Browsing by Author "Mahashe, George"

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    Dithugula tša Malefokana: paying libation in the photographic archive made by anthropologists E.J. & J.D. Krige in 1930s Bolobedu, under Queen Modjadji III
    (2012) Mahashe, George; Skotnes, Pippa; Hamilton, Carolyn
    How, and in what ways, might a visually - and artistically - inclined person gain knowledge from a body of ethnographic photographic objects? I approach this question by launching an inquiry into the Balobedu of Limpopo province, South Africa as masters of myth - making, the 1930s anthropologists as masters of perception and myth transmission, the camera as a mechanical tool that has no master and the photographic image and object as a slippery abstract, or thing, that resists taming. What binds Balobedu, anthropologists and photography in this relationship is their collaboration at particular points in time in the production of the knowledge that is now Khelobedu. Khelobedu refers to all knowledge, custom, practices and culture emanating from Bolobedu and its people. To do this, I assume, or play with, the character of ' motshwara marapo ' (keeper of the bones or master of ceremonies), a versed person who officiates in ceremonies involving multiple custodies, doing so by reciting stories and enacting activities that facilitate progress within ceremonies and rituals. My engagement explores the process of pacifying a disavowed ethnographic archive using the performative aspect of the photographic object's materiality with the aim of gaining knowledge of the indigenous and colonial, using concepts with origins in both categories
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    Hambo buza unyoko: on future Real conditionals
    (2024) Maduna, Lerato; Makhubu, Nomusa; Mahashe, George
    Drawing from the photographic archives that belonged to my mother Lizzie Maduna (née Moloi), my late grandmother Elizabeth Masesi Moloi (née Dlamini), my late great aunt, Goguse Letta Ntshangase (née Moloi), I re-envision how the women in my family performed futurity. Although these women lived through colonial and apartheid oppression, these photographic archives show how they created liberatory worlds despite the violence they lived through. My creative work surfaces these archives as a matriarchive, which I argue were created in resistance to the oppressive and dehumanising conditions as a performance of future real conditionals.
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    (2024) Juries, Andrew; Saptouw, Fabian; Mahashe, George
    This research project considers the tensions between deliberate acts and unexpected encounters that emerge in the activity of making art. The dissertation presents a discussion on the role that the activity of engaging with materials plays in the shifting conceptions of artistic process in the work of Robert Morris and his contemporaries throughout 1960s art historical discourse. During this time, Morris explored rigidly-defined approaches to art production associated with Minimal art, as well as more uncontrolled, materially curious tendencies associated with works of Process art. Specific focus is given to his interest in the tensions that arise between pre-determined and indeterminate aspects of making art, and how engaging with these tensions can be a means of exploring the nuanced relationship between human systems of order and a material world outside of our control. The artworks and theories of Morris and his contemporaries provide a foundation for a discussion on my own work, addressing specific themes of overlap and divergence between his practice, my own, and those of other contemporary artists. My methodology involved conceptualising a material object with a pre-determined purpose and extensive, multifaceted production requirements that would offer a rigid framework for ongoing creative activity. Throughout the object's physical production I remained receptive to unexpected and unintended encounters with the tools, materials and environment I was working with, reading them as manifestations of the indeterminate conditions of art making. The insights derived from this process were used as starting points for further avenues of creative inquiry, while generating the artworks that embody the dynamic relationship between my predilection to impose order on the aesthetic encounter against the tendencies of objects and materials to undermine those efforts. In this way, the artworks presented for exhibition are the result of a recursive process. Their forms, materials and arrangements reflect the tensions that I experienced while translating idea to material form, while offering the viewer an indeterminate web of experiences for their own consideration. This project considers how an art practice that is receptive and responsive to unintended and unexpected encounters with the matter of the world might be a means of exploring the nuanced relationship between human systems of order and a material world outside of our control.