Queer strokes, sexual subjects : gay male artists' representations of male bodies in selected contemporary South African artworks.
Loading...
Date
2006
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This dissertation explores how the male body is utilised and visualised by a
selection of gay male artists working within the post-Apartheid South African
context. The male body is the means by which they represent these concepts of
sexuality and identity. The complexity of contemporary visual arts is, in this
dissertation, viewed as a signifier of cultural change. The visibility of gay males in
South African society (read as a sign), is also reflected in the foregrounding of
male bodies in artworks after 1994. Queer theory and theories of representation
are used as a conceptual framework, in which readings are presented of how the
male body is interpreted and represented as a site of contestation and
convergence of power. The politics of sexuality and identity are represented and
discussed in this project through the mediums of painting, photography and
installation. These different mediums are linked conceptually, in the same way
that sex, gender and sexuality are interlinked; influencing, yet not predetermining
each other.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal,Durban, 2006.
Keywords
Homosexuality in art., Theses--Gender studies.