Fine Arts

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Open Access
Artistieke visualisering van konnektiwiteit
(University of the Free State, 2005-11) Mellet-Pretorius, Louisa J.; Allen-Spies, J.; Van den Berg, D. J.
English: Connectivity is expanded through technological deve lopments converting the world into a global and interactive connectivity field. Each individual finds him- or herself to be a link in this network of connectivity. Using certain visual projects as an example, this particular project argues that man has, on the one hand, become entrapped in this network through technological developments, and is liberated by them, on the other, through the global mobility they facilitate. The applicability of “connectivity,” the mathematical loanword, to the visual arts is explored and depicted through art projects. In this project, representations of illustrations, paintings, photographs, installations and video art are employed as a form of artistic visualization of the experience of connectivity in post- modern society. Technological phenomena as extensions of the human body and central nervous system, and the implications of this for visual culture and the society of connectivity are explored. The spatial expansiveness of the network is visualized in the texture of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, which in this project are referred to as a metaphor for connectivity. The series of photographs by Danwen Xing, “disCONNEXION,” are described as the antithesis of connectivity, where computer parts are arranged separately from one another, eliciting the notion of a living organism. In representations of connectivity the symbiotic relationship between man and machine is brought to the fore. The mutual dependency of man and machine are symbolized in Eduardo Kac’s Teleporting an unknown state. Herein an attempt is made to foster a critical consciousness which sufficiently takes into consideration the man- made nature of the new media. Man builds technological information systems which creep across the earth, enfolding it in a web. In the photographic and installation-type depictions of Frank Thiel, Dan Graham and Peter Weibel, the omnipresence of the surveillance camera is fore grounded. It surrounds, captures and reads man into databases, forming a categorized, typified data image of the individual. In a more positive light, the media of connectivity creates an immediate though virtual presence through mobilization, where man is an absent presence who is simultaneously here and at the site of communication. Connectivity enables the immediate connections between individuals who are physically separated from one another, and is visualized in Draadwerk, where the implied communicator is overwhelmed and drawn in by the scale and mass of tin can telephone wires. Man is simultaneously here, physically, and, in thought, in the conversational space (i.e. cyberspace), where communication takes place through technological communication media. The greatest liberation of technological means is facilitated by the virtuality it creates. James Turrell’s light installations visualize illusory virtual spaces where the viewer enters a light-drenched space and the actual boundaries of the space are faded. In my own installation, Immersie, a virtual space is entered which becomes a connective plane between top/bottom and inside/outside. Ties which limit and entrap man are left behind as the virtual space is entered, and man creates, through technological media, new spaces in which freedom or liberation may be experienced.
Open Access
Die kunsmedia en herinnering: verlewendiging van die verlede
(University of the Free State, 2007-12) De Beer, Carolina Davidina; Allen-Spies, J.; Human, E. S.
English: This dissertation is closely related to my studio research, the product of which is an installation in the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery. The focus of my research is the ruptures that occur in the continuity of family memories. Seeing that my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, the preservation of private memories is extremely important to me. According to postmodern thought, history is not regarded as a single, uninterrupted timeline. Different versions or narratives are equally important in the compilation of history. Micro-histories and private experiences become meaningful to history and so is the preservation of these common documents in archives. Thus the apparent divide between private and public history is blurred. As a result of South Africa’s difficult political history and the particular part played by the Afrikaners, the experience of memory is complicated. “Remembering” and “forgetting” are eminent in the relationship with history – the wilful forgetting of incidents in the past, as well as the “excessive remembering” thereof (Ricoeur 2004: 452 – 453). Afrikaners are not allowed to forget certain past political events. The internalisation of the past is an attempt to suppress it, so that it may only be experienced in the public sphere of history. This suppression can, however, still be observed beneath the surface of private histories, as well as in art works that seem to focus solely on private experiences. The different art media that are investigated in this research (i.e. painting, photography, gum prints, artists books, wax casts and installation art) address aspects of the preservation of memory that deal with estrangement, anonymity, absence and mortality. The interplay between light and dark, exposure and concealment, are metaphors used to examine the discontinuities in history and memory in the private and public spheres. The structure of this paper is presented in various layers: layers of history, art history, private history, and art media. A group of art works have been carefully selected to further the argument and visually realise the mutual interplay of nuances. Each chapter focuses on a specific art medium that is used in the Nagedagtenis installation, as well as on questions concerning history, art history and private history.
Open Access
Patroonmaakprosesse en die resente skilderkuns
(University of the Free State, 2009-12) Human, Phyllis Marjorie; Allen-Spies, J.; Human, E. S.
English: This dissertation is an extension of my studio research. In my studio research I use the processes usually associated with the making of decorative patterns as an integral part of my work as a painter. In my paintings and in my dissertation those actions of pattern making that create an interplay between surfaces charming to the eye, and the menacing hidden meanings of degeneration, destruction and underlying aggression is investigated. This research focuses on the manifestation of the visual impact of decorative patterns on formal as well as the semantic levels. The meaning of patterns and motifs in patterns emerges and changes constantly as a result of formal creative making processes. These processes are influenced by cultural forces. Thus the transformations in patterns and pattern motifs point to the dynamic cultural forces in current South Africa. Decorative patterns from popular South African culture, in which pattern-creating processes are linked to the creative processes involved in recent visual art by contemporary artists, Beatriz Milhazes, Ghada Amer, Bronwen Findlay and Leora Farber as well as to my own paintings are analyzed. The research focuses on the ways in which patterns change and in which meanings are assigned to them. The importance of purposeful exchange of ideas in order to bring about transformations in patterns, is stressed. Writers such as Alois Riegl and William H. Goodyear have seen the exchanges of motifs and meaning in patterns as an organic and orderly pocess. In reality the meanings of pattern fluctuate and is constantly being transferred in a chaotic way. It is also fundamental that it should be considered within a specific social and cultural context as done by Alfred Gell. The ongoing and dynamic cultural influences will then become clear. This dissertation is structured in three sections, in which patterns and pattern motifs which are prominent and meaningful in the popular South African culture of the day are investigated. The ‘Victorian Rose pattern’, the Springbok motif and ‘Ndebele patterns’ are discussed. In each of these three sections meanings and transformations of meaning in pattern motifs are closely scrutinized. The ‘Victorian Rose pattern’ underwent numerous transformations in South African culture. Yet, the strong associations with its British origins still cling to it. The Springbok motif, which became part of South African heraldry during the British colonial period, on the contrary, has transformed into a symbol of Afrikaner nationalism. The underlying aggressiveness which developed to the motif led to its degeneration and later a come-back as a kitsch motif in current popular culture. In the case of the visually powerful Ndebele patterns, 87 the ethnic connotations they carried led these patterns to become artificial constructions subject to political manipulation and power struggle.
Open Access
Roots, rhizomes and radicles: critical reflections on memories and the voyage of becoming
(University of the Free State, 2019-05) Maartens-Van Vuuren, Cecilia Hendrina; Allen-Spies, J.; Van den Berg, D. J.; Botma, B.
A critical reflection on childhood memories and time unfolds into a labyrinthine journey involving fluctuating emotions, but also a voyage of creativity and new beginnings. In this M.A. Fine Arts project, comprising a dissertation, an exhibition of painting, embroidery and installation, and an exhibition catalogue, I endeavour to share my lived experiences on such a life journey. The objective is to raise awareness of the dynamics of inner life and the existence of the past in the present, which influence behaviour and future endeavours. Childhood memories of railroads and trains, motivated an exploration of the experience of the flow of time. In our planetary existence, we are consciously responding to a sensorium charged with impressions, the continuous passing of time and the irrevocability of the past. Not only a pressing awareness of the potential creative impact of one’s past experiences on current perceptions of life is raised, but also how humans impact each other and the environment. Henri Bergson’s philosophy of life, embodying the revitalising of past lived experience in the present through the process of duration (Fr. durée réelle), underpins the research. The past's actualising in the present as something new implies inner movement and change alongside invention, which is realised as a spiritual becoming – an outcome of the evolution of time, as conceived in Bergson's concept, vital impetus (Fr. élan vital). Hence, Bergsonian envitalised life as perpetual becoming serves as the determining conceptual frame in the discursive ordering of the dissertation, mainly because he emphasises the emergence of something new from the reconfiguration of past experiences through the method of intuition or inner perceiving. Bergson's evolutionary time, relative to contemporary thought, is explicated through the relationship between the plant-based metaphorical concepts of roots, rhizomes and radicles, to explore memory, time and the life journey. Throughout the project, the rhizome, due to its peculiar mode of growth, becomes a metaphor to express the relationship of memories, thoughts, feelings and lived experience. Temporality and life as a journey through time, is explored by analysing a selected group of artworks. Prevalent figures of time, exemplified by life as being predestined, the progressive life stages, the transience of life, and the decay of matter were revealed in the process. The impact of changing environments related to catastrophic events (wars and industrialisation), culminated in the epoch of the Anthropocene. With the élan vital concept at hand, the Anthropocene is reflected upon to compel human beings to confront and counteract the trajectory of earthly destruction. Conceptual metaphors of memory in the folds of time and place are analysed by means of historical and contemporary artworks, including some of my own, in order to grasp the nature and impact of memory and place in the flow of time. These metaphors are the engram, which is investigated as the imprint of experience, the palimpsest revealing fragments of layered memory and the rhizome by which the flow and connection of memories are interpreted, and how this relates to the actual physical brain. My reflection on memories is informed by Boym’s (2001: 41) rendering of reflective nostalgia as a way to characterise one’s relationship with the past and one’s own self-perception. My position is that of a reflective nostalgic who cherishes memories of the past, especially those of childhood, as a rich source of information that could serve as encouragement, better understanding of the self and of perceiving the present and the future within my own cultural existence. Therefore the act of looking back as conducive to the spectator's spiritual becoming is discussed, as well as the way in which intense emotions, thoughts and conceptualisations are expressed. Thus the complex reality of the labyrinthine life journey unrolls towards maturation, encompassing movement, change, creativity and invention. In the dissertation's coda, time's persistence in the present and future is reviewed by means of T. S. Elliot’s “The Dry Salvages” (1941). Elliot conceptualises the transference of tradition with Bergson’s evolutionary time conceived in durée réelle, as time unfolds in memory and place. What is eventually revealed is that the reconfiguration of past lived experiences potentially impact my present perceptions and behaviour, as well as views on the future. My belief in the significant impact of music and colours on emotional expression subconsciously conditioned my studio practice and selected artworks in this research.
Open Access
Die visioenêre verbeelding en die animering van die inheemse landskap
(University of the Free State, 2016-02) Kruger, Louis Lodewyk; Allen-Spies, J.; Human, E. S.
English: This study deals with the incomprehensible visionary experience and the possible relationships it may have with the indigenous landscape. It was motivated by artistic research (in the form of video art and digital photomontages) into the visionary potential that may be imbedded in the outstretched Northern Cape landscape. The problem regarding the representation of the visionary experience is firstly explored through the analyses of relevant image traditions in the history of art. These image traditions include: the mystical, the sublime, the apocalyptical, and the mythological. The diverse visual strategies, which are at work in these image traditions, reveal the various ways that the image of the landscape can suggestively act as a medium of visionary insights. Some of these revelations include: the use of the circle and saturated colours to suggest mystical power in the image and to sometimes facilitate a visionary revelation; the use of paradox, negation (like sombre light and obscurity) and synaesthetic combinations in images as a means to overcome the complexity and incomprehensibility of the visionary phenomenon; and the use of figures in the landscape to suggest the presence or expectancy of an active, chaotic eruption of visionary power in the landscape. The ability of the image of the outstretched landscape (specifically the desert that evokes allusions to eternity) to awaken a visionary eruption in the imagination is suggested through the implementation of the abovementioned visual strategies. In such cases it seems as if the image of the landscape jumps foreword, as though animated. Aby Warburg‟s notion of image animation is analysed to examine the image‟s ability to awaken a cultural memory of the landscape through the imagination. The ways in which the use of some visual motifs in images of the landscape is capable of promoting the animation process, is explored. These visual motifs include: the form of the vortex as visual and landscape motif, in the appearance of whirlwinds and whirlpools. The capacity of the vortex‟s features of constant movement, transformation, and instability to animate images of the landscape, is evaluated in association with the fascination with the vortex form in the history of the visionary phenomenon. For example it is a well-known motif that is experienced during hallucinations and near-death experiences. The use of other landscape motifs such as rocks, earth, lightning, clouds and astral constellations is evaluated in both mythological and Christian contexts, for example in the visions of Saint Jerome in the desert and in the practice of shamanism implied in the rock art of the Khoisan of Bushman people. Through this research of the vortex and other landscape motifs various manifestations are revealed: artificial marks in the landscape, which can suggest possible thresholds, and movements of upward and downward directionality, which are suggested over the landscape. The artist‟s discerning choice and use of the medium through which he/she aims to visualise the abovementioned motifs and underlying visual strategies, is also researched. Two factors that influence the medium‟s contribution to the animation of the image come to the fore – light and multi-layering. Light in the medium animates the image in the following ways: the discriminating use of light/lighting in installations can create immersive, deceptive places that stimulate the participant‟s imaginative flight to another reality or can refer to something absent or remote; and in the digital, video and film image light refers to the ignored mechanical aspects at work to create and exhibit images. Multi-layering in installations, digital photomontages and collages awaken visionary associations of imaginary flight through multi-layered spheres in the cultural memory of the landscape, while the discovery of hidden layers of meaning in the image also enables animation. Lastly, the capacity of relevant locations involved in the creation and exhibition of artworks to facilitate the visionary imagination is examined. For example, the studio of the artist can function in the same manner as the remote landscape in which the prophet finds refuge – it encourages a person to cast a visionary gaze over the world. Furthermore it seems as if the sensitive placement and lighting of the artwork in the gallery is capable of evoking a visionary experience in the spirit of the participant as a result of image animation and the productive imagination‟s ability to create a new reality.
Open Access
Visual transactions: image, theory, new media art and cross-cultural exchange
(University of the Free State, 2009-01) De Jesus, Angela Vieira; Allen-Spies, J.; Human, E. S.
Encounters between the Portuguese explorers of the fifteenth-century and the people living on the southern tip of Africa initiated interaction and trade between Europeans and Africans. My Portuguese heritage within a family of shopkeepers has provided me with a selective point of view from which to investigate the complexities involved in cross-cultural exchange, visual perception and image interpretation. The analysis of appropriated surveillance footage collected from CCTV cameras installed in the shop and the investigation of my own videos captured with hidden digital hand-held video camcorders, elucidates concerns related to intercultural interaction and exchange. In the shop the exchange of goods occurs, concomitantly with an exchange of vision and cross-cultural perception; the video camera surveys this exchange and translates it into images. It is argued that visual and intercultural processes have, with the aid of visual technologies and mediums (such as the panorama and digital video), become central to the ways in which cultures are perceived. This study proposes that interpreting images (for example in the photographs of Pieter Hugo and Zwelethu Mthethwa), like intercultural exchange, is paradoxical and ambiguous, as often these images evoke associations with conflicting meanings. It is argued that iconoclasm complicates image interpretation and visual perception further, as it is related both to destructive strategies and the vulnerability of the image. While the study argues that visual exchanges are by nature inconsistent and distorted, they still expose a common reciprocity and human vulnerability.

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