Browsing by Department "Michaelis School of Fine Art"

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    14 ways to remember Nzira gumi nena dzekuyeuka : exploring and preserving memories
    (2009) Matindike, Tashinga; Zaayman, Carine
    My project is one of memorialisation, expressed as a creative process. A core theme throughout my work concerns the notions of absence and presence, as the project is founded on a personal loss and inspired by a desire to sustain the memories of my late brother. My investigation involves the exploration and preservation of the memories of my brother. The body of work manifests as the residue of my reflections on grief and memory that I have chosen to exhibit in a commemorative manner. In turn, my practice has functioned as a source of comfort in the course of my mourning.
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    A deeper kind of nothing
    (2019) Abraham, Catherine; MacKenny, Virginia; Zaayman, Carine
    'Nothing’1 is frequently associated with insignificance. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 'to reduce to nothing is to consider or treat as worthless or unimportant’. This project aims to reveal that this form of nothing is, essentially, something. As a child, I was told that my struggle with breath, with asthma, was nothing but psychosomatic. The heart of this project is a physical manifestation of a psychosomatic nothing, and the sense of personal insignificance implied by repetitive, unacknowledged housework. The overarching title, A Deeper Kind of Nothing, was garnered from theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss’s A Universe from Nothing: Why there Is Something Rather than Nothing (2012) in which he explores the origins of our universe. In this book, he refers to nothing as the space that exists where something once was, an absence. He explains that 'all signs suggest a universe that could and plausibly did arise from a deeper nothing - involving the absence of space itself - and which may one day return to nothing’ (2012: 183). Krauss asserts that 'nothing is every bit as physical as something’, and this idea of a 'deeper nothing’ stirred my thinking. Nothing is one thing, but a deeper nothing, one that the universe may have arisen from, is quite another. Relating this to the impact of seemingly insignificant objects, events and feelings, nothing becomes something physical that is understood to be both tangible and generative of something new. It is this 'something new’, the outcome of what is considered 'nothing’, which is the deeper kind of nothing that this project presents. My reflections on generative nothingness have produced a series of performative processes: 1. Collecting - breaths, eggshells (the main materials of this body of work) and words 2. Working with breath, eggshells and words, on my own and with others 3. Conversing while painting eggshells. These methodologies are made manifest here in a book that is a record of the transcribed texts, short films, balloons, painted eggshells and boxes, bronzes and residue from a 'banquet’. Discarded eggshells and exhaled breaths are traces of the everyday that are typically overlooked. The dispensability inherent in both provides a basis from which to express real and imagined subjugation experienced by 'the good child’, 'the good wife’ and 'the good mother’: the child who felt shame for causing a fuss over her struggle to breathe and the wife who walked on eggshells.
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    A re-assessment of ornament as a sculptural element
    (1987) Chetwin, Margaret Jill; Arnott, Bruce; Younge, Gavin
    This dissertation partial 2 and photographic documentation was produced in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. In my undergraduate study I was interested in the way in which familiar objects changed their meaning in different contexts. In this study, my focus of attention has been on the transference of meaning associated with the conventionalised language of historical ornament. This has involved a process of incorporating 'found' imagery into composite images of a fantastical nature. The use of ornament as a source material posed problems. The original symbolic function and communicative power of many ornamental motifs and images has been undermined by constant use. As such they have become cliched. I have attempted to revitalise these tired forms through a re-assessment of their value as 'sculptural' elements and by an ironical examination of their past associations. Before re-contextualising the work in a contemporary dimension, it was necessary to undertake a survey of the historical antecedents of revivalism and other forms of aesthetic eclecticism. Although schematic, this overview was important to my understanding, and I have devoted a full chapter of the dissertation to this section of the study. A discussion of current Post-Modern debates is included and forms a central part of this section.
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    Aba té Home: Journey to Robben Island
    (2022) Fortuin, Sam Seth; Mahashe, George Tebogo
    Aba té Home – Journey to Robben Island, is a memoir, reflecting how my creative practise and research leads to a recollection from my childhood. I recalled how the elements of fire, whiskey and the soil came together to create a form of storytelling that rooted my sense of home. By following the conceptual thread of my recollection, I found myself in my father's former communal prison cell holding on Robben Island. My understanding is that our contemporary social imaginary in Africa is influenced by the remnants of colonial archives. The form of this project is therefore inspired by the need for an alternative perspective, that is rooted in indigenous sensibilities (Harris, 2002:84). As an artist, stories prompt my encounter with new perspectives. Therefore, this story offers a window into the elements of my community's storytelling practices and how they have come to shape my understandings. Overall, Aba té Home allows for the convergence of a variety of themes, ranging from the social complexity of archives, indigenous healing modalities, ancestral dreams and the layered meaning of the body through space and time. The telling of this story through written text is accompanied by my creative expressions in the form of visual journal entries, black ink encodings, mixed media paintings, installation and a video which was taken inside the space of the prison cell.
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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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    "The advancement of art" : policy and practice at the South African National Gallery, 1940-1962
    (2004) Lilla, Qanita; Mager, Anne
    This thesis is an enquiry into the policies and practices that shaped the South African National Gallery in the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing on newspaper reports, the South African National Gallery's exhibition catalogues, pamphlets and annual reports, records of parliamentary debate and the crucial report of the Stratford Commission of 1948 the study has reconstructed a detailed history of the South African National Gallery. Established in 1871 as a colonial museum catering for a small part of the settler population of British descent, the museum came under pressure to accommodate the Afrikaner community after 1948. This did not mean that the liberal ethos at the museum disappeared, however. The South African National Gallery was strongly influenced by public pressure in this period. Public outrage over controversial art sales in 1947 led to the appointment of a commission of enquiry into the workings of the museum. At the same time, the head of the Board of Trustees, Cecil Sibbett, engaged the public on matters of Modern art. The museum's conservative and controversial Director, Edward Roworth was replaced in 1949 by John Paris who ushered in a new phase of development and management, encouraged the reconceptualization of South African art and reorganized the permanent collection. This initiative took place despite decreased autonomy for the Director and increased government imposition of Afrikaner Nationalist ideology. Nevertheless, the South African National Gallery avoided becoming a political instrument of the Apartheid regime.
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    African city- Cape Town in pieces/aesthetics, theories, narratives, fragments
    (2014) Inggs, Alice; Evans, Martha
    Six sections, six ways of reading African cities and, by extension, Africa. Anchored in the Cape Town metropolis - an important node in both North?South and South?South global trade networks ? this project investigates the African urban as a site of knowledge production. Rather than attempt to capture a complete or panoramic vision of Cape Town, this project is instead a non-linear narrative of the city space constructed out of a combination of essays, narrative fragments, reportage, images and formal and informal interviews. Starting with what makes an African city "African" in African City, the investigation moves through five more thematic categories: Built Environment;; Renewal/Decay;; Everyday Urbanism;; Nature;; and Pattern. Out of each section new ways of reading the city emerge ? through architectural surfaces;; the city as archive;; pop culture;; ecology;; and design. This project is about curating and creating an analytical topography of a specific urban space in Africa;; but it is also about engaging with the urban on an experiential level. Readers are encouraged to engage in a dialogue with the urban form, to trace the contours of the city space. The textual and visual material contained within the project is rendered into building blocks, which can be rearranged into various visions of the city, transferring agency to the reader to create their own interpretation of (this) city space. This interactive element manifests an important idea underpinning the project: there are multiple lines of flight emanating from the supposed fixed grid of the post-colonial or post-apartheid city space;; the urban narrative can be rewritten;; Africa can be reimagined. Ultimately, this project is an experiment in and juxtaposition of modes of analysis, advancing new ways of reading African urban forms ? from Africa.
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    An analysis and exposition of form in the discipline of easel painting
    (1984) van der Merwe, Vivian Hubert; Pinker, Stanley
    The text of this volume is intended to introduce the reader to the cycle of paintings submitted for the Master of Fine Art degree. The very nature of form imposes severe limitations on any kind of semantic or linguistic recourse to the visual form of painting, and this has been the cardinal difficulty in drawing together the verbal and visual elements of my research. At best, the text and reproduction of the works can be seen in juxtaposition. The first two chapters, "The Genesis of Form" and "Form and Silence" constitute the conceptual background to the field of enquiry. The third chapter "The Work" deals with the specific concerns and categories of form which pertain to the cycle of paintings. This is followed by "The Conclusion" which serves as a brief and personal appraisal of the work. The text and illustrations have been separated to permit undivided perusal of the paintings.
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    An electronic laager: a sculptural interpretation of post-industrial society's cybernetic order
    (1994) van der Schijff, Johann; Younge, J G F
    There is the need to express what it is like to be a feeling, thinking, young person growing up on the southern tip of the African continent today, and this, from a generation who have had to cope with and survive the pressures of brain washing or intellectual laundering that an education in a State school in South Africa usually enforces. It is a generation trying to come to terms with information that has been filtered through the organs of the State radio and television systems, which routinely exclude news not deemed to be in the public interest, and substitutes an iconology dedicated to the values of sunny skies, beer and braaivleis. (Dubow 1986: 60) As an artist living in South Africa, I am part of the generation that has had to cope with the 'intellectual laundering' Dubow speaks of. I have experienced the ways in which apartheid, as a cultural norm governing society, has been constructed. It is around these issues that the title, An electronic laager: A sculptural interpretation of post-industrial society's cybernetic order, forms a concise description, and 'key' to an interpretation and understanding of the various issues which have amalgamated to inform my iconography, and the way in which these issues have been transformed into sculptural expression.
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    An investigation into the interrelationship between the formal means of collage and assemblage and the painted surface
    (1984) Siebert, Kim; Delport, Peggy
    The work includes a variety of approaches varying from the use of images selected from the media and found objects to objects transformed or manufactured by the artist. A major formal concern is the integration of collage or assemblage with the painted surface. Subject matter is drawn from persona] preoccupations with biographical details, womanhood and social and historical context. The format and scale of the works vary and are determined by the content. The practical body of work is accompanied by a short dissertation which discusses the nature of the formal mode used and its relationship to the content of the work.
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    An investigation of the metaphoric potential of the relationship between pictorial and sculptural space
    (1994) Penfold, Denise Marcelle; Atkinson, Kevin
    The aim of this dissertation is to provide a background to the ideas and works that have informed the practical body of work. The practical body of work has developed from an intention to locate a means of articulating personal experience in visual form. The departure points for this process are thus largely idiosyncratic and personal (subjective), while the focus of the investigation is on the potential for the dialectic of pictorial/physical space to articulate metaphors that can mediate personal experience. This dialectic of pictorial/physical space can be related to one of the primary philosophical debates that underpins Western art practice and theory; viz., the relationship between art and reality, or in other terms, between culture and nature.
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    Annotations of loss and abundance : an examination of the !kun children's material in the Bleek and Lloyd Collection (1879-1881)
    (2011) Winberg, Marlene; Skotnes, Pippa; Hamilton, Carolyn
    The Bleek and Lloyd Collection is an archive of interviews and stories, drawings, paintings and photographs of and xam and !kun individuals, collected by Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd between 1870 and 1881 in Cape Town. My dissertation focuses on the !kun children's material in the archive, created by Lucy Lloyd and the four !kun boys, !nanni, Tamme uma and Da, who lived in her home in Cape Town between 1879 and 1881. Until very recently, their collection of 17 notebooks and more than 570 paintings and drawings had been largely ignored and remained a silent partner to the larger, xam, part of the collection. Indeed, in a major publication it was declared that nothing was known about the boys and stated that "there is no information on their families of origin, the conditions they had previously lived under, or the reasons why they ended up in custody" (Szalay 2002: 21). This study places the children centre stage and explores their stories from a number of perspectives. I set out to assess to what extent the four !kun children laid down an account of their personal and historical experiences, through their texts, paintings and drawings in the Bleek and Lloyd project to record Bushmen languages and literature. In order to do this, I have investigated the historical and socioeconomic conditions in the territory now known as Namibia during the period of their childhoods, as well as the circumstances under which the children were conveyed to Cape Town and eventually joined the Bleek- Lloyd household. I have looked at Lucy Lloyd's personal history and examined the ways in which she shaped the making of the collection in her home. I suggest that a consideration of the loss and trauma experienced by Lloyd may have predisposed her to recognition and engagement of, or at least, accommodation of, the trauma experienced by the !kun boys.
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    Apart
    (2021) Smith, Elizabeth; Skotnes, Philippa; Saptouw, Fabian
    The exhibition is comprised of a collection of objects that I have gathered over the course of this project. The objects have been tinkered with, cobbled, and transformed in order to generate new outlooks on function, materiality and studio- based processes. Through these objects and in partnership with them, I am a tinker, a cobbler, and a transformer. Objects have come apart and been reassembled to suggest new modes of use, and in doing so pays homage to the object often ignored and discarded.
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    Apple girl : ingesting and transforming Apple girl from fairy tale into sculpture and performance
    (2013) Joubert, Jill; Alexander, Jane; Morris, Gay
    The submission for my Master of Fine Art degree, which is devoted to the interpretation and transformation of the Italian fairy tale, Apple Girl, into performed sculpture, consists of this document as well as a photographic story-book which illustrates the sculpture component. The sculptured tableaux on wheels, conceived through the properties of carved wood and found-objects, also function as miniature puppet theatres. These are wheeled into the performance arena at relevant moments to be animated by myself, with jazz artist, Athalie Crawford, at times accompanying the performance. Thereafter, the audience is invitedto view the constellation of tableaux as an art work, fixed as an arrangement of sculptures to which the performance has given a framework for presentation and interpretation.
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    An archaeology of self
    (2010) Cilliers, Ryna; Younge, Gavin
    The title of this dissertation is An Archaeology of Self. The first two chapters explore the historical and theoretical basis that has informed my creative work. It is predominantly concerned with artists who engage with the everyday in their art-making. The three main ideas elaborated upon in the body of the text are; the notion of mark making and trace as able to invoke the corporeal presence of the artists; the inclusion of quotidian objects and routines as subject matter within art that recontextualises them as worthy of attention; and the extent to which the representation or use of material objects, traces and leavings can retain significant meaning. The latter is explored in reference to artists who use an archaeological methodology in their work. An underlying theme in both practical and theoretical research is the concept of indexical trace that invokes the presence of its referent while paradoxically signalling its absence. The concluding chapters deal with my methodology and the processes of collection used in arriving at the works presented for examination.
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    Art, gender ideology and Afrikaner nationalism : a history of the Voortrekker Monument tapestries
    (1996) Van der Watt, Liese; Klopper, Sandra
    This dissertation considers the role both verbal and visual culture played in the growth and articulation of Afrikaner nationalism. For this reason it focuses not only on the central topic under discussion, namely the Voortrekker tapestries, but also on the discourses that informed the production of these tapestries and the circumstances surrounding the decision to commission them. The Voortrekker tapestries were commissioned in 1952 by the Vrou-en Moederbeweging van die A1XV (Suid-Afrikaanse Spoorweё en Hawens) and presented to the Voortrekker Monument in 1960. It was decided that the tapestries should depict the Great Trek of 1838 and, due to his widely acclaimed status as an authority on visual representations of Afrikaner history and culture, the artist WH Coetzer was approached to be the designer of the tapestries. But Coelzer's version of the Great Trek of 1838 perpetuates many popular myths about the Afrikaner past and, in examining this version, I have identified certain discourses as being influential. For example, the role of Gustav Preller in the formation of Coetzer's historical consciousness; the precedent set by the 1938 centenary celebrations of the Great Trek for later verbal and visual depictions of the Great Trek; the period 1948 to 1952, marked by significant historical events such as the triumph of the National Party, the inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument and the tercentenary Van Riebeeck celebrations and, finally, the rolevolksmoeder ideology played in shaping Coetzer's vision of the Great Trek. Drawing on these discourses, I proceed to examine the iconography of the Voortrekker tapestries. A number of themes in the tapestries are identified and elucidated with reference to a range of contemporary theoretical writings. Finally, the dissertation moves beyond a consideration of the iconography of the tapestries, investigating instead the status of needlework. I argue that the gender ideology embedded in the production of the tapestries is parallel1ed in the historically sanctioned separation of 'art' from 'craft'. Just as 'craft' has been marginalised in relation to 'art', so the Voortrekker tapestries and, with them, the women who made the tapestries, were marginalised in the public spheres which were inhabited and controlled by Afrikaner men.
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    Aspects of feminine mythology and related pictoral imagery as source for the development of a personal sculptural iconography
    (1992) Norman, Lee; Younge, Gavin
    The representation of the female figure in Western society has been moulded by such diverse forces as religion, economy and geography, nonetheless, certain images of the female form and representations of feminine qualities appear to be archetypal. One example is that of the Venus of Willendorf which has been recognised as a generalised image of women's fertility. This is mainly due to its formal exaggeration of, and emphasis on, the reproductive aspects of women's bodies. A second example is contained in the theories of Jungian psychologists who have recognised the feminine principle as embodied in the myths and pictorial imagery of what is known as the great goddess. They maintain that the symbols and images from these myths are similar to those in the myths, dreams and fantasies of modern individuals. Following on from these insights the first series of sculptures was aimed at examining women's experience of the reproductive aspects of their bodies in patriarchal society. Generalised images of female fertility were represented through the expressive device of exaggeration. I was concerned to express each woman's individuality by including facial details and gesture. It was also necessary to depict conventionalised elements of patriarchal society. This was achieved through a personification of bestial attributes. The ceramic medium offered many advantages, among them, its primordial qualities and its suitability for modelling and casting voluminous forms. An interest in broader aspects of femininity developed out of the study of images of the great goddess. This was facilitated by a reading of Jungian contrasexual psychology which maintains that the feminine principle is a universal psychological element specific to both men and women. The intention in the second series of sculptures was to celebrate this principle. Since it is not gender-related, it was necessary to find imagery other than that of the female figure. The feminine principle is not definable in purely physical terms since it is experienced in the conscious and unconscious mind, in fantasy, and in what is taken for reality. Abstract symbols associated with goddess mythology were recontextualised in this series and were intended to function on several layers of perception. The technique of modelling cement onto a metal armature facilitated the bold and celebratory forms chosen to celebrate the feminine principle.
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