Media, Visual Arts and Drama

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Aspects of architecture in Natal, 1880-1914.
(1975) Hillebrand, Melanie.; Van Niekerk, R.
No abstract available.
Art and architecture in Natal, 1910-1940.
(1986) Hillebrand, Melanie.; King, Terence Howard.
This thesis is a study of important trends in Natal art of the period 1910-1940, with a section on related architectural developments. In Chapter One Natal's colonial background and continued dependence on Britain for cultural guidance is discussed. The foundation of art galleries and the Natal Society of Artists is followed by an examination of artworks produced until 1917. These were found to be mainly Victorian in character. Reliance on British art and an admiration for and emulation of the Royal Academy of Arts strongly influenced the organisation and development of the Natal Society of Artists. Chapter Two examines the desire, during the 1920s and 1930s, to break away from foreign influence and the conscious attempts to establish a "national" style. This phenomenon is traced through the development of landscape painting in Natal. Chapter Three, Survival versus progress, explores the relationship between the artist and the Natal public, in particular those artists who experimented with what were then held to be avant-garde styles. An uninformed public and, consequently, a pronounced hostility towards modernism bad a profound effect on the careers of many artists. Chapter Four concerns the status of the practising artist in Natal. Amateurs outnumbered professionals at all major exhibitions, and the majority of these amateurs were women. Professionalism and amateurism are defined in the text.) The history of the Durban School of Art and its role in the promotion of professionalism ends this survey on art trends. Architectural development during this period is summarised in Chapter Five with reference to the correspondences between art and architecture. Examples are architectural decoration (especially sculpture and faience), stylistic trends, the response to modernism, and the professional status of the architect. Artists and architects active in Natal during the period are identified and listed. This section includes lists of representative works and detailed references.
The value of creative drama in the treatment of stuttering.
(1991) Chatrooghoon, Mawalall.; Schauffer, Dennis Leslie.; Uys, I. C.
No abstract available.
A consideration of the relationship between religious ritual and theatre : with special reference to Hindu forms of worship.
(1991) Pillay, Charles Moghamberry.; Phillips, N.
This study seeks to explore the relationship between religious ritual and theatre through an examination of the manner in which the Hindu religion functions. In the Introduction to this thesis, the nature of both religious rituals and theatre, and the similarities that exist between ' these forms of performance, are explored. At the heart of any performance is the desire to communicate. Religious rituals are primarily a means of communicating the philosophy of a particular religion. In this thesis, the basic beliefs and philosophy of the Hindu religion are described; the imagery, symbols and mythology, that have evolved with the religion, are analysed as extensions of the basic philosophy of the religion; and the manner in which these symbols and images function in Hindu religious practices is examined. This is followed by a detailed documentation of two Hindu rituals. The first, the Havan is a home based ritual, while the second, the Fire-Walking Festival, is temple based. The historical evolution of these rituals, based on essentially scriptural evidence, is also examined. An overview of the impact of the Hindu religion on Indian theatre concludes this dissertation.
Alternative cultural practices in drama studies : an exploratory study.
(1992) Hoosain, Mohamed Faruk.; Tomaselli, Keyan Gray.
Traditional drama teaching focuses on the training of students as potential interpretative actors or students-as-technicians. Alternative drama practices emphasise the student-as-social activist. The value and function of using critical theory to get children to shape fundamental social change is discussed. In this scheme, children are taught how to use theatre techniques to experientially explore how the controlling social forces in technological societies undermine national, regional and local democratic processes. The Schools Theatre for Development Projects with their Discussion and Action Teams, which I discuss, serve to enrich school pupils' self confidence at being critical. The problematic of what development entails and whose interests it serves is critiqued. For this reason children are provided with rehearsal in a pre- adult political arena and taught how to construct politics rather than consume a reified notion of politics. If this is to occur, then curriculum development has to be school-based rather than centralised. Teachers are advised to perceive knowledge as anchored in, and extracted from, social reality, especially that of their pupils. Mindful of the process of contextualisation, facilities in raising the child's political literacy and taking reflective social action need to be provided within schools. A case study focusing on an anti- racism project evaluated the potential strengths and challenges that a Theatre for Development in school presents. This program focuses on how the children of Indian House of Delegates administered schools in Durban can confidently mount a programme of social action or collective challenge against apartheid. Ultimately, a syllabus which draws on the case-study is devised which unpacks procedure, evaluation and political practices.
The methods and techniques employed in the manufacture of the Shroud of Turin.
(1993) Allen, Nicholas Peter Legh.; Butler-Adam, Joann Camille Ellis.; Mare, E. A.; Renetti, L. B.
The main objective of the inquiry is to deduce the methods and techniques that were employed in the manufacture of the historically unique Shroud of Turin. By taking a more or less phenomenologically based stance, it is argued that this image could only have been produced by employing a photographically related technique. To this end, an examination is made of both the nature of the image, as well as all relevant documented evidence which supports the above stated hypothesis. In addition, practical experiments are conducted which employ the kinds of technology and apparatus known to have existed c 1250-1357 AD. The results of this investigation strongly support the notion that persons living c 1250- 1357 AD did in fact have the necessary technology to manufacture what could be termed a negative solargraphic image of a human subject.
Nesta Nala : ceramics, 1985-1995.
(1997) Garrett, Ian William.
This thesis reviews two local collections of ceramics by Nesta Nala between 1985 and 1996. The main text is presented in four chapters. Chapter One outlines the development of Nala's career and discusses the collections of her work outlined in this study. Chapter Two provides a brief overview of Zulu domestic-ware traditions, and outlines the basis of Nala's technology and decorative methods. Chapter Three reviews texts that discuss Nala and her work and then critically examines the application of the term "traditional". Chapter Four interprets Nala's decorative themes of examples in the Durban Art Gallery and University of Natal collections. An attempt is made to contextualize genres of Nala's work represented in these collections on the basis of their intended market destinations.
Navigating the topographical drawing : the South African journal of J.S. Dobie.
(1997) Bredin, Scott.; King, Terence Howard.; Heath, Bronwen Jinny.
This dissertation aims to explore aspects of topographical drawing in nineteenth century Natal. It has as its centrepiece the drawings of John Dobie (1819-1903). It is argued that topographical drawing is enmeshed in the landscape and its attendant cultural discourse. On this basis an analogy is drawn between topographical drawing and navigation.
Aspects of the visual arts in advertising with particular reference to South Africa.
(1998) Sutherland, Ian Gilbert.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.
This investigation accepts that art is a term of western culture and that advertising is a creation of an historical and social process firmly linked to the economies of western industrialised nations. A cultural niche theory of the visual arts is employed to define the various visual art forms and it is in this context that the development of the notion of fine art, which had its origins during the Renaissance, is investigated with a view to how this led to the commodification of art. The phenomenon of art as a commodity accelerated throughout the nineteenth century and was moulded by the same political, cultural, social, economic and technological forces that gave rise to advertising when, during the second half of the century, the capitalist system of production became geared towards mass production of products for consumption. This was also the period of significant European colonial expansion in southern Afiica and consequently the development of both art and advertising in the region was cast in a colonial, European mould, the effects of which are investigated throughout this research project. This body of research also seeks to explain how the meaning and the value of the art object and its reproduced image, changed and became exchangeable as technology developed. Significantly this occurred at a time when the needs of advertising shifted from a simple system of proclamation and announcement on the periphery of the national economy during the nineteenth century to become a sophisticated system of communication which acts as an influential social institution at the end of this millennium. That this appears to have occurred at a time when the influence of fine art began to decline as a cultural force is significant as it is in this context that advertising has become a primary carrier of meaning in society. This research project works within this paradigm to investigate the history and motives of business support for the arts, particularly the visual arts, in the form of sponsorship with particular reference to a culturally diverse and politically dynamic South Africa. In addition, specific rhetorical devices that advertising employs, as a strategic tool of marketing, to appropriate and (ex)change meaning from the value laden visual art object is investigated with reference to contemporary advertising in South Africa.
A particle in a wave : a self-study of an evolving consciousness and its concomitant art production, in the context of twentieth century contemporary spirituality.
(2000) Olivier, Audrey.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.
In this dissertation the tracing of a personal shift in consciousness is evidenced in my art production and through self-interrogation. Investigations into feminist theology proved resonant with a personal apostasy and provided a base for a feminine identity and language. The schism perpetrated by this pivotal thesis in the revisioning of women, its subsequent antithesis, motivated a search for synthesis. A scientific enlightenment in the field of quantum physics promotes the notion of a unified consciousness. Psychology investigates the realities of mysticism and exposes commonalities within eastern and western religions revealing a thread of unified metaphysical thought. The twentieth century has witnessed a radical in the art expression of the spiritual, some coincident with the revival of an interest in oriental art, and some as a manifestation of zeitgeist or collective consciousness. This past century of rapid technological change, clearly has its attendant spiritual shifting patterns. The process of creativity in art-making has proved to be a conduit for an evolving consciousness.
History, memory and inscription : an examination of selected works by South African artist Clive van den Berg.
(2000) Sutherland, Faye Julia.; King, Terence Howard.
This study examines the means by which Clive van den Berg (b.1956) presents and explores the South African landscape and recent past, and in so doing examines the evolution of van den Berg's process of looking and interpretation. Seminal to such an investigation is a Critical examination of what history, memory and landscape are or might be perceived to be. Chapter.One centres on an evaluation of these terms and comprises a discussion of their perceived meanings particularfy as they relate to the visual arts, and especially in terms of South African art history. The investigation is facilitated by an examination of key works produced by van den Berg between 1983, which marks the commencement of the Views from the Oasis Series, and 1998, the year in which van den Berg produced the sculptural piece that comprises his contribution to the !Xoe Site Specific Project. In addition, it was in 1998 that van den Berg added the medium of video to his range of materials. Selected examples of van den Berg's earlier works, those executed in the1980s, are examined in Chapter Two. The works that are discussed here are: selected works from the Views from the Oasis Series (1983), the Large Oasis Series (1985) and the Sacred Site Series (1985). Reference is also made in this chapter to selected images from van den Berg's series of Invocations (1987). These images are examined primarily in terms of the challenge they present to conventional definitions of landscape and history. In subsequent v.urks of the 1980s van den Berg has presented the landscape more overtly as a symbol of self and personal experience. Central Park: Durban (1987) serves as an early example of work of this type and is. discussed here as it well illustrates a transition in terms of van den Berg's approach to the landscape. In Chapter Three selected vvorks produced by van den Berg in the 1990s are discussed. The works under review here are: the drawings that form part of van den Berg's Mine Dump Project (1994), his installation Men Loving (1996) executed for the Faultlines Project and the sculptural piece created for the !Xoe Site-Specific Project (1988). With these works van den Berg explores not only the marks left on the land by South African recent and colonial history or memory, but also those aspects of South Africa's past which remain hidden- and are unrecoverable. Van den Berg's more recent use of video is also referred to in Chapter Three as his use of, and approach to, this medium may be seen to add a further dimension to his investigations into history. Special attention is paid to the significance of the medium, or kinds of materials used in the creation of these 'HOrks, and condusions are drawn in terms of van den Berg's selection of subject and approach to medium in the period under study.
Drama, spirituality and healing : towards a contextual exploration of dramatic methodologies for healing black gay men in the greater Pietermaritzburg area.
(2000) Kisten, Kesavan.; Barnes, Hazel Susan.
This study explores the interconnectedness of drama, spirituality and healing among an established group of black gay males in the Pietermaritzburg area who agreed to work with me towards self-empowerment through drama. It examines, through a synthesis of educational drama methodology, community theatre methodology and drama therapy methodology, an appropriate and contextual way to use drama as a means of educating (educational drama methodology), conscientising (community theatre methodology) and therapy (drama therapy methodology) to some of the dis-ease reported by members of this group. Drama and therapy are closely interwoven (Moreno, 1970) and it is possible to create a dramatic context within which both individual and community development can be enhanced. Boal (1995) observes that our personal and corporate identities are ordered by a variety of oppressive social systems. Similarly, Graham (1992) argues that these social systems organise our psyches and our behaviours into patterns of domination and subordination. There are many theorists and practitioners in the field of drama (educational drama, community theatre and drama therapy) who have researched, implemented and published dramatic techniques and methodologies, some of which are taught at various institutions and implemented with various groups of people. However, according to my knowledge, there are no drama practitioners who have focussed on using the medium of drama to bring about social change in the lives of black gay males in the Pietermaritzburg area. It is against this background that I undertook this experiential study which is primarily aimed at assisting black gay males to move away from personal and social alienation towards individual and communal integration. This study is structured into two parts. Part I develops a theoretical overview of sexuality, spirituality and drama. It argues, in Chapter One that the Church has had a history of intolerance and judgement towards gays and continues to repress them from a traditional, negative stance on homosexuality. In Chapter Two, the issue of femininity and masculinity is examined, arguing that traditional patriarchal, and heterosexual masculinity [and femininity] is a socially constructed behaviour which is similar to the way in which gay masculinity [and femininity] is constructed. Chapter Three investigates the educational, conscientising and therapeutic origins of drama, with an aim of implementing some of these dramatic methodologies with the drama group. Part II concentrates on the application of the theory discussed in Part I to the practice of drama as an educational, conscientising and therapeutic means with a black gay drama group. It provides an analysis of the exercises and improvisations in practice; observations, evaluations and conclusions based on the drama practise with this particular group. Chapter Four provides a detailed summary of thirty black gay male's profiles in the Pietermaritzburg area. This portrait of black gay males provides one with a clearer contextual understanding of these gays, especially in the areas of culture, spirituality, identity and sexuality. Chapter Five provides a detailed outline of a sequence of exercises and improvisations for each of the nine sessions, which were tailored to engage the drama group in productive educational, conscientising and therapeutic activities. These activities may also have applicability to other groups of gays (i.e. Indians, Coloureds, Whites and multi-racial / multi-cultural groups), and/or black, and/or male persons in other localities. Chapters Five, Six and Seven, focus respectively on my experiences of planning, implementing and evaluating the drama workshops and the various drama methodologies that were introduced in Chapter Three and employed by the participants. These chapters, especially Chapter 6, focus specifically on the participants' evaluation of the actual workshops. In conclusion, this study argues that drama, if contextrialised, can offer a unique educational, conscientising and therapeutic potential among black gay males that I worked with in the Pietermaritzburg area.
South African studio ceramics, c.1950s : the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries.
(2000) Gers, Wendy A.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.; Calder, Ian Meredith Shepstone.
The oeuvre of the Kalahari Studio (Cape Town), Drostdy Ware (a division of Grahamstown Pottery, Grahamstown) and Crescent Potteries (Krugersdorp) is investigated within the historical context of the 1950s, a watershed period that witnessed crucial developments in South African cultural and political history. This dissertation elucidates the historical development, key personnel, the ceramics, as well as relevant technical information related to the Kalahari Studio, Drostdy Ware and Crescent Potteries. This dissertation analyses the broader socio-political and ideological paradigms that framed South African art-making, as well as the international design trends that influenced the local studio ceramics sector. The establishment and demise of the South African studio ceramics industry and requests for tariff protection were considered within this context. Significant primary research was conducted into the present status of South African studio ceramics from the 1950s in the collections of our heritage institutions. Wares of all three of the studios reveal a predilection for figurative imagery, especially images of indigenous African women and iconography derived from reproductions of Southern San parietal art. Imagery of African women is considered within the framework of the native study genre in South African painting, sculpture and photography from 1800-1950 and Africana ceramics from 1910-1950. Images of San parietal art are investigated within their historical context of a growing public and academic interest in the Bushmen and a surge in publications containing reproductions of San parietal art. Some images of African women and San parietal art conform to pejorative and theoretically problematic modernist cannons of the'other', while some are subversive and undermine the dominant pictorial and ideological artistic conventions.
Evaluation and critical analysis of the Chinese porcelains in the Whitwell collection Tatham Art Gallery: Pietermaritzburg.
(2002-11-27) Shao, Leigh-Lin Ning.; Calder, Ian Meredith Shepstone.
The first chapter is a broad review of the recent history of Chinese porcelain from the Ming period to the present day. It includes remarks on the ceramics town of Jingdezhen and on aspects of materials, construction techniques, glazing and enamelling as well as a brief summary of the types of wares. The second chapter is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the formation of the Tatham Art Gallery and the Whitwell Collection. The second part focuses, firstly, on the blue and white porcelain, secondly, on the enamelled porcelain. The pieces are individually physically examined and catalogued under these headings: General description, rim, foot ring, construction, iconography and motifs, glazes, marks and date. The last chapter compares the blue and white pieces, the enamelled pieces and both pieces. This chapter suggests the qualities and special attributes of the wares such as brush marks.
The nineteenth-century French landscape painting collection in the Tatham Art Gallery.
(2004) Yang, Hua.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.
This dissertation initially attempts a brief history of the landscape tradition in the West with the emphasis on developments in nineteenth-century French landscape painting. A collection of these paintings in the Tatham Art Gallery is then closely examined in the light of the socio-political circumstances that influenced their origins and acquisition. Finally a full catalogue of the paintings is presented with digital images and documentation.
Michael Zondi : South African sculptor.
(2004) Nieser, Kirsten.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.
The art historical foregrounding of pioneer and contemporary art of black South Africans during the last two decades of the 20th century has emphasised two-dimensional media. Given the dearth of biographies on black artists in general, it is the purpose of this dissertation to reposition the three-dimensional oeuvre of a pioneer sculptor in the context of the artistic creativity occurring within the educational and economic constraints of a segregated South Africa. While Michael Zondi's school education and vocational training was forged predominantly within a western mission context, the emergence of his talent remained largely independent of any art training initiatives or art-making institutions. This research study places a strong emphasis on Zondi's interface with a white elitist patronage base. As a member of an educated kholwa elite, Zondi's acculturation and intellectual exchange with his patrons regarding mores, belief systems and world views, centred on reciprocity, as the artist sought to redefine himself in terms of western paradigms initially imposed by colonialism. The exchange found consistent expression in Zondi's stance of reconciliation, which reflected the cross-cultural friendships under the aegis of a shared Christianity which the artist forged into a syncretism with his own received belief systems. Zondi's espousal of western cultural paradigms which facilitated the interface resulted in the public foregrounding of the work of this black artist, at a time in South African history when this was exceptional. From the 1960s the Lutheran mission enterprise in Natal provided a platform for liberation theology, challenging the suppression of indigenous belief systems as well as state autocracy and the reality of a segregated society. Given Zondi's acute political awareness, he was prompted to take up that challenge, albeit covertly, with visual texts addressing moral issues and voicing humanitarian concerns. With figurative genre sculptures frequently alluding to the artist's rootedness in his received Zulu traditions, the thematic content of some of Zondi's work shows an indigenisation of the Christian gospel as he drew on Biblically inspired imagery, making his art function as a vehicle for the articulation of his dissent. This study traces Zondi's stylistic development from representational naturalism of his early work to an espousal of a modernist visual language embracing some experimentation with his preferred medium, South African hardwoods. Within his essentially figurative representational style, and in part as a result of the intervention of his supporters, Zondi made use of expressive surface textures and distortion. His pronounced use of faceting in the later 1960s was consolidated after a short sojourn in Paris in the mid-1970s, when, for a short time, he created more conceptual human forms in a cubist manner. This represented his most marked departure from his recognizable figurative style of representational carving. While some of Zondi's pieces in private and public collections were included in group exhibitions during the 1980s and 1990s (1), research has not yet revealed pieces postdating 1987. It is probable that ill-health forced Zondi to consider his retirement from sculpting by the early 1990s. (1) "The Neglected Tradition", 1988; "Images of Wood", 1989; "Land and Lives", 1997.
The inception of cross-cultural dimensions in the ceramics of the late 1970s onwards, as reflected in the work of Maggie Mikula and her adherents.
(2004) Bauer, Vanessa M.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.
In this dissertation the incorporation of cross-cultural imagery and its assimilation is focused on the work of Maggie Mikula, a ceramist from KwaZulu-Natal. Producing within the 1970's and 1980's. her work is investigated within the historical context of the socio-political background of South Africa. Syncretism in the visual arts reflects problems associated with identity and authenticity and this dissertation analyses these issues. A reference is made to select artists and ceramists in South Africa who approach their work in this manner, in particular with reference to the influence that Maggie Mikula has had in their work. Chapter One discusses the history of borrowing in South Africa citing examples of work by artists including amongst others Walter Battiss, Alexis Preller and Cecil Skotnes. This is based around the broad political and ideological relationships in the country that framed local art making. The assimilation and the breakdown of barriers in African/western art in a South African context is argued through a post-colonial reading. The chapter deals with the problems of borrowing related to appropriation and stereotyping from a postmodernist perspective. Chapter Two introduces the history of South African ceramics examining its development and styles, focussing on changing premises within the medium. The second part of the chapter positions Mikula's work, interests, personal history and ideals. Chapter Three deals with the development of Mikula's ceramic work, referring to her technology, processes and sourcing. The reception of Mikula's work and the attitudes to cross-cultural assimilation in the 1980's, as well as current perceptions are addressed in Chapter Four. Her influence on this creative medium is shown with specific examples. Personal interviews attempt to contextualise her position and situate her within the ceramic world. Acknowledging that there is a wealth of collections through out South Africa, the ceramic work predominately researched for this paper is from KwaZulu-Natal. It has been sourced both from the immediate family, and from individual collectors, as this was the site of her production. Other collections have been accessed from around South Africa including the Corobrik collection in Pretoria (of which there are two pieces - one which is broken), the large piece is documented photographically (see Fig.22) and referred to on Page 66. The Nelson Mandela Museum, Port Elizabeth, (accessed on-line and via photographs from the artist's records) has a notable collection, but given the nature of this research, these pieces do not demonstrate any significant features over and above those that were already sourced. This paper is not intended as a catalogue, but is meant to show a variety of Mikula's work to demonstrate her influence and style. Each piece is chosen for its specific aspects and unique features that would support this research. Given the nature of this investigation, the author has been obliged to read widely, including writers such as Berman, Sacks, Cruise and the complete edition of APSA newsletters and magazines to give a comprehensive over view of the changes in style and influence within South African art and specifically, ceramics.
Postcolonial feminisms speaking through an 'accented' cinema : the construction of Indian women in the films of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta.
(2004) Moodley, Subeshini.; Loots, Lliane Jennifer.
This thesis proposes that the merging of the theories of ‘accented’ cinema and postcolonial feminisms allows for the establishment of a theoretical framework for the analysis of (what will be argued for) an emerging postcolonial feminist film practice. In An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking (2001), Hamid Naficy argues that even though the experiences of diaspora and exile differ from one person to the next, films produced by diasporic filmmakers exhibit similarities at various levels. These similarities, he says, arise as a result of a tension between a very distinct connection to the native country and the need to conform to the host society in which these filmmakers now live. Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta are women filmmakers of the Indian diaspora whose films depict Indian women – in comparison with their popular cinematic construction - in unconventional and controversial ways. These characters, at some crucial point in the films, transgress their oppressive nationalist representation through the reclaiming of their bodies and sexual identities. This similarity of construction in Nair and Mehta’s female protagonists, as a result, facilitates a filtering of postcolonial feminisms throughout the narrative of their films. Even though the postcolonial feminist writings of Chandra Talpade Mohanty (1991, 1994, 1997) and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1990, 1994, 1996, 1999) do not relate directly to the study of film or cinematic practices, their works, specifically those regarding the construction, maintenance and perpetuation of nation and nationalism in postcolonial narratives, serve as a specifically gender-focused appropriation of Naficy’s theories. Mohanty and Spivak’s arguments surrounding the use of text and, particularly, narrative as tools for the representation and empowerment of Third world women, women of colour and subaltern women, work toward illustrating how postcolonial feminisms articulate through a specific moment of ‘accented’ filmmaking: that of women filmmakers of the Indian diaspora.
The violent brushstroke : contributions from the independent school of British psychoanalysis to the art of Willem de Kooning.
(2005) Broll, Teressa Beverly.; Leeb-du Toit, Juliette Cecile.; Lindegger, Graham Charles.
This thesis begins with a consideration of the contributions of modem and contemporary ideas to the field of aesthetics. Out of these contributions, selected theorists from the Independent School of British Psychoanalysis are applied as a contemporary understanding of the practice and intent of Modernist art as seen in the work of the New York School of painters and specifically to the paintings 'On the Theme of Woman' by Willem de Kooning exhibited in 1953. More recent psychoanalytic formulations of aggression, self and subjectivity are put forward as a reinterpretation of the issues surrounding these selected works. The main focus here is on the role of aggression which is reformulated as a search for subjectivity and separateness. In offering these reinterpretations, this thesis draws on the theories of Donald Winnicott and Christopher Bollas. Bollas' notion of the 'transformational object', the work of the unconscious, which he terms 'cracking up' and the idiom of the self in process, is used as a basis for a newer understanding of Modernist art's methodology and interest in the unconscious and self. The final chapter applies Winnicott's concepts of maternal functions and 'object usage' to de Kooning's 1953 Woman paintings. This reinterpretation is offered as an alternative to the more negative interpretations that prevailed at the time of this exhibition which emphasised a negative approach to the female as subject. Instead, it is argued that these works offered the artist a creative arena in which to explore psychological struggles involving self and other in a safe and adaptive way.
Representations of the "other" in selected artworks : re-membering the black male body.
(2006) Nyoni, Vulindlela Philani Elliot.; Lambert, Michael.
The depiction of blackness in the visual arts is located in the complex discourse of representation. Blackness within western visual art has been, and continues to be viewed as oppositional to representations of whiteness, and is constantly perceived as other. This dissertation analyses the process of othering and the impact of such a process on the production of artwork in southern Africa, where the representation of the black male, in particular has been subjected to racist ideology, supported by its props, stereotype, generalization and the homogenization of black experience. Using poststructuralist theories of identity construction and power, I analyse stereotype, racism and masculinity in the colonial and postcolonial periods, focussing especially on the internalization of white constructions of blackness within black visual culture. I discuss the work of Baines as representative of colonial constructions of black masculinity, the work of Bhengu, Mapplethorpe and Makhoba as illustrative of the internalization of stereotypic identities, and the work of Voyiya, Harris and Nyoni as representative of resistant discourses of representation of the black male body. I situate the latter within the contemporary debate on questions of subjectivity and agency within the Foucauldian concept of power. I have deliberately chosen works by two American artists (Mapplethorpe and Harris) in order to situate discourses of blackness within a wider context.

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