Media, Visual Arts and Drama

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Clay-earth-skin : an exegesis of material and process in Kim Bagley's ceramics.
(2010) Bagley, Kim.; Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne.; Calder, Ian Meredith Shepstone.
This study is a practice-led research project in the field of studio ceramics. It focuses on the materials and processes of making vessels and hollow sculptural forms by Kim Bagley, in partial fulfilment of the MAFA degree. The study is an examination of an intuitive approach to ceramic production expressing the chosen theme: clay-earth-skin. This theme is metaphorically linked to the physical origin (the earth) and skin-like quality of plastic clay and some hollow ceramic forms. The theme is also linked to the concept of materiality and the ideas of Claude Lévi-Strauss, concerning nature and culture, and Philip Rawson’s ‘potter’s space’. These theoretical ideas are explored in terms of an intuitive, empirical approach to ceramic materials. The working process and finished works are contextualised in terms of the historical production of Peter Voulkos and the contemporary practice of Gareth Mason and Yo Akiyama whose work can be read as related to the researcher’s through a common use of the clay-earth-skin theme in some form. This dissertation posits and elucidates the relationship between theory and studio practice. It takes the form of an exegesis, that is, a contextual translation, which seeks to both record and reflect on the making process, and what it reveals, using digital photographs and reflective writings. These tools facilitated the recognition that conceptual, theoretical ideas reoccur in the moments of making, within the studio context, which results in an integrated relationship between theory and practice.
A documentary film on the Magwaza potters' production of Zulu beer ceramics.
(2006) Todd, Jane.; Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne.
This dissertation consists of two components. Firstly, a documentation of the production of Zulu beer ceramics by the Magwaza potters of Mpabelane, using the medium of documentary film; secondly, a written consideration of issues of representation, in relation to the documentary film, regarding the ceramists and the ceramics. In October 1994 I stayed with the Magwaza family for 5 days. During this time 12 of the Magwaza women produced vessels. They were Khulumeleni Magwaza, Shongaziphi Magwaza, Thandiwe Magwaza, Bonisiwe Magwaza, Esther (also called Buyaphi) Magwaza, Sholoni Magwaza, Buzephi Magwaza, Sindisiwe Magwaza, Mkoso Magwaza, Thuleleni Magwaza, Konzeni Magwaza, Qikiza Magwaza and Mancani Magwaza. The vessels were produced over four days. The potters each individually produced a vessel using the coiling method. On the first day the vessels were formed using the coiling method. Decoration was done on the second day. The vessels were decorated with either scraffito or applied amasumpa (little nodes or warts), or a combination of both methods. On the third day fat (vegetable oil or soap) was applied to the vessels and they were burnished with river stones. At sunrise of the forth day the vessels were fired. Dried aloe was packed below and around the vessels. A small pile of dried grass was packed on top of the aloe kiln. This was lit and the flames spread from the top down, burning for 25 minutes. After this the pots were blackened by various means. This process was filmed and edited. A year after the filming an interview was conducted with Khulumeleni, Shongaziphi and Thandiwe Magwaza to clarify some of the production methods that they used. The paper considers issues of representation prior to filming and editing the documentary, as well as post-production considerations of these same issues. The pre-production consideration section is based on various extracts from texts on representation, particularly of a cultural other. The postproduction analysis reconsiders these notions of representation in the light of what occurred during filming and editing.
Drawing as a generative medium in art making.
(2013) Hall, Louise Gillian.; Gouws, Andries Stefanus.; Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne.
The research of a practice led PhD in Fine Arts consists of interrelated artwork and writing (Macleod and Holdridge 2005:197). In the dual practical and theoretical research for this PhD I examined drawing as a generative medium in art making. This thesis constitutes the theoretical aspect of such research, which is rooted primarily in artistic practice and not in theory. As the other, practical aspect of this PhD I have produced and exhibited original art works, namely works in paint and drawing media. The thesis presented here is an integrative text supporting this practical aspect. It examines the role and process of drawing as a contemporary medium of artistic expression, and pays special attention to its generative nature. The focus on drawing stems from the fact that drawing plays a seminal role in all aspects of my art-making. The thesis examines the body of art works produced during this research as well as the artistic process and methodology used to produce it. It also contextualises the research within the contemporary Fine Art field where drawing has become an ascendant, primary and legitimate medium of artistic expression. In the history of mainly Western art since Classical Antiquity, drawing served an essential and predominantly, though not exclusively, preparatory function. In the last fifty years the status of drawing has shifted, so that it has become a legitimate primary medium of expression for many contemporary artists. The historical function of preparation is consequently no longer the primary guiding rationale for drawing. The status of drawing as secondary and incomplete is now also obsolete. As a consequence of this recent radical function and status shift, current drawing discourse and practice is continually open to question and exploration. Moreover, there is little consensus about the nature of drawing among key players in the Fine Art field. This, as well as the ambiguous nature of drawing which allows it to be a constituent of other media as well as an independent medium, complicates any attempt to define drawing strictly. Having given an outline of the parameters of my specific research topic and my rationale for choosing it, the text proffers a working definition of drawing. Notwithstanding the challenging nature of this task a working definition is necessary to discuss the focus of the research—drawing. The thesis next examines my idiosyncratic use of drawing. Lastly, I address the central question of the thesis, namely, what accounts for the generative nature of drawing? The title of the research, Drawing as a Generative Medium in Art Making, may seem to suggest that the generative potential of drawing is peculiar to the medium as a discrete entity. This research concluded that while drawing is indeed eminently suited to such a function, this exploratory and innovative capacity is the likely outcome of a complex of factors. These factors span artistic approach, drawing process and medium. These inextricably connected factors are difficult to treat discretely. Each of them plays an essential role in this non-formulaic, nuanced and dynamic thinking and art making process. It was therefore concluded that media other than drawing, if combined with a similar complex of factors, may have a marked generative potential as well.
A feminist critique of the concept of home in the work of selected contemporary white South African female artists.
(2011) Jones, Linda Sheridan.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.; Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne.
In this dissertation I analyse and contextualise stereotypical notions associated with the concept of home, and what that constitutes, in the work of South African artists Antoinette Murdoch, Bronwen Findlay, Doreen Southwood and Penelope Siopis, each of whom displays a different perspective of the concept in their artwork. I further consider how these selected South African artists engage with the dichotomies surrounding issues of home and the gendered position assigned to women in this area. I address the strategies the selected artists use in bringing the realm of the private sphere into the public arena and how they transgress the boundaries of private and public spaces. In addition I consider how concepts of home are reflected in my own work and how they are informed by a feminist perspective. The choice of white female artists as the subject of this research is a conscious one, in that I wish to avoid an investigation into cross-cultural gendered subjectivities which will inevitably become entangled with questions of race, politics and culture. As western feminist thought often tends to ignore the specific experiences of ethnic groups located outside western cultural experience, my focus on artists whose context is in part shared by my own is intended to provide an insider perspective. In the context of this research, 'home' is defined as a traditionally acknowledged place where woman is identified in relation to domesticity and the family unit. The term 'home' is therefore partly applicable to a type of domestic environment regardless of its geographic and cultural associations. Home has been defined as a 'group of persons sharing a home or living space (whereas) most households consist of one person living alone, a nuclear family, an extended family or a group of unrelated people' (Scott and Marshall 2005:276). The home is regarded as a place of security where the most intimate of relationships takes place, but it is also an arena of complex human relationships associated with domestic, family, personal and cultural identity. The home is further regarded as a private space and as being somewhat inaccessible, as opposed to the public domain which is open to scrutiny. The home houses a corridor of emotion, however, and may often become a place of entrophy. A subtle shifting and subverting of the conventions which society places upon women and men to conform to particular behavioural constructs will be deconstructed to reveal the concept of home as a site where the boundaries between reality and illusion become blurred. My own artistic practice is concerned with the deconstruction of the home as an idealised space and the façade that often conceals a dystopian reality that lurks beneath such idealisation. I share assumed cultural and class values with the selected artists and will critique the subject from a personal perspective, in part as a self-narrative. Within the context of this research, the term 'middle class' is defined as 'the class of society between the upper and working classes, including business and professional people' (The Oxford English Dictionary 1994:509).
Hilda Ditchburn : a teacher and pioneer of stoneware ceramics in Southern Africa.
(2008) Vurovecz, Candice.; Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne.
The candidate's investigation of Hilda Ditchburn (nee Rose) (1917 - 1986) attempts to historically place the subject as a teacher and pioneer of stoneware ceramics within the context of studio ceramics in South Africa in the second half of the 20th Century. Through an analysis, discussion and documentation of Ditchburn's life and works on a personal, technical and professional level, her discoveries and advances in studio ceramics in South Africa in the 1950's and 60's will be determined. In the light of Ditchburn's ceramic background, I shall discuss the ceramic pieces she made from the 1940's to late 1970's, focusing on selected stoneware pieces, and including examples of her earthenware and porcelain pieces. I shall discuss her experiments and discoveries with glaze chemistry and clay bodies as well as their different firing methods. I shall highlight her achievement in being the first studio potter in South Africa to design and build an oil fired kiln for high fired stoneware. This kiln was successfully fired in 1954, a time when stoneware was not being made in South Africa, thus predating any stoneware kiln made by a studio potter in the country and pioneering the growth of stoneware ceramics in South Africa. This dissertation is divided into four chapters, each with sub-headings pertaining to the information contained. The first and second chapters give background and foundational information for placing Hilda in context. The third and fourth chapters map out Hilda's personal, academic and professional information. This includes archival material and Hilda's works of art.

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Browsing Media, Visual Arts and Drama by Author "Armstrong, Juliet Yvonne."