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South African Journal of Art History

The South African Journal of Art History is a peer reviewed journal publishing articles and review articles on the following subjects: Art and architectural history; Art and architectural theory; Athetics and philosophy of art; Visual culture; Art and the environment; Film; Craft
Publisher | AHWG |
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Frequency | Quarterly |
Coverage | Vol 21 Issue 1 2006 - current |
Accreditation(s) |
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) |
Language | English |
Journal Status | Active |
Collection(s) |
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The Confusion Between Art and Design: Brain-Tools versus Body-Tools, Tsion Avital
Tsion Avital is professor emeritus of philosophy of art and culture of the Holon Academic Institute of Technology, Israel. He also has a long association with the South African Journal of Art History as contributor, referee and international advisor.
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When the crafts are entering the space outside themselves
Using currency as a jewellery medium I have become fascinated with crafted objects as symbols within current socio-economic environments. My work comments on both the idea of nationhood, and the politics that regulate national borders. Through the simple jewellery interventions of cutting and forging minted state symbols, I question whether the hybrid identities of contemporary culture can be embodied in a single object. Likewise, my research considers the advance of technology in human genome counting and its implications for inclusion or exclusion. Collaboration has become an integral aspect of my work, allowing philosophy, craft and science to confer. Molly Nesbit once wrote “The arts are entering the space outside themselves, looking hard to the future”. In recent years craft practices have reacted to the so-called ‘social turn’ and developed strategies to re-define a sense of collectivity and aspects of participation. Jewellery objects fulfil this role in the everyday, creating a space to meet the Other and each other. Objects that respond to the immediate socio-economic environment and its people will become increasingly important to contemporary craft discourse. In view of that, the emergence of Identity Politics in contemporary art in the late 20th century and its impact on recent art history provides a relevant context for object makers.
Wenn das Kunsthandwerk Räume ausserhalb seiner selbst betritt Die Faszination für handgefertigte Objekte als Symbole unseres sozioökonomischen Umfelds führt auf meinen Gebrauch von Währung als Schmuckmaterial zurück. Meine Arbeit befasst sich mit der Idee der nationalen Einheit, sowie mit einer Politik, die Landesgrenzen reguliert. Durch die einfachen Schmuck-Interventionen des Schneidens und Schmiedens von geprägten Staatssymbolen stelle ich in Frage, ob die hybriden Identitäten der zeitgenössischen Kultur in einem einzigen Objekt verkörpert werden können. Meine Forschung erwägt dabei den Fortschritt der Technologie in der menschlichen Genomzählung, insbesondere im Hinblick auf seine Bedeutung für Einbeziehung oder Ausschluss. Zusammenarbeit stellt mittlerweile einen wesentlicher Aspekt meiner Arbeit dar, sie ermöglicht eine Űbertragung der Bereiche Philosophie, Kunsthandwerk und Wissenschaft. Molly Nesbit schrieb einst “Die Künste betreten einen Raum ausserhalb ihrer selbst, scharfsichtig in die Zukunft blickend”. In den letzten Jahren haben die Handwerkspraktiken auf die so genannte „soziale Wende“ reagiert und Strategien entwickelt, um ein Gefühl der Kollektivität zu erheben und um Aspekte der Partizipation neu zu definieren. Schmuckgegenstände erfüllen diese Rolle im Alltag und schaffen einen Raum, um Anderen und einander zu begegnen. Gegenstände, die auf das unmittelbare sozioökonomische Umfeld und seine Menschen reagieren, werden für den zeitgenössischen Handwerksdiskurs immer wichtiger. Angesichts dessen ist die Entstehung der Identitätspolitik in der zeitgenössischen Kunst im späten 20. Jahrhundert und ihre Auswirkungen auf die jüngste Kunstgeschichte ein relevanter Kontext für Objektgestalter.
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The Capability Approach as a foundation for craft self-help enterprises in South Africa
Many rural craft initiatives in South Africa have as their core objective the alleviation of poverty. A popular assumption is that personal income or wealth is the primary solution to alter social deprivation. Economist and philosopher Amartya Sen argues that capabilities refer to the ability to choose a life one has reason to value. Capability deprivation minimises the choices people can make – poverty, thus, is reframed as a form of capability deprivation. What the capability perspective does in poverty analysis is to enhance the understanding of the nature and causes of poverty and deprivation by shifting primary attention away from means (such as income) to ends that people have reason to pursue, and, correspondingly, to the substantive freedoms to be able to achieve these ends. This article discusses how income poverty is but one of various capability deprivations which curtail the success of some craft self-help enterprises. Furthermore, it suggests a way to evaluate how well people are doing – be it an enterprise or an individual, which ideally would result in an interaction of a rise in standards of living and an improvement in the quality of life.
Die bekwaamheids-benadering as grondslag vir ambagsopleiding Etlike ambagskuns-initiatiewe in Suid-Afrika het as uitgangspunt die bekamping van armoede. Die algemene veronderstelling is dat persoonlike inkomste of rykdom die belangrikste oplossing is om sosiale veragterliking te bowe te kom. Amartya Sen, ’n ekonoom en filosoof, redeneer dat bekwaamhede betrekking het op die vermoë om ’n lewe te kan kies wat iemand van waarde kan ag. Die keuses wat mense kan maak, word uiters beperk indien hulle hulle nie kan bekwaam nie – armoede word dus hergestruktureer as ’n vorm van gebrek aan bekwaamheid. Wat die bekwaamheidsperspektief tydens die analiese van armoede doen is om die ontstaan sowel as die redes vir armoede en beperkte bekwaamheid te verstaan deur die fokus van middele (soos inkomste) na doelwitte wat mense nastreef, en die dienooreenkomstige selfstandige vryhede om sulke doelwitte te verwenslik, te verskuif. In hierdie artikel word geredeneer dat inkomste-armoede slegs een van vele bekwaamheids-beperkings is wat die welslae van selfhelp ambagsinitiatiewe kortwiek. Dit stel ook ’n manier voor om te bepaal hoe goed mense vaar – hetsy ’n sake-onderneming of ’n individu, wat ideaal gesien,’n interaksie tussen ’n styging in lewensstandaard, sowel as ’n verbetering in lewenskwaliteit tot gevolg sal kan hê.
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Crafting urban space with Pretoria’s Church Square as an example
Craft is the art through which people make objects. These man-made objects will always have embedded social and cultural meaning and speak a language that narrates their materiality and the processes of their creation. The same is true of urban space as an object. Whether urban space was created out of the natural landscape by separating inside and outside with crafted architectural elements, or through an organic process of changing space-shaping architectural form, or by carving it out of existing urban fabric, or whether it was planned, designed and made from the outset, both the process of making urban space and the space made will reveal the social, political and cultural powers that produced it. This article proposes to reveal, through critical analysis and comparison, the powers behind the processes of the making of urban space, as well as the social and spatial relationships embedded in it, using Pretoria’s Church Square as example. It aims to expound the general prevailing ideas on crafting urban space over time and the variants that play a role in its production. A structural analysis will firstly reveal the generic elements and secondly the variants and deviations that were conditioned by local factors, which together constitute the basic ideal structure of urban space. A functional analysis aims to reveal the effect of functional considerations on the crafting of urban space.
Die vaardige vorming van stedelike ruimte met Kerkplein in Pretoria as voorbeeld Kunshandwerk is die kuns waardeur mense voorwerpe maak. Hierdie mensgemaakte voorwerpe sal altyd sosiale en kulturele betekenis bevat en ’n taal praat wat van hul materialiteit en hul vervaardigingsprosesse vertel. Dieselfde geld vir stedelike ruimte as voorwerp. Of stedelike ruimte geskep is uit die natuurlike landskap deur binne en buite vanmekaar te skei met handvervaardigde argitektoniese elemente, of dit tot stand gekom het deur ’n organiese proses waarin ruimte-vormende argitektoniese massa verander het, of dit uit ’n bestaande stedelike struktuur gekerf is, en of dit van die staanspoor af beplan, ontwerp en gebou is, beide die proses daarvan en die stedelike ruimte self sal die sosiale, politieke en kulturele magte waardeur dit vervaardig is, openbaar. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om die beherende moondhede agter die proses van stedelike ruimtevorming, sowel as die sosiale en ruimtelike verhoudings wat daarin vasgevang is, te openbaar. Kerkplein in Pretoria word daarvoor as voorbeeld gebruik en dit word deur kritiese analise en vergelyking bewerkstellig. Die mikpunt is om die algemeen heersende idees ten opsigte die vaardige vorming van stedelike ruimte oor tyd en die veranderlikes wat ’n rol in die produksie daarvan speel, uiteen te sit. ’n Strukturele analise sal eerstens generiese elemente en tweedens die veranderlikes en afwykings wat deur plaaslike faktore getemper is, openbaar, wat tesame die basiese ideale struktuur van stedelike ruimte opmaak. ’n Funksionele analise poog om die efffek wat funksionele oorwegings op die vaardige vorming van stedelike ruimte het, te openbaar.
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An assessment of Henri Comrie’s aspiration to achieve well-crafted architecture
The architect and urban designer Henri Comrie (b.1965) uses the terms “crafting” and “crafted” when referring to the act of designing, as well as to the qualities of good buildings and social spaces. Because of his recognised ability to explore and present ideas found in his built work through the medium of freehand drawings, the term handcrafted, in his case, is associated with the ability to achieve spatial refinement through drawing. Four projects selected from his practice’s website were reviewed to determine their most pertinent features. Thereafter, Comrie was interviewed and his attitude towards craft compared with prevalent ideas in literature. The relationship between hand drawing and building information modelling (BIM) is also investigated.
ʼn Waardering van Henri Comrie se strewe na die skepping van vaardig-uitgevoerde argitektuur Die argitek en stedelike ontwerper Henri Comrie (b.1965) gebruik die Engelse terms “crafting” en “crafted” wanneer hy na die aktiwiteit van ontwerp verwys, sowel as na die eienskappe van goeie geboue en sosiale ruimtes. As gevolg van sy alomerkende vermoëns om idees wat in sy geboue voorkom te verken en aan te bied deur die medium van vryhandtekeninge, word die term handgemaak in sy geval vereenselwig met die vermoë om ruimtelike verfyning te bereik deur middel van teken. Vier projekte is uit sy praktyk se webwerf gekies en ondersoek om hulle mees kenmerkende eienskappe vas te stel. Daarna is Comrie ondervra om sy benadering tot handwerk te vergelyk met hedendaagse idees in die literatuur. Die verhouding tussen vryhandtekeninge en “building information modelling” (BIM) word ook ondersoek.
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Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life at AfrikaBurn 2017 in Tankwa Karoo, South Africa
Since the inception of AfrikaBurn in 2007, focus has partly been on creating large-scale installation artworks that are erected and then ritually torched as the week-long event progresses. It will be shown that the interactive installation Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life serves as a palimpsest of significant elements of AfrikaBurn creative energy, in conjunction with the inventive presence and participation of roughly 13,000 other contributors to the 2017 event. In dwelling on these elements, this paper seeks to describe and consider some technicalities of planning and then physically transforming objects, in the form of raw materials - by means of ideas directing wise and knowing human hands - into symbolic works expressing original concepts and collective endeavour. Actual torching and burning of the installation is posited as a climaxing high point that brings plans of sculpting with fire to fruition, yet is also just another step in the process of fostering both meaningful relationships and adding to existing myths and legends, both in individual and collective memory, as well as in the realms of the internet. Theoretical context is found in both object-oriented ontology as proposed by the likes of Graham Harman and Timothy Morton, as well as in new synergies of materialist performativity proposed by Cecilia Åsberg, Kathrin Thiele and Iris van der Tuin, among others.
Yggdrasil, livets träd vid AfrikaBurn 2017 i Tankwa Karoo, Sydafrika Sedan starten av AfrikaBurn år 2007 har fokus delvis varit på att skapa storskaliga konstverk, som uppförs och sedan rituellt bränns ned allt eftersom den veckolånga händelsen fortskrider. Det kommer att visas på den interaktiva installationen Yggdrasil, livets träd, att den tjänar som en palimpsest av signifikanta element i AfrikaBurns kreativa energi, i samband med den innovativa närvaro och deltagande från cirka 13.000 andra bidragsgivare till 2017-eventet. I det här dokumentet söker jag att beskriva och betrakta vissa tekniska aspekter av planeringen och sedan den fysiska omvandlingen av objekt, i form av råa material - genom idéer som leder kunniga mänskliga händer - till symboliska verk som uttrycker originella koncept och kollektiva utmaningar. Den faktiska tändandet och bränningen av installationen ställs som en höjdpunkt och ger upphov till planeringen för skulpturering med elden i åtanke, men det är också bara ett steg i processen i att främja både meningsfulla relationer och lägga till befintliga myter och legender, både i enskilt och kollektivt minne, liksom i internetets rike. Teoretiskt sammanhang återfinns i både objektorienterad ontologi, som föreslagits av likeså Graham Harman och Timothy Morton, liksom i nya synergier av materialistisk performativitet som föreslagits av bl.a. Cecilia Åsberg, Kathrin Thiele och Iris van der Tuin.
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© Publisher: AHWG