Accredited articles, Book and exhibition reviews by Elfriede Dreyer
Communicatio, 2016
In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a hum... more In William Kentridge’s The refusal of time (2012), comment on time as both a scientific and a human entity is produced. A complex mix of the visual and nominal vocabularies of early ‘rudimentary’ technological invention, scientific experimentation and contemporary digital language
characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher Michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. The construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention, science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. Interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. Examination of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time is conducted, including mention of the early development of
automatons; Modernistic French thought; advancements in Physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.
Third Text, 2016
The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork... more The trope of boat figures centrally in Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman’s travelling public artwork, Rubber duck (2007-2016); in the media images of migrant refugees arriving at European destinations by boat since 2015; and in British artist Paul McCarthy’s Ship Adrift, Ship of Fools (2010). Functioning as a hybrid vessel containing conceptions of global and nomadic transitivity, the image of boat forms the coalescing crux of the discourse in this article. The boat is interpreted as figuratively representing vessel transporting the nomadic individual as an autobiographical subject positioned in liminal and polycultural circumstances. Following Russell West-Pavlov, it is argued that autobiographical discourse continues to manifest as one of the most potent forms of ideology and that subjective nomadic ideology is utopianistically coloured. In the course of the argumentation, notions of polyculturalism; rhizomatic identity: the Foucauldian notion of a Ship of Fools; minor; minority; difference; and Otherness are explored as core aspects of the constructions around autobiographical trajectory in the nomadic context.
Litnet, 2017
Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietyd... more Die stedelike panoramas van die Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaar Titus Matiyane (geb. 1964) − 'n eietydse buitestanderkunstenaar − is 'n waardevolle bron vir die bestudering van die begrippe geokartering en flânerie in eietydse Suid-Afrikaanse kuns. In hierdie artikel word die kunstenaar se panoramas geproblematiseer in terme van geokartering as 'n uitdrukking van utopie, transendensie en bemagtiging van die plaaslike Suid-Afrikaner in die lig van koloniale en apartheidsgeskiedenisse. Die kunstenaar word as 'n karterende flâneur geïnterpreteer en sy kunswerke word vertolk beide as produkte van verbeelde flânerie en, as gevolg van die groot skaal daarvan, as fisiese " plekke " wat verkenning en flânerie ontlok. In sy panoramas word die alledaagse werklikheid getransformeer in 'n globale simulakrum van utopiese eksotisme en glans waar die kunstenaar as flâneur die stad virtueel kan besoek en deurwandel. Jeremy Bentham se panoptikon en Michel Foucault se interpretasie hiervan is verdere teoretiese raamwerke wat die interpretasie van die kunswerke belig. Daar word bevind dat Matiyane 'n model vir globale, transnasionale identiteit daarstel deur middel van die oorskryding van sy eie fisiese en materiële beperkinge en sy dekonstruksie van die magshiërargieë van Eerste-en Derdewêreldstede. Matiyane word uiteindelik geïnterpreteer as 'n outentieke stem in die dekoloniale vestiging van Afrikaïese moderniteit.
The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal ... more The curated exhibition, Nomad Bodies, took place from
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, Artesis University College, Antwerp, as part of
their 350th anniversary celebrations. It was concerned with
research on notions of the urban walker, the flâneur, transience,
nomadic cultural patterns and movement, transgenderism
and volatile transtechnology usage. The research
project’s main aim was to set up critical encounters with a
range of visual contexts in their digital, curatorial, archival,
creative and theoretical dimensions. Such encounters have
the potential to develop and engage trans- and cross-disciplinary discourses within the spatial, informational, medial
and conceptual technologies of visual culture.
Nomad Bodies presents critical visual representations of nomadism as it relates to embodied technologies, materials
and concepts.
The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Art... more The curated exhibition Metromusings (2013) in the Rautenbach Hall of theDepartment of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria engaged thematically with the notion of capital
cities. Recoding a diverse and massive - ‘invisible’ - archive of stories and experiences, the exhibition offered visual representations of reflections on urban environments (and Pretoria in particular) that have been shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces. Metromusings endeavoured to present a visual mapping of the social and political power geographies and complexities that dominate cities and how urban culture can be voiced, claimed, negotiated and contested. A defining question in the context of the city was how space can be translated into place.
Communicatio, 2012
In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century c... more In this article the flâneur is imagined as a woman, a radical shift from the nineteenth-century conception of the flâneur who merely consorted with prostitutes and shopgirls, never seeing them as equals or as having a rightful ‘place’ in the public arena of the city. The concept of the flâneuse is investigated to ascertain the possibility of her existence and presence in the city. The article thus questions the gender of the flâneur and suggests that flâneuse does not have the same freedom to stroll the streets as her male counterpart as a result of the intricate connection women have with consumerism, specifically by being an object sa well as a subject of consumerism. On this account women’s position in consumer society is explored from the position of the prostitute and being the object of male gaze and desire.
Artist's catalogue, 2015
A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Thr... more A post-apocalyptic work such as Parton’s dense yet ordered 25.150kg landscape, 2011, from the Threshold exhibition at the University of Cape Town, presents a revisionist and self-reflexive discourse on the aftermath of the apocalypse-like event, which can be interpreted as a response to both environment pollution and, in my view, post-apartheid burial and catharsis.
The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indic... more The concept of parergon is crucial to understanding current ways of looking at artworks and indicates a deconstructionist sensibility . Parergon forms a core concept in Jacques Derrida's aesthetics and is illuminated specifically in his influential work, The Truth in Painting (1987) (the translated version of La Vérité en Peinture of 1978). Although Derrida has expounded the concept of parergon in particular, it has wider application to interpretation in general so that reference to other writers is also relevant.
Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery... more Exhibition catalogue for the curated exhibition, Little deaths, at Fried Contemporary Art Gallery & Studio, Pretoria, and Bell-Roberts at Lourensford Wine Estate
Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South Afr... more Terra explores the relationship of self to place, space and land. In this exhibition of South African contemporary artists' work, the notion of terra is used in a dualist sense by referring to human beings’ metaphoric relationship to physical soil and space, as well as to
spatiality.
Third Text, 2012
In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Tit... more In this article it is contended that untrained South African artists such as Lucas Thobejane, Titus Matiyane and Kwazulu Natal community mural artists are driven by the functional power of the naturalist art object in order to expound on the socio-political conditions of underdevelopment. This hypothesis does not corroborate a return to the totalising idea of an ‘undifferentiated’ Africa investing objects with functionality (and anonymity) through ritualistic meaning, but is instead a mobilisation of the works as resourceful platforms for examining notions of modernity, difference and transculturality.
De arte, Jan 1, 2009
In this article Patricia Piccinini’s
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of... more In this article Patricia Piccinini’s
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of the genetic homunculus, whichcan be understood as the product of artifice.The genetically engineered human being isinvestigated within the context of alchemic andpost-human discourse, with specific referenceto the ideas of Donna Haraway and JeanBaudrillard. It is maintained that, although itis as yet impossible to accurately predict whatthe outcomes of such forays into the realms ofthe natural or the divine may be, post-humanfutures are already imagined and simulated inthe milieu of artistic licence.
Image&Text, 2008
As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Vis... more As a part of the centenary celebrations of the University of Pretoria, an exhibition entitled Visuality/Commentary was held in May 2008 to commemorate a history of more than fifty years of teaching and learning in the discipline of the visual arts. In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial “world” of learning; artists in a globalising world; and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist.
De arte, 2008
The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the sp... more The central question Traces du sacré aims to explore is the relationship of Western art to the spiritual in a wide range of works spanning from the late nineteenth century to the
present day.
International Journal Of The Inclusive Museum, 2008
The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid Sout... more The paper engages with the politics inherent in the exhibition of artworks in post-apartheid South Africa, an environment tainted by socio-political conflict, xenophobia and survival strategies.
Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing socio-political turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project, Jan 1, 2008
At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the gl... more At present transnational diaspora and metropolitan flâneurs are paramount attestations of the globalising impulse in South Arica.Due to raging political changes in sub-Saharan Arica over the past few centuries, cities have become hybrid, nomadic and pluralist. The depiction of urban dystopia, which contradicts the ideologies ofglobalism, is evident in many South Arican artists’ work dealing with themes of urban collapse, violence, forced separation of families, transitivity,
loss of identity through the intermingling of different culturess and languages, and the production of divergent patterns and styles of living. In this essay, I investigate the dystopian impact of globalisation processes on Johannesburg as manifest
in the paintings of the Johannesburg artist, Kudzanai Chiurai, with specifc reference to volatile identity. A incognito voyeur and flâneur in the hub of transcultural and cosmopolitan activityy,Chiurai experiences xenophobia and loss o identity, being in the city and part of it all, yet not belonging.
In Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project: 127-136.
Image & Text, Jan 1, 2008
In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the ... more In this article, the impact of world construction on the conceptual orientation of alumni of the Department of Visual Arts of the University of Pretoria is traced. In particular, the relationship of artist to world is explored in the notion of a tertiary institution as an initial ‘world’ of learning; thereafter, the place of artists in a globalising world and the idea of the world as the metaphoric stage and playground of the artist are explored. All the artworks referred to here were part of the Visuality/Commentary exhibition (2008).
Tydskrif vir letterkunde, Jan 1, 2006
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Accredited articles, Book and exhibition reviews by Elfriede Dreyer
characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher Michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. The construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention, science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. Interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. Examination of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time is conducted, including mention of the early development of
automatons; Modernistic French thought; advancements in Physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, Artesis University College, Antwerp, as part of
their 350th anniversary celebrations. It was concerned with
research on notions of the urban walker, the flâneur, transience,
nomadic cultural patterns and movement, transgenderism
and volatile transtechnology usage. The research
project’s main aim was to set up critical encounters with a
range of visual contexts in their digital, curatorial, archival,
creative and theoretical dimensions. Such encounters have
the potential to develop and engage trans- and cross-disciplinary discourses within the spatial, informational, medial
and conceptual technologies of visual culture.
Nomad Bodies presents critical visual representations of nomadism as it relates to embodied technologies, materials
and concepts.
cities. Recoding a diverse and massive - ‘invisible’ - archive of stories and experiences, the exhibition offered visual representations of reflections on urban environments (and Pretoria in particular) that have been shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces. Metromusings endeavoured to present a visual mapping of the social and political power geographies and complexities that dominate cities and how urban culture can be voiced, claimed, negotiated and contested. A defining question in the context of the city was how space can be translated into place.
spatiality.
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of the genetic homunculus, whichcan be understood as the product of artifice.The genetically engineered human being isinvestigated within the context of alchemic andpost-human discourse, with specific referenceto the ideas of Donna Haraway and JeanBaudrillard. It is maintained that, although itis as yet impossible to accurately predict whatthe outcomes of such forays into the realms ofthe natural or the divine may be, post-humanfutures are already imagined and simulated inthe milieu of artistic licence.
present day.
Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing socio-political turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
loss of identity through the intermingling of different culturess and languages, and the production of divergent patterns and styles of living. In this essay, I investigate the dystopian impact of globalisation processes on Johannesburg as manifest
in the paintings of the Johannesburg artist, Kudzanai Chiurai, with specifc reference to volatile identity. A incognito voyeur and flâneur in the hub of transcultural and cosmopolitan activityy,Chiurai experiences xenophobia and loss o identity, being in the city and part of it all, yet not belonging.
In Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project: 127-136.
characterises the artwork. Conceptually, the structural, technological and visual components of the work predominantly articulate figure tropes of space, time and motion. The work is explored through the lens of heterotopia as articulated by French philosopher Michel Foucault, with special attention to the artist’s articulation of space, time and motion. The construal proceeds through the investigation of the visual metaphors implied by the organisation of space; the depiction of movement; time ticking; the allusion to human beings’ fascination with invention, science and technology; and the products thereof, especially the creation of automatons. Interpreting the work as representing heterotopic temporality in space, it is argued that such heterotopic entities defy clock time as stringent ‘regular’ time. Examination of the meta-narratives on science and technology alluded to in The refusal of time is conducted, including mention of the early development of
automatons; Modernistic French thought; advancements in Physics around 1900; and postmodern takes on science and technology.
30 January to 7 February 2014 at the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, Artesis University College, Antwerp, as part of
their 350th anniversary celebrations. It was concerned with
research on notions of the urban walker, the flâneur, transience,
nomadic cultural patterns and movement, transgenderism
and volatile transtechnology usage. The research
project’s main aim was to set up critical encounters with a
range of visual contexts in their digital, curatorial, archival,
creative and theoretical dimensions. Such encounters have
the potential to develop and engage trans- and cross-disciplinary discourses within the spatial, informational, medial
and conceptual technologies of visual culture.
Nomad Bodies presents critical visual representations of nomadism as it relates to embodied technologies, materials
and concepts.
cities. Recoding a diverse and massive - ‘invisible’ - archive of stories and experiences, the exhibition offered visual representations of reflections on urban environments (and Pretoria in particular) that have been shaped out of fragments of trajectories and alterations of spaces. Metromusings endeavoured to present a visual mapping of the social and political power geographies and complexities that dominate cities and how urban culture can be voiced, claimed, negotiated and contested. A defining question in the context of the city was how space can be translated into place.
spatiality.
We areFamily
of 2003 is considered in terms of theconcept of the genetic homunculus, whichcan be understood as the product of artifice.The genetically engineered human being isinvestigated within the context of alchemic andpost-human discourse, with specific referenceto the ideas of Donna Haraway and JeanBaudrillard. It is maintained that, although itis as yet impossible to accurately predict whatthe outcomes of such forays into the realms ofthe natural or the divine may be, post-humanfutures are already imagined and simulated inthe milieu of artistic licence.
present day.
Art exhibition in South Africa is complex due to several factors: Ongoing socio-political turmoil, lingering political stigma around certain cities, raging violence and crime, unemployment, rapidly rising living costs and financial instabilities.On one hand, being in a developing third-world country, South African artists have relatively few choices when it comes to the exhibition of their work, since it is mostly in the major cities that museums and contemporary art galleries are found. These artists also tend to go where the cultural and fiscal contexts are more conducive to art production, exhibition and reception, since South Africans have become nomadic and tend to move to where it is perceived to be safer and where there are more job opportunities.On the other hand South African galleries and museums are crippled by continual increasing costs, fewer visitors due to urban violence and more politically and financially induced decision-making. They are thus faced with the ongoing task to devise ways in which to speak to artists and audiences alike and to entice them into their spaces.
loss of identity through the intermingling of different culturess and languages, and the production of divergent patterns and styles of living. In this essay, I investigate the dystopian impact of globalisation processes on Johannesburg as manifest
in the paintings of the Johannesburg artist, Kudzanai Chiurai, with specifc reference to volatile identity. A incognito voyeur and flâneur in the hub of transcultural and cosmopolitan activityy,Chiurai experiences xenophobia and loss o identity, being in the city and part of it all, yet not belonging.
In Representation And Spatial Practices In Urban South Africa, Edited By Faber, L. Johannesburg: Faculty Of Art, Design And Architecture’s Research Centre In Collaboration With The Editors Of The New Encyclopaedia Project: 127-136.
colour brown as operating more as a nominal reference to the real world and expressing tropes of fusion and rot than fulfilling an aesthetic, compositional or structural role.