Browsing by Author "Payne, Malcolm"
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- ItemOpen AccessBody of evidence(2002) Lomofsky, Lynne; Payne, MalcolmThis body of work is an experiential study which aims primarily to investigate the effect of the Western medical anatomisation of myself - the cancer patient - on and through my artmaking. The dissertation aims to contextualise my practice - to situate it somewhere between the different readings of cancer according to the Western theory of disease, the Eastern and New Age understandings of the body and ill health, and the work of other artists. It seeks balance between these competing discourses and looks for integration through them. The responses of other artists to their ill bodies are described, several of them exploiting medical technology, others subverting the language of the dominant discourse and the image of the 'good' patient with a 'bad' body. My own work attempts to make art around and out of the experience of cancer. The artmaking is an attempt to gather an understanding of my condition and to integrate art and life. The challenge is to visually represent this. I began the work with an ambivalence - was I an activist helping others, or was I merely immersed in my own struggle to maintain sanity, to reach a peace with my body, a calm space from which to deal with my condition? I have dismissed this ambivalence and settled on the latter position, which has the indirect effect of helping others. I have realized, like Jo Spence, that it is easy to burn yourself out when you work from a position of anger. Art and science have exploited and depicted the body throughout their history, sometimes in ways that overlap, sometimes at cross purposes that conflict, and sometimes in mutually supportive ways. When examining the binaries of revealing and concealing, visibility and invisibility, legibility and illegibility, one cannot avoid a conflict with the medical system. However, through the excavation of my body by modern medical technology, I have evolved from previously seeing only the horror of a tumour to now also seeing the hidden beauty of the other landscapes inside my body. My artmaking is thus taken up as a personal issue, not attempting to shock or to be placatory, but to externalize the cancer experience and, rather than simply reacting to it, to find the beauty inside my body.
- ItemOpen AccessClassroom facilities : a body of creative work exploring representations of knowledge through schematic means(2004) Clark, Julia Rosa; Payne, MalcolmI had just turned thirteen and it was the summer before high school started. My mother and I went over to the Roberts' house. Ruby had just matriculated from the same school and was handing down her faded old checked uniforms. To my amazement, there in the lounge bathed in afternoon January sunlight, was her father Billy, kneeling, deeply absorbed in a large strange chart that had been laid out on the floor. It was a school timetable and it was his task, as vice principle, to organise the day-to-day workings of the year ahead. The timetable was scattered with various coloured shapes that he shuffled back and forth across the gridded surface, trying to make a coherent system. This anecdote is important to my body of work for three reasons. The first is that Mr. Roberts' challenging activity that day is not unlike the process of sorting and reordering that is central to my work. The appearance of the chart is mimicked in the schemata-like quality of many of my pieces, as is its conceptual framework - an urge to order a set of already existing pieces into a new, meaningful and functional relationship. Ruby's uniforms are also important. I cherished these second-hand dresses precisely because of the qualities they acquired through having been worn already. These dresses were softer to touch, had a better fit and more beauty in colour --soft pink checks as opposed to harsh maroon-- than other girls' crisp new sacks.
- ItemOpen AccessThe dissection: An examination of the printmaking tradition as a means to reconsider the relationship between the human body and its representation(1995) Langerman, Fritha; Payne, Malcolm; Skotnes, PippaMy work is informed by the identification of the body as a site of anxiety. Computer technologies have led to increased disembodiment, while AIDS has reinforced awareness of the body as physically vulnerable. The basic premise governing my dissertation is that the body of the individual has become a collection of parts - fragmented by its representation. More specifically, I have referred to medical illustration and its role in the objectification and abstraction of the body. In revisualising the image of the body I have chosen to work within a formally fragmented framework. My title, The Dissection, refers to an intrusion into the body, that has as its aim the extraction of knowledge: it is about revealing the unseen. It also relates directly to my working method, which isolates, cuts and sews images. My source materials are medical engravings derived from eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century medical atlases. As these references form part of the history and technology of printing, my project has been to recontextualise these images within the tradition of printmaking. This has resulted in technical innovations becoming a significant part of the work's content. The first part of this paper deals with the assertion that medical illustration constructs the body as an .object. I refer to Barthes in assessing the notion of authorship, and discuss alternative theories of the subjective construction of the body. Having established the body as object, I consider the influence of illustration on the perception of the body. I then examine the influence of illustration on theories of biological determinism, and identify the implications of these theoretical concerns for the body as art object. The second part of the paper situates my work within the context of printmaking. I draw parallels between the printed body and collage, and mention my use of format and the multiple in an interpretation of the body. The final section makes specific reference to my body of work.
- ItemOpen AccessElisions and lacunae: aspects of South African landscape in relation to public and private identities(1995) Farlam, Catherine Mary; Payne, MalcolmThis project is concerned with articulating a number of positions around meaning and hegemony in museums and how such relationships can be refigured. It looks at how texts have been written in a unique exhibition in South Africa, the William Fehr Collection at the Castle. This Collection is unique in that the specific conditions of its sale to the state in 1964 determine its function as a museum within a museum. It is also unique in that its first public showing was as part of the Jan van Riebeeck Tercentenary Festival of 1952, where it formed the bulk of a Historical Exhibition of Arts at the Castle. I examine how meanings are constructed in the Collection, and how these meanings gain authority in abstract terms through conceptualising space in particular ways. I argue that how space is conceptualised forms a site of critical intervention. I counter the notion of absolute space with a commitment to mobile positioning. To do this, I look at how landscape conventions at Table Bay (wellrepresented in the Collection) apparently construct a singular position, extending this into an examination of how meanings have been refigured in museums by a number of conceptual artists. I suggest that this project can be extended into a physical intervention in the form of an audio-tour through the Collection. I have produced such an acoustiguide entitled A Passage through the William Fehr Collection. This thirty-five minute tour is available from the Professional Officer of the William Fehr Collection at the Castle.
- ItemMetadata onlyThe empowered body : creative expression as a force for personal transformation(2001) Pearce, Robyn; Payne, MalcolmThe release of creative expression through the role of the unconscious and the conscious is discussed. The defining of a relationship between the unconscious and the conscious is addressed, with reference to the theories of Jung and Freud. The primary process, as well as the mechanisms of condensation and displacement, is referred to as supporting the transference of the unconscious in creative expression. Pictorial imagery and material content pertain to unconscious employment, in which repressed emotional and psychological issues are released. The capacity for psychic growth through art renders creative expression as a transformational agent. The interaction of the conscious and the unconscious is essential to the concept of psychic growth. The processes of integration and introspection are discussed with reference to the resolution of repressed issues and inner conflicts. The notion of psychic harmony is referred to in correlation to this resolution. The inner and outer states of creative expression are discussed with reference to the artwork as a product of the mental processes involved within its' expression. The artwork as a mode of expression is discussed with reference to Wollheim (1973). The assimilation of the external world in the process of creativity is discussed with reference to bodily activity, the act of object-solution and the structuring of these external objects. The establishing of a relationship with the external world in creative expression is discussed as a force for healing. A correlation between creativity and child play, and creativity and ritual, are referred to. Creative expression is understood as a means for psychic wholeness. Interaction with the unconscious by the conscious mind, and the expression of a unitary reality, is discussed with reference to the concept of psychic wholeness. The healing aspect of this unitary reality is discussed with reference to the act of transferring mental processes into an artwork, as well as the processes of interaction, introspection and individuation. Symbolism and healing is discussed with reference to the concept of symbolisation as a means of unconscious, emotional expression. Non-conceptual symbolism is referred to within this context. The capacity of the symbol as a means of identification, contributes to the healing process. The role of symbolism in establishing a relationship with the external world in creative expression is addressed. Symbolic functioning of consciously employed elements in my work is discussed. The principles governing my creative methodology are discussed according to conscious and unconscious employment. The application and selection of media is discussed as symbolic activity in my painting. Texture, distortion and placement of figurative form, as well as surrounding space, are unconsciously employed. Inserted objects and natural elements are referred to as pertaining to conscious employment. The paintings are discussed individually according to the series in which they apply. The sub-titles regulating this discussion are indications of the psychic transformation involved within the creative process. The creative process is an expression of personal transformation.
- ItemOpen AccessForm and the picturing of mining : an epistemology of form with special reference to the explication of iconography(1992) Payne, MalcolmThe work presented here is a bounded excerpt of a broader programme of creative endeavour. Framed by the constraints of the MFA degree , the special value of this project has been the opportunity it has presented to articulate some of the ideas that have developed over a period of time and have informed my working process. The theme of mining and related activities forms the visible field in which I have extended my formal pictorial methodology . The visual primacy and corporeality of form in painting have been the enabling vehicles assisting me to re - code selected iconography. The genealogy of this form and its development is chronologically traced in three groups of work preceding the body of work executed for the MFA.
- ItemOpen AccessThe grapes of wrath : sculpture as socio-political critique in South Africa(2008) Bird, S; Payne, MalcolmThe title is borrowed from the classic novel by John Steinbeck published in 1939¹. It is a story that ostensibly concerns the Joad family's move from the agricultural hinterland of America to the promised land of California. Steinbeck's intention is the sympathetic portrayal of the human cost of mechanised agricultural revolution. The story plots the collision of old value systems with new profit driven capitalistic drives (Thompson and Kutach, 1990:143). The attendant ramifications see a great shift in the rural population to the urban areas. Much arable land is bought up by faceless consortiums and banks, leaving the farm dwellers little choice but to pack up and leave in search of work, in this manner a way of life for hundreds of thousands of unsophisticated, hard-working people comes to an end.
- ItemOpen AccessI love you to death : the voice of the woman artist : sex, violence, sentimentality(2008) Stupart, Linda; Payne, MalcolmAt a dinner party in Durban after the opening of Come, a 2007 exhibition of Michaelis MFA students, a woman asked me about my work. When I told her it was "the bullets", by way of description (One Hundred Bullets With Your Name On Them), she said something along the lines of "oh, that's so fascinating, I really had thought a man had made them".
- ItemOpen AccessA pictorial response to certain witchcraft beliefs within Northern Sotho communities(1994) Baholo, Keresemose Richard; Payne, MalcolmThis study focuses on stories of witchcraft within the Batlokwa - a sub-group of the Northern Sotho community living in the northern Transvaal. Having grown up in this society where witchcraft beliefs are predominant, my fears, as a child, of witches were very real. In later life I have attempted to ignore these fears. However, I do not think they will ever disappear entirely, as I will never be able to extricate myself from my origins. This experience of the dangerous witch is one of the reasons that compelled me to respond pictorially to some of these perceptions for the purpose of highlighting the concerns of ordinary people and the extent to which they have been affected by belief in witchcraft. My paintings are a translation of real and unreal incidents fused together producing a visual narrative.
- ItemOpen AccessPositioning the Cape : a spatial engraving of a shifting frontier(1998) Bull, Katherine Gay; Skotnes, Pippa; Payne, MalcolmIn June this year I read an article entitled Eve's footprints safe in museum (Cape Times 24.6.98). The footprints had just been removed from the shore of the Langebaan lagoon. The footprints, imprinted in stone, have been dated to 117 000 years. The media use of the name Eve is an example of how theoretical possibility can become popular fact. The prints became exposed when the stone happened to crack and slide off along the strata that held the prints. Exposed to the elements and to a public who want to have their photograph taken standing where Eve once stood, the soft sandstone which held such a transient impression began to deteriorate rapidly. An article earlier in the year reported on the debate around the future of the prints. The geologist David Roberts, who discovered the prints, wanted them removed as soon as possible while Dr. Janette Deacon from the National Monuments Council was reported to have said, "We should rather see it preserved at the site as moving it would destroy a lot of its meaning. A museum display could never recreate the atmosphere of that scene" (Cape Times 14.1.98).
- ItemOpen AccessPower gained-power lost: aspects of contemporary African women visualised(1997) Bengu, Bongekile Zanele; Payne, MalcolmThe record of oppression of women is world wide, but black women have had to bear further oppression from colonisation and racism. As a black woman or woman of colour, I have experienced combined forms of oppression such as racism, classism and sexism. Black women have been dispossessed through the construction of their identity by others and through the breaking up of families by the practice of apartheid. Yet when I examine my history, the strength of women is evident in opposing these oppressions. Women have been at the forefront of political struggles, head households and fulfill various leadership roles. In this body of work, I hope to have portrayed an empowered state of African women that depicts women in wide variety of roles and shows that they are active and equal participants in society. I choose a Pan-Africanist view of African women, because of my interest in cultural diversity . The boundaries between nations within the African continent are artificial and were created by colonization; however similarities in the various language groups suggest threads of commonality within the whole African continent. Hence I have not limited my research project to only South African communities, but have drawn on material from across the African continent.
- ItemOpen AccessUnfinished man : questioning difference through the pictorial recontextualisation of socio-medical documents(1999) Daehnke, Nadja; Payne, MalcolmIn this dissertation and series of paintings I wish to focus attention on the interconnection between knowledge and power. This is commented on in relation to socio-medical disciplines. The argument proposes that knowledge is a product of vested interests and should thus not be regarded as transcendent of the context in which it is used. This study examines attempts to naturalize race, class and gender through scrutiny and analyses of the human body. Section One considers specific historical cases which illustrate the use of knowledge as a disciplinary force. Surveillance, classification, objectification and an understanding of science as neutral are identified as central to the construction of difference. These themes are investigated with regard to: Lavater's physiognomy, Charcot's understanding of hysteria, the influence of photography on nineteenth century science, eugenics, degenerationism and racial definitions in South African law from 1948 to 1994. This section draws on scholarship and research published predominantly in the areas of sociology, medical history, anthropology and ethnology. Section One is intended as a parallel text to the series of paintings produced. Section Two offers a personal interpretation of some trends, methods and materials used throughout the series of paintings. The paintings comment on the themes of classification, objectification and discrimination mentioned in Section One. The series also reflects on the mutability of knowledge and the continuing relevance of past doctrines. Primary strategies employed in the paintings are decontextualization and recontextualization of pre-existent texts, an emphasis on aesthetics and attempts to involve the viewer in the acts of looking and interpretation. Section Three consists of reproductions of the twenty paintings made for a Masters of Fine Art degree. Sources and processes used in the paintings are listed.
- ItemOpen AccessZeegezichten(2005) De Greef, Niek; Payne, MalcolmThis dissertation explicates the work produced during the course of my Masters of Fine Art (MFA) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. For a better understanding of this body of work, it is important that I relate the events in part that led up to its production. My intention from the start (in selecting a change of working location from The Netherlands to South Africa) was to test my practice, not only against the practical and theoretical contingencies influencing its production up to the end of 2003, but also how a specific geographical and political milieu affects its making. To do this I need to interrogate both bodies of works, those produced immediately before my MFA, as well as those arising during my studies in Cape Town. My art-historical field of reference consists mainly of West European and twentieth century American art and art theory.