concentrated on those societies where shamanism is the central religious practice. By virtue of their experience of ritualistic ecstasy, shamans are believed to transcend the physical barriers of time and space to become inhabitants in a metaphysical sphere and participants in the mythology. To enable entry, the ecstatic has to undergo a symbolical metamorphosis during the trance state. This metamorphosis entails a ritualistic suffering, death and resurrection as well as a ceremonial incarnation: an animal or spectral form appropriate to him or her or the occasion. My investigation into the transformation processes has focused mainly on visual references to the animal or mythical beings which aid the incarnation. As well as the gleaning of symbols and forms from mythologies, and their associated rituals, I have referred to a multitude of designs and shapes from the natural world, including palaeontological and biological sources. To formulate the information comprising my personal iconography, various interpretative and manipulative processes were employed. These took the form of drawings and collages. In the section, WORKING METHODS AND ETCHING PROCESSES, these will be discussed. This section is also concerned with the variety of etching techniques utilized in the body of practical work. In the section, INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINTS, I have mentioned some of the themes developed in the four series. I have not discussed the meanings of each print individually, as I hope that these will, in part, be determined by the viewers themselves, but have tried rather to provide an insight into some of the motives I have had in constructing my images. A selection of images from my sketchbooks as well as preparatory drawings relating to the final in1ages have been included. The INDEX TO THE PRINTS, details editions, techniques, sizes and titles of each print.
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    Echoes : painterly repetitions and revisions in an age of digitally mediated images
    (2008) Aikman, Jake; Inggs, Stephen
    The mediation of landscape in painting is explored by looking at a specific case in the Romantic tradition (Caspar David Friedrich) in relation to contemporary painting, which highlights a shift from a view of a utopian unmediated landscape to our present reconfigurations of fragmented past, sourced from mediated images. In section two a theoretical and historical context for situating my practice is discussed. Examples of repetition from early Modernism through to the Pop Art movement highlight the differences and similarities of my intentions in the practical work. In addition, the thematic component of the project is discussed specifically with regard to the prevalence of affinities with the thematic interests from the movement referred to as Romanticism. For the purposes of explicating an historical framing of my project, the focus on Romanticism is restricted to the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich as apposed to providing a survey of an entire movement. The return of romantic themes in my own practice and within a broader contemporary practice is argued to be another form of repetition, thus expanding the scope of repetition rather than dividing the project into separate components. Section three discusses contemporary examples of artists who have influenced my research project and specific works relating to the topic of repetition are examined. This section also links the earlier discussion of Friedrich's romantic painting with contemporary artists, namely Peter Doig and Christopher Orr, associated with the current ressurgence of artists adopting and adapting the spirit and thematic concerns of Romanticism in contemporary practice. Section four examines the methodology and process of my research project. I start by framing the context for the practical processes employed and how they developed. I discuss how, through the process of implicating these methods, a dialogue between technical strategy and content arose. Section five illustrates and provides a detailed discussion of the individual works produced for the exhibition.
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    Further fictions in print
    (2011) Norman, Natasha; Inggs, Stephen
    Further Fictions mediates a particular visual system - that of the screen. I have tried to unravel and grant materiality to this contemporary virtual coding of images using a process of translation: by evoking the inherent nature of the cinematic image in the medium of print.We live in an analogue reality. There is always a shift between an idea and its translation into a model, between the photograph and the reality of the event it references, between the drawing on a matrix and the print of that drawing on paper. In this project I have set myself the task of the translator by grappling with the elements of an image that defy translation from one medium to another.
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    Making space: photographic traces of absence, stillness and the in-between in public spaces
    (2022) Fraser, Nicole Clare; Josephy, Svea; Inggs, Stephen
    My photographic project Making Space: Photographic Traces of Absence, Stillness and the In-Between in Public Spaces explores banal and commonplace empty spaces, non-places, liminal spaces and ordinary, inanimate objects. In the first section, Situating my Practice, I contextualise my practice within the broader context of photography and architecture, looking specifically at the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape (1975) and affiliated photographers to highlight ideas about photographically documenting built structures. The visual language of the deadpan aesthetic is an important aspect of my work, and I elaborate on and explore “neutral” and “objective” ways of seeing. I consider a selection of photographers to establish various ways in which imagemakers use a formalistic photographic approach to communicate narratives through the representation of built structures. I expand on a phenomenological approach to making images, exploring notions of tenderness, care, alienation and violence. In the second section of the document, (Dis)Locating my Practice and Making Space, I position myself within the identified terrain to further explicate my practice and project. The physical project takes the form of silver gelatin handprints, larger inkjet prints and a video projection, and I discuss the method of display and curation of the exhibition and how they motivate ways of looking, slowness and intimacy.
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    Memoria : an exploration of longing, desire and transcience in the everyday
    (2001) Simon, Janet; Inggs, Stephen
    This is a very personal body of work from a specifically feminine perspective. I have felt enormous pressure for most of my life to try to maintain what I believe to be an acceptable appearance. I have struggled with my weight and with acne for many years. As a result, I have constantly feared being photographed or being seen without my usual mask of makeup. This has caused me to feel a disjuncture between my inner self and my outward appearance. I have become acutely aware of the face as a mask that can be manipulated in many ways, and of the illusion that lies beneath appearances. As a reaction to what I perceive to be an enormous emphasis on flawless appearances and beauty, in, for example advertising, magazines and film, I have been drawn to the overlooked, the discarded and the decayed in the everyday When sourcing material for this body of work, I have wanted to explore that which I habitually overlook in my everyday life; which has become so familiar that it is rarely noticed. I have particularly wanted to examine the significance of the everyday.
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    Out-of-Place
    (2013) Gauntlett, Alice; Inggs, Stephen; Siopis, Penny
    This series of photographs were the initial process works for my project. I began photographing my body, predominately my legs, in personal spaces. These spaces included my family home and my studio and depicted performances of my interaction with these spaces and objects and elements from the home. This series of process works introduced to me to the idea of working within the home and photographing my performances. They differ from the main body of work, which was photographed in my mother's new home - the location that I chose for my photographs and performances, in that they were not remediated into collage works.
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    Present absence /Absent Presence
    (2007) Wildenboer, Barbara; Inggs, Stephen
    In this project melancholy and the related experiences of loss and longing as explanatory concepts, are the basis fromwhich visually interpret the body of practical work that emphasises the role of emotion and personal experience in locating meaning.
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    Shape-shifting: Reimaging mothering and mother-being
    (2017) Venter, Marguerite; Inggs, Stephen; Brundrit, Jean
    Based on my lived experience, this body of work reimages the representation of mothering, motherbeing and the space in between through a visual exploration within photography. The overlooked space between mothering and mother-being renders it invisible as the two positions are frequently conflated. My work reassesses and redresses the representation of the mother and the concept of mothering within the context of art. Finally, the practical work and accompanying research challenge the modest, marginalised and repressed place that mothering (and mother-artists) has occupied within fine art. The role of the mother and the concept of motherhood are burdened with expectations, presumption, convention, tradition, judgement and discrimination. Within the context of art, the Madonna and Child trope remains the most instantly summoned and enduring visual standard to address mothering. My project attempts to widen the narrow aperture through which the contemporary mother and mothering is viewed. It would be presumptuous to assume that my voice is representative of the experience of all mothers everywhere. For the purposes of this body of work my own lived experience–being the mother in a middle-class, single-parent household while studying, classified as divorced, South African, white, born at the cusp of Generation X and Y (millennial)–serves as the context from which I approach mothering.1 It is important to emphasise the distinction between mothering and mother-being and acknowledge the fluxive space between—wherein independence and being depended on, meet, clash, reconcile and coexist. I consider mothering to be the active, ongoing process of caring for and raising one's child(ren): caring for their physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social needs. Mothering also includes leading by example (actions, words, beliefs). Motherbeing revolves around the mother reconciling her pre- and post-child identity with her mothering identity; the personal experience of being a mother in relation to other identities within oneself (e.g. being an artist and/or a student—as in my case—in relation to one's existence as a mother).
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    Simulacra : constructing narrative in the studio tableau
    (2002) Riley, Eustacia; Inggs, Stephen
    The content and form of the work completed for this degree is intended as a narrative. This narrative is constructed to tell stories of my family, and of myself, in a way that openly stresses the playful, mythical, and fictional nature of such narratives in the family and in history. These narratives are not always easily recognisable, believable, or unified, and are read through an arrangement of details. Initially, I intended my tableaux to function as 'emblematic' portraits. In other words, I intended to describe the members of my family by distilling their essential characteristics into a descriptive arrangement of symbolic objects. Although I became aware of the limitations of symbolism, and became more interested in narrative and display, the content of my work has remained personal and descriptive, even though I have emphasised the fictional over the elegiac. My family is not really one of collectors - my grandmother tore up and burnt many of our family photographs when my grandfather died, before she went into an old-age home. She wanted to 'travel light'. What we have left are the stories, the anecdotes and the proverbs: an oral history, or a ·postmemory'. These inherited tales are told through the snapshots that did survive, as they are in all families who take pictures. I have retold and reconstructed my own narratives, because this is the nature of the family romance for everyone - it resides in a world of images, incidental details, and surfaces.
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    A spatially-variable fertilizer applicator system
    (1994) Eatock, R (Rebecca); Inggs, Stephen
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    Symbiosis
    (2017) Raath, Jan Philip; Inggs, Stephen; van der Schijff, Johann
    This story begins in the late 1700's, a moment at which Western philosophy had decided that: Direct access to reality is impossible. Thinking can only talk about the way the human and the world correlate together. There is a crack in reality. Facts are given to us but their conditions of possibility transcend them.
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    The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices
    (2020) Tanner, Nicolas; Brundrit, Jean; Inggs, Stephen
    In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1977) recounts the ancient Greek parable of the contest between the Zeuxis and Parrhasios, two artists competing to paint the most convincing trompe l'oeil painting. In the first instance, Zeuxis painted grapes so perfectly that birds flew down from the sky to peck on them. Satisfied with his undertaking, he then turns to Parrhasios and asks him to lift the veil to see the painting behind it – failing to realise that the veil itself is the lifelike painting. Naturally, Parrhasios won the competition. This is not due to any superior technical mastery, but because his painting reveals an interesting conception relating to the very nature of human perception. That is to say, perception is never ‘neutral', we never simply see reality ‘as it is' – there is always an underlying psychic economy of (unconscious) hopes, fears, and desires which structures our very perception of reality itself.
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    There's no place (like home) : a graphic interpretation of personal notions of home and displacement
    (2004) White, Ernestine Bianca; Inggs, Stephen
    I was born in Cape Town, South Africa around the tumultuous time of the Soweto uprisings of 1976. The first few years of my life were spent living with relatives and friends of my mother in Langa while she worked in the city in various households as a domestic worker. Her occupation took her away for long periods of time. By the age of two my mother and I moved to Woodstock where we lived with a family that consisted of five adults, who each had children of their own all under one small roof. The house was always full of people.
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    Venus revisited : reflecting sights/sites of beauty and its embodiments
    (2006) Van der Westhuizen, Cara; Inggs, Stephen
    In this project the idealised body of Venus represents an uncomfortable whole. She symbolises the richly divergent, contrasting, and often thematic concerns of female beauty that my, work has attempted to represent. She signifies arid originates the centuries of fluctuating meaning and contesting truths about women and the way in which they are represented that are at the centre of my research - in an image that resists resolution. As the title of the body of practical work implies, Venus Revisited points to a journey of return. It refers to a recurrence of ideas about the idealised female body informed by its origins in Greek myth. Venus still informs current Western visual culture - the female body remains 'the map on which we mark our meanings' (Mullins, 1985: 331).