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“Africanness” in the Oeuvre of the Ceramist Esias Bosch (1923–2010) de arte Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Ronnie Watt
It has been claimed that the oeuvre of stoneware studio pottery by Esias Bosch (1923–2010), the country’s pioneering figure of that discipline, conveys an Africanness in the look and feel of the wo...
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Diane Victor: Estampes, Dessins, Suie / Prints, Drawings, Smoke de arte Pub Date : 2023-11-10 Deléne Human
Published in de arte (Ahead of Print, 2023)
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An Intersectional Reading of Senzeni Marasela’s Work: Making Visible the Marginalised Lived Experiences of Black South African Women in States of Perpetual Waiting de arte Pub Date : 2023-10-03 Lois A. Anguria
This is a study of the way Senzeni Marasela, a South African artist, uses dress to subvert the invisibility of Black South African women, who have previously been marginalised and restricted to the...
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Curriculum Change in the Postcolonial Art History Classroom: A Case Study de arte Pub Date : 2023-08-24 Nicola Cloete
Decolonised curricula in higher education continue to be a significant issue in the South African context following the student-led protests of 2015–2016. These protests revealed the urgent need fo...
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Noisy Surfaces: Vulnerability and Art in Human–Ocean Relations de arte Pub Date : 2023-02-15 Meghan Judge
At the shoreline, human and ocean activities often act in unproductive tension with one another. This article draws from encounters between the modernist architecture in the port city of Toamasina ...
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Untold Stories: Material Narratives of Fragility, Grief, and Healing de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-25 Alison Kearney, Annemi Conradie-Chetty
Published in de arte (Vol. 57, No. 3, 2022)
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Between the Pages: Human Fragility and the Patina of Time in Guy du Toit’s Book of Play I and Book of Play II de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-20 Catharina de Klerk
Abstract Various contemporary artists have explored people’s relationships with the natural world through artworks based on the book format, including artist’s books and book sculptures. This study contributes to the discussion on the ways visual storytelling can work towards re-visualising narratives, making untold stories visible, with specific reference to Book of Play I and Book of Play II (2017)
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Untold Stories: (Re-)Narrativising the Past in the Present through Visual Artmaking de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-24 Annemi Conradie-Chetty, Alison Kearney
Published in de arte (Vol. 57, No. 2, 2022)
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Irma Stern Nudes, 1916–1965, by Michael Godby de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-24 Reviewed by Helène Smuts
Published in de arte (Vol. 57, No. 2, 2022)
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Rock Art in Makumbe Cave: Disentangling Visual Layers de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-20 Laura de Harde
Abstract Makumbe Cave, located in the Chinamhora Communal Lands in Eastern Mashonaland, Zimbabwe, was designated a national monument in 1949. The shelter housed a rich display of intricate paintings, with one panel reportedly stretching across ten metres of the granite wall. Visitors to the site observed that this particular frieze consisted of a palimpsest of paintings rendered in different styles
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Video Games, Art-Making, and Digital Commemorative Narratives de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-12 Lyrene Kühn-Botma
Abstract Digital sites have become increasingly popular places where bereaved individuals choose to enact grief and memorialise the deceased. Various online sites, including social media and video gaming sites, are frequently revisited by bereaved individuals, not only as an act of remembrance but also as a way of storytelling, given that certain representations of the deceased continue to live on
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“Your Shadow Blocks My Sun”: Reading Alternative Narratives in The New Parthenon and Other Films by Penny Siopis de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-12 Irene Enslé Bronner
Abstract In The New Parthenon, as with her other films, Penny Siopis pieces together fragments of found footage of anonymous home videos, shot handheld on 8 or 16 mm film. The films are digitised first for sampling, but not digitally remastered, and are then combined with music and subtitles from various sources. These films narrate the stories of individuals, set against significant historical and
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The Attempt to Be Here Now: “Storying” Time through a Virtual Audiovisual Archive de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-12 Larita Engelbrecht
Abstract This article explores how conceptions of time are visualised and “storied” in the collaborative photography and video project Hemelliggaam or the Attempt to Be Here Now by Cape Town-based artists Tommaso Fiscaletti and Nic Grobler. Hemelliggaam is a digital audiovisual archive of photography and video installations “exploring the existential aspects of the human–environment– astronomy relationship”
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Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony de arte Pub Date : 2023-01-12 Deirdre Pretorius
Abstract This article offers a reflection on a research-led practice project titled Dead Living Things: A Cabinet of Curiosities in the Postcolony through which I explored how academic research can inform and be extended into creative practice. While the project resulted in both creative and textual outputs, the focus here is on the creative output, consisting of a physical cabinet of curiosities filled
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In Order to Know, We Must Imagine for Ourselves: How Artworks by Penny Siopis and Anton Kusters Re-present Traumatic Histories for Participatory, Open-Ended Re-imaginings de arte Pub Date : 2022-11-18 Dale Washkansky
Abstract There are historical events that remain charged with trauma, thereby resisting the logic of causal progress conventionally ascribed to historical narratives. As obstacles to cohesive representations of history and national identities, these events remain ambiguous and problematic. Prompted by art historian and philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman’s proclamation “In order to know, we must imagine
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Multisensory Narratives of Home and Belonging: Investigating Virtual Representations of Physical Places in Towards Telepathy (2017) and Home Museum (2020) de arte Pub Date : 2022-11-12 Jenni Lauwrens
Abstract In 2017, while living in two geographically distant locations, South African artist Katherine Bull and French artist Emmanuel de Montbron collaborated on a project in which they used mobile phones and an online blog to share stories about their experiences of place. The end product of their collaboration is Towards Telepathy (2017), a two-channel video that engages viewers on a visceral rather
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Politicised Parables: A Reassessment of Bonnie Ntshalintshali’s Early Ceramic Sculptures de arte Pub Date : 2022-08-18 Christopher Richards
Abstract As ceramics by Black South African artists garner increased academic interest, the work of early Ardmore Design artists, exemplified by Bonnie Ntshalintshali, remain on the periphery of scholarly investigation. This article seeks to reacquaint the art historical community with Ntshalintshali’s sculptural works, demonstrating the cultural and historical relevance of her ceramics as potent expressions
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Headloading: Exploring Creative Transmediation as a Methodological Direction in Visual Art Research de arte Pub Date : 2022-06-03 Trevor Vermont Morgan, Katherine Arbuckle
Abstract This article describes a study which explored a methodology suitable for studio-based visual art research. The study drew upon an ethnographic and cultural phenomenon manifesting in a social media conversation, with art practice emerging through a process of transmediation. The exploration proposes a methodology which integrates interdisciplinary concepts, such as semiotics, within related
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An Aesthetics of Ubuntu in Twentieth-Century Black Art in South Africa de arte Pub Date : 2022-06-03 Pfunzo Sidogi
Abstract In this article, I explore how a widely celebrated African philosophy of being, Ubuntu, is artistically expressed and imagined. I provide a formative theorisation of Ubuntu aesthetics, or an aesthetics of Ubuntu, through an analysis of selected artworks produced by black artists depicting urban black life in South Africa during the twentieth century. The complicated and polarised experiences
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Visualising the Generic Techno-Imaginary: Exploring the Visual Rhetoric of the South African Fourth Industrial Revolution Agenda as Articulated through Commercial Stock Images de arte Pub Date : 2022-03-30 Anneli Bowie
Abstract This article interrogates the visual language surrounding the South African Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) agenda, by rhetorically analysing stock images used in a prominent 4IR publication. This study serves to contribute to the ongoing critical discussion surrounding the general legitimacy and local propriety of the global 4IR narrative, which has been enthusiastically adopted by the
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A Narratological Perspective on Installation Art de arte Pub Date : 2022-03-08 Louisemarié Combrink
Abstract Visual arts such as painting have been explored in the light of narratological concepts, but installation art has not received similar comprehensive narratological attention. The focus of the present article is to apply the four elements of narrative, namely time, space, character, and event, as conceptualised by Mieke Bal, to an exploration of a selection of visual artworks with an emphasis
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The Representation of Violence in the Middle East: Diasporic Interventions in the Work of Wafaa Bilal, Tammam Azzam, and Reza Aramesh de arte Pub Date : 2022-02-21 Colette Mol, Runette Kruger
Abstract Presently, many states in the Middle East are experiencing instability and mass displacement due to political violence. In the wake of these upheavals, and particularly post 9/11, a spotlight has fallen on art from the region, and more specifically on art with violence and political conflict as theme. This article investigates the ways in which three artists in diaspora from the Middle East
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Elizabeth Goodall and Walter Battiss: Inspired by the Art on the Rocks de arte Pub Date : 2022-02-21 Laura de Harde
Abstract In this article I compare the research methods of two visually trained artists: Elizabeth Goodall and Walter Battiss. Both were working at the beginning of the twentieth century in the emerging field of rock art studies in southern Africa. Independently of each other and for different reasons, Goodall and Battiss devoted considerable time and energy to studying and recording the rock art at
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Reciting Performative Memories: Spectral Photography at the Ntaba kaNdoda Monument and Mountain de arte Pub Date : 2022-02-04 Thando Mama
Abstract This article engages with the haunting experiences associated with the Ntaba kaNdoda monument, not as a re-enactment to recreate past events, but as an exercise in critical visual arts intervention. It further unpacks notions of memory and performative memorialisation in the former Ciskei. Ntaba kaNdoda is associated with Dr Lennox L. W. Sebe, former president of the Ciskei, who remains a
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Source of Nostalgia and Archival Recreation: The South African Hellenic Archive de arte Pub Date : 2021-11-24 Melissa Moniz
Abstract The aim of this article is twofold: to raise awareness of collective cultural heritage and identity and to promote the value of museum and archival material through a dynamic and appealing approach based on artistic inspiration and digital technology. The Maria Katrakis South African Hellenic Archive, officially established in Johannesburg in 1996, is used as a paradigm. It was chosen thanks
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Conversations across Place. Vol. 1, Reckoning With an Entangled World de arte Pub Date : 2021-09-13 Guy Trangoš
(2021). Conversations across Place. Vol. 1, Reckoning With an Entangled World. de arte: Vol. 56, No. 2-3, pp. 109-113.
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Discussing Style with Ghosts: Aesthetics and Haunting in the Age of Historicism de arte Pub Date : 2021-09-13 Julian Blunk
Abstract In the age of historicism, stylistic choices were simultaneously projections of identity. At the same time, the idea that the recovery of a historic style would also resurrect the “spirit” of a particular era represented both the supreme hope and the greatest fear of historicism. Ghosts therefore acted as figures of memory who were summoned as correctives of current conceptions of history
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African Somaesthetics: Cultures, Feminisms, Politics, edited by Catherine F. Botha de arte Pub Date : 2021-07-27 Irene Enslé Bronner
(2021). African Somaesthetics: Cultures, Feminisms, Politics, edited by Catherine F. Botha. de arte: Vol. 56, No. 2-3, pp. 103-108.
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From Memory to Marble: The Historical Frieze of the Voortrekker Monument, by Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider de arte Pub Date : 2021-07-27 Roxy Do Rego
(2021). From Memory to Marble: The Historical Frieze of the Voortrekker Monument, by Elizabeth Rankin and Rolf Michael Schneider. de arte: Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 107-111.
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The Monstrous Feminine: Minnette Vári's Chimera (White Edition) (2001) and the Voortrekker Monument de arte Pub Date : 2021-07-01 Roxy Do Rego
Abstract For her artwork Chimera (White Edition) (2001), Minnette Vári digitally recorded the panels of the Hall of Heroes found within the Voortrekker Monument and later edited the footage, inserting her own body within these scenes while performing as the mythological Chimera. In so doing, she constructs a hybrid monstrous figure which merges in part with the existing relief sculpture while simultaneously
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Of Unknown Men: Rembrandt or Not? A South African Provenance Story de arte Pub Date : 2021-03-30 Gerard de Kamper, Isabelle McGinn
Abstract The artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) is a highly regarded master of the Dutch Golden Age, and consequently the subject of extensive international research. Museums worldwide give him pride of place in their collections. Given the artist’s established prominence it is therefore shocking that in the last fifty years researchers have been able to successfully challenge the status of hundreds
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Collaborative Curating: Democratising Inclusion de arte Pub Date : 2020-09-25 Jayne Crawshay-Hall
Abstract In this article, I discuss the perceived failure of the second Johannesburg biennale, Trade Routes: History amd Geography, curated by Okwui Enwezor in 1997. Although curating can be used as a socio-critical tool, Enwezor's authorial curatorial model as witnessed in Trade Routes is criticised for being non-responsive towards issues the South African public was actively dealing with in 1997
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Fostering Archive Awareness at Art Museums in South Africa de arte Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Daniel Rankadi Mosako
Abstract The purpose of this article is to emphasise the importance of exhibiting archival records in art museum spaces as a knowledge development and information dissemination stance. The article also draws attention to the limitations that are encountered in fostering the public programming of archives through digital technology in art museums. The 2013 Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage
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The Lifecycle of Pottery Art Processes and Production in Mpraeso, Ghana de arte Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Bertha Ansaah Kusimi, Augustine Kwame Donkor, Jesse Sey Ayivor, Kwaku Kyeremeh, John Manyimadin Kusimi
Abstract The production of traditional earthenware is a prehistorical/archaeological and historical practice among women in Mpraeso, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Although pottery has been a vibrant industry in Mpraeso since prehistorical and historical times, there is little known research or published literature regarding the raw materials used, the lifecycle of the production process, the tools
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Civilising Grass: The Art of the Lawn on the South African Highveld de arte Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Leana van der Merwe
(2020). Civilising Grass: The Art of the Lawn on the South African Highveld. de arte: Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 102-105.
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Censoring the Visual Arts: Banning Aidron Duckworth’s Work during Apartheid in South Africa de arte Pub Date : 2020-07-02 Deléne Human
Abstract Censorship became increasingly acute in South Africa during the 1960s. Influenced by Dutch Reformed Church leaders, the apartheid government sought to proscribe artistic works that expressed opposition to the politics and ideologies of the time. This article explores the Aidron Duckworth case of 1971 as part of an anti-censorship campaign organised by the Pasquino Society. Duckworth exhibited
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Redress at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa: Mapping a Way Forward de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-22 Michaela Clark, Elmarie Costandius
Abstract While higher education (HE) institutions in South Africa have become demographically ever more diverse, transcultural contact among students and staff members has seemingly failed to mend race-based prejudices and structural inequality. By acknowledging the embeddedness of symbolic violence in physical space and lived experience, this article proposes an experimental and embodied approach
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Between Dreams and Realities: A History of the South African National Gallery, 1871–2017 de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-21 Jayne Kelly Crawshay-Hall
(2020). Between Dreams and Realities: A History of the South African National Gallery, 1871–2017. de arte. Ahead of Print.
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The Arch Meets the Line: Geometries of Innovation and Conveyance de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Elizabeth Perrill
Abstract Teaching mathematical and geometric concepts through art forms that are a part of indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) has become a key aspect of pedagogical transformation in many national arts and sciences curricula. This article delves into the nuances of artistic innovation, marketing, and mathematical process in contemporary Zulu, South Sotho, and Venda ceramic practices in both individual
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South African Ceramicists Inspired by Trade Ceramics de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Esther Esmyol
Abstract Africa has a legacy of ceramic making spanning thousands of years, yet the continent has also been the recipient of ceramics made elsewhere, which arrived along various trade networks. This article refers to historical Asian trade ceramics that reached eastern and southern Africa on well-established Indian Ocean trade networks long before the arrival of European maritime trading companies
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Samuele Makoanyane: Reconsidering Ceramics Technology and Connoisseurship in Early Modern Southern African Ceramics de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Wendy Gers
Abstract This article explores ceramics production in the Modern period in South Africa and Lesotho via a contemporary reinterpretation of the oeuvre of the pioneer Mosotho sculptor Samuele Makoanyane (1909–1944). The research methodology includes a critical examination of images of works by Makoanyane in South African public collections, a literature survey of Modern South African and African ceramic
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Self/Other/Clay/Skin: Reflections on Ceramics by Andile Dyalvane, Juliet Armstrong, and Kim Bagley de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 Kim Bagley
Abstract This reflection on practice develops the idea of a skin metaphor in the work of a selection of contemporary South African artists working in clay. In particular, it discusses selected works by Juliet Armstrong and Andile Dyalvane in relation to the author's own practice. The author proposes that body- and skin-like forms can speak about how we see ourselves and others within post-apartheid
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A Social Life of Pots in Southern Africa de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 David M. M. Riep
Abstract The movement of objects both within and across contexts often helps to define social relations. This article explores this notion by focusing on five specific examples of pottery production and use in the history of southern Africa, with examples ranging from early Cape colonial coarse earthenware vessels to 19th- and 20th-century pots produced in and around the central interior, and contemporary
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Vessels Pulsing with Energies and Stories to Tell de arte Pub Date : 2020-05-03 John Steele
Abstract In this article, attention is drawn to stories arising from some southern African contemporary everyday ceramics utilityware created by selected local South African eastern seaboard potters, with an eye to identifying certain characteristics that result in works by these potters being most regularly used in the writer's household and studio. This conversation then takes a prehistoric turn
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In the World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art, by Ashraf Jamal de arte Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Alison Kearney
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Type-Cast? Insights on the Rhetorical Fluidity of Iconic Type de arte Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Kyle Rath
ABSTRACT Over the past few decades, numerous prominent authors in various spheres of design discourse have discussed the rhetorical potency of type “icons” and how they come to embody cultural connotation. As icons, typefaces offer a universal language system—an expansive visual vocabulary that immediately references what we already know of their context. Iconic typefaces and their letterforms are
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Cruel Art: Intersections between Art, Animals, and Morality de arte Pub Date : 2019-09-25 Yolandi M. Coetser
ABSTRACT The process of making art, art itself, and the effects of art can be cruel to those who are, often unwillingly or by virtue of being unable to consent, a part of the process. Even though the thought of restricting, controlling, or censoring art is frowned upon, many would agree that cruelty ought to be avoided, condemned, and discouraged. To frame my discussion, I use the term “cruel art”
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Unsettling Space: Reinterpreting the Institution Using Site-Responsive Art de arte Pub Date : 2019-09-02 Katherine Arbuckle, Pumelela Nqelenga
In a collaborative project at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), students from the Visual Arts and the Drama and Performance Studies programmes explored institutional space through site-respon...
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Against Ordentlikheid: Disobedient Femininities in Selected Embroideries by Hannalie Taute de arte Pub Date : 2019-08-16 Theo Sonnekus
ABSTRACT This article explores the art practice of Hannalie Taute vis-à-vis the discourses of ordentlikheid (respectability) and the volksmoeder (mother of the nation). I begin by offering theoretical frameworks for these discursive structures, as well as a selective historical trajectory of their development, with major emphasis on Afrikaner femininity and Afrikaner women's domestic labour. Through
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Acts of Transgression: Contemporary Live Art in South Africa de arte Pub Date : 2019-08-15 Leana van der Merwe
Acts of Transgression, edited by Jay Pather and Catherine Boulle, speaks to the aesthetics of crises observed in performance or “live art” in contemporary South Africa. The subversive nature of the performances discussed in this book is related to lingering emotions of anger, resentment, and dispossession, but also to a way of articulating the unsayable—the desire to know, to say, and to be (Braidotti
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Dress as Social Relations: An Interpretation of Bushman Dress de arte Pub Date : 2019-08-15 Justine Wintjes
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Promoting “African Art” and African Modernisms in Johannesburg in the 1960s de arte Pub Date : 2019-07-19 Anitra Nettleton
ABSTRACT In the 1960s, during the years in which apartheid was to become fully entrenched in South Africa and black Africans relegated to second-class citizen status, there was an apparently paradoxical growth of interest in art circles in the art of black Africans. Two major players in the Johannesburg art market who acquired large collections of historical African art and promoted contemporary forms
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Agonistic Entanglements of Art and Activism: #RhodesMustFall and Sethembile Msezane’s Chapangu Performances de arte Pub Date : 2019-07-19 Matthias Pauwels
This article reflects on some of the limitations and challenges of recent student protest movements in South Africa, with a specific focus on their activism on issues of cultural politics. It artic...
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A Double-Edged Sword: The Modernist Dutch Reformed Church of Op-die-Berg de arte Pub Date : 2019-07-19 Marijke Andrea Tymbios
Although not monuments in the traditional sense, modernist Afrikaans Protestant churches erected during the 20th century are reminders of the wealth of the Afrikaner people, the stringent union of ...