Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs

dc.contributor.advisorHuigen-Conradie, Stephane
dc.contributor.advisorAlexander, Jane
dc.contributor.authorStodel, Sitaara
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-28T11:21:20Z
dc.date.available2026-07-28T11:21:20Z
dc.date.issued2026
dc.date.updated2026-07-28T11:20:31Z
dc.description.abstractMy project, an exhibition of assemblage artworks and explicatory document, explores aspects of displacement, belonging, and notions of home with reference to personal, familial, and ancestral experience in the context of South Africa and its history of racial discrimination. I investigate how found materials, specifically photographic fragments and household objects, can be reassembled into affective and meaningful artworks through their alteration, combination, and physical and conceptual layering to construct new narratives that engage memory, loss, and identity. Using found material with mixed media that include printing, sewing, stuffing, and embedding elements, I allude to details of domestic space that relate to personal experience. In my explication, I consider various theoretical frameworks to examine the ideal and transient home, material culture, liminality, domestic photography, and memory, and discuss how particular features of South African history have shaped both my research and the conceptual and material choices I have made in my exhibition, with particular reference to photographs. I refer to the writings of Sara Ahmed, Arup Ratan Chakraborty, Siona O'Connell, and Rebecca Bryant, as well as to selected artworks by Lebohang Kganye, Penny Siopis, Lungiswa Gqunta, Do Ho Suh, and Massa Lemu, to analyse and position this body of work. Through this project, drawing on my personal experience, I aim to evoke and construct new narratives in search of a sense of belonging and to contribute to a more complex and layered understanding of the varied transgenerational impact of displacement on individual lives.
dc.identifier.apacitationStodel, S. (2026). <i>Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs</i>. (). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Michaelis School of Fine Art. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationStodel, Sitaara. <i>"Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs."</i> ., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Michaelis School of Fine Art, 2026. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationStodel, S. 2026. Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Michaelis School of Fine Art. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Stodel, Sitaara AB - My project, an exhibition of assemblage artworks and explicatory document, explores aspects of displacement, belonging, and notions of home with reference to personal, familial, and ancestral experience in the context of South Africa and its history of racial discrimination. I investigate how found materials, specifically photographic fragments and household objects, can be reassembled into affective and meaningful artworks through their alteration, combination, and physical and conceptual layering to construct new narratives that engage memory, loss, and identity. Using found material with mixed media that include printing, sewing, stuffing, and embedding elements, I allude to details of domestic space that relate to personal experience. In my explication, I consider various theoretical frameworks to examine the ideal and transient home, material culture, liminality, domestic photography, and memory, and discuss how particular features of South African history have shaped both my research and the conceptual and material choices I have made in my exhibition, with particular reference to photographs. I refer to the writings of Sara Ahmed, Arup Ratan Chakraborty, Siona O'Connell, and Rebecca Bryant, as well as to selected artworks by Lebohang Kganye, Penny Siopis, Lungiswa Gqunta, Do Ho Suh, and Massa Lemu, to analyse and position this body of work. Through this project, drawing on my personal experience, I aim to evoke and construct new narratives in search of a sense of belonging and to contribute to a more complex and layered understanding of the varied transgenerational impact of displacement on individual lives. DA - 2026 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Displacement in a personal archive KW - materiality KW - memory KW - belonging KW - notions of home KW - reimagining KW - liminality KW - collecting LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2026 T1 - Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs TI - Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationStodel S. Assembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs. []. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Michaelis School of Fine Art, 2026 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43685en_ZA
dc.language.isoen
dc.language.rfc3066eng
dc.publisher.departmentMichaelis School of Fine Art
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanities
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectDisplacement in a personal archive
dc.subjectmateriality
dc.subjectmemory
dc.subjectbelonging
dc.subjectnotions of home
dc.subjectreimagining
dc.subjectliminality
dc.subjectcollecting
dc.titleAssembling Fragments of Home: Finding a Sense of Belonging in Other People's Domestic Objects and Family Photographs
dc.typeThesis / Dissertation
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationlevelMA
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