Theses and Dissertations (Visual Arts)

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Visualising M’bona religious beliefs and practices : a visual cultural artistic co-production with the custodians of Khulubvi and Associated Rain Shrines in Nsanje, Malawi
(University of Pretoria, 2025-06) Kriel, Lize; Beyers, Jaco; mamayewo@gmail.com; Chikabadwa, Eva
The study examines the role of the visual in research and documentation by analysing the power relations between the visual, oral, and written forms in the context of heritage preservation, drawing on theories of visual culture. The project aimed to visualise the M’bona beliefs and practices for the adornment of a future museum in a manner that strikes a balance among the three (visual, oral, and written) for heritage sustainability. The vision aligns with the concept of ‘decolonizing heritage for development,’ where development encompasses improvements in both material and non-material aspects, the ability to help others, and a change in individual and collective circumstances. Heritage, on the other hand, comprises skills, knowledge, and practices. In short, heritage development is a consequence of heritage and heritage making. The study organized the data using Ninian Smart’s seven dimensions of religion. It employed Clifford Geertz’s definition of religion, Talal Asad’s critique, the African Traditional Religions framework, and participants’ views to examine the M’bona culture as a religion. The Manganja M’bona advocates asserted that they do not consider the term ‘religion’ applicable in their culture. An experimental research approach, the ‘Meta Picture Data Collection Technique,’ which strikes a balance between textual, oral, and visual elements of heritage while prioritizing community involvement, was developed and used in the study. The technique aims to balance practice and theory in visual culture by emphasizing artmaking as a holistic approach, much like reading and writing texts for deeper studies.
Co-creating with materials : a practice-led approach to experimental printmaking
(University of Pretoria, 2025-03) Grobler, Nicola; caitlinlr99@gmail.com; Le Roux, Caitlin
This practice-led study investigates the relationship between the artist and material in the context of experimental printmaking as a relational approach, reimagining creative responsibility as a shared phenomenon among all agents involved in artistic practice. Grounded in posthumanist and new materialist theories, this study explores arguments of human-material relationships as relational and participatory. This study examines the entanglement of human and material agents within creative environments, challenging anthropocentric views of the processes, materials and tools involved in artistic practice. Responding to human-centric perspectives of agency, this study refers to Karen Barad’s agential realist ontology and Lambros Malafouris’ material engagement theories to reimagine agency as an emergent property of engagement rather than an attribute of the human subject. Furthermore, the idea of artworks as the manifestation of growing relationships between the artist and material in practice is theoretically considered through Donna Haraway’s notion of ‘becoming-with’. This study posits that creative agency extends beyond the human artist, acknowledging the active roles of materials and environments in the co-creation of artworks. This study employs an explorative experimental printmaking approach that emphasises tactile engagement and responsiveness to materials, allowing for a dynamic exploration of their inherent properties and behaviours through imprints and transfers. Informed by Bolt’s participatory methodology, I view the artist, materials, tools, and environment as co-responsible elements in the creative process. By relationally engaging with materials and tools that can be found and brought into both the domestic environment and printmaking studio, I seek to highlight these material participatory agents in the form of mark-making and surface impacts, thereby revealing their roles in the processes to the viewer. The creative process and outcomes were presented in an exhibition comprised of eight series of experimental prints, bringing attention to the creative agency of an artist-tools-materials-environment collective. Following a relational approach to creative research, I explore emerging tensions of knowledge generation through practice, reflecting on the processes and outcomes through documentary images and transcriptions. This study aims to broaden the understanding of shared creative agency in art practice, specifically in printmaking as an artistic process. Subsequently, this could lead to a more responsible approach to materials in creative practice and could decentralise the human artist by encouraging relational creative practices. This study critically evaluates the role of the material bodies in art practice as equally crucial to the role of the human artist.
Listening to the past : a subjective exploration of cultural continuity in Shona migration through sculptural works
(University of Pretoria, 2025-03) Lebakeng, Teboho; Grobler, Nicola; u18035206@tuks.co.za; Mapisire, Tatenda
This study explores the intersections of cultural memory, migration, and identity through sculptural installations that merge personal narratives with historical Shona migratory experiences. Grounded in myth-making and oral histories, the research examines how contemporary art can serve as a vessel for ancestral knowledge, fostering dialogue between past and present migratory movements. Utilising natural materials such as clay, wood, stone, and found objects, the study reinterprets the materiality of Shona heritage while addressing the complexities of displacement, adaptation, and belonging. By engaging with archaeological traces from the Great Zimbabwe civilisation and Leopard Kopje migrations, the research situates contemporary migratory experiences within a broader historical continuum. Through a multidisciplinary approach that integrates art practice, historical analysis, and critical theory, this study demonstrates how sculpture and installation art can embody both personal and collective memories of migration. The research ultimately contributes to the discourse on cultural reinvention, offering a visual and sensory exploration of shifting identities in the context of urban transience and academic migration.
Queering final fantasy xiv online avatars on Instagram
(University of Pretoria, 2024-11) Du Preez, Amanda; karlvheerden@gmail.com; Van Heerden, Carel Jacobus
Gaymers are a group of players characterised by an adoption of a queer sensibility in their gaming habits. This study aims to understand the complex dynamics of online identity formation by examining how gaymers use virtual images of their avatars on social media platforms to construct identities collaboratively. The analysis focuses on the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Final Fantasy XIV Online and the social media platform Instagram as the site of research. This study employs a three-part research methodology. First, a comprehensive multidisciplinary literature review draws from gender studies, new media studies, visual culture, and virtual ethnography to establish a theoretical framework for analysing identified case studies taken from Instagram. Second, I compare interviews with gaymers and avatar portraits posted on Instagram to explore the themes identified in the literature review. Finally, a visual virtual ethnographic approach is adopted to conduct field research within the game world. The findings of this study validate the hypothesis that identity negotiation is an emergent process resulting from a combination of real-time social interaction within a role-play environment, asynchronous exploration of identity through textual and visual content generation on Instagram, and utilisation of in-game avatar design features for constructing and visually exploring identities through avatar customisation.
Rethinking iconicity : exploring the iconologies of apartheid-era documentary photography and South African networked social movements
(University of Pretoria, 2024-06) Du Preez, Amanda; deneesherpather@gmail.com; Pather, Deneesher
This thesis addresses the question of how political narratives are configured as aesthetic issues in selected images from apartheid, #AmINext and #FeesMustFall. The research questions are explored through iconological and hermeneutical interpretation. Sixty documents were collected for interpretation, thirty documentary photographs from the apartheid-era, fifteen images from #AmINext, and fifteen images from #FeesMustFall. The images were coded using the qualitative analysis software ATLAS.ti, and thematically curated using the online whiteboard platform Miro. Additional examples of what I refer to as “politically charged images” (PCI) were added to the Miro whiteboard to illustrate an aesthetics of politically charged imagery. The study addresses three main objectives. Firstly, through a Rancièrian theoretical framework, I explore how an anti-apartheid narrative is configured in apartheid-era documentary photographs, primarily through interpreting selected photographs by David Goldblatt and Ernest Cole. Second, I examine how political images can communicate similar political, social and cultural issues despite distances in time and space. Third, I interrogate the movement of past political images to online platforms and their interactions with more recent politically charged images on online platforms. I put forward the idea that politically charged imagery are constructing imagic conversations on shared social issues through time and space. I offer a renewed perspective on iconicity as a category for interpreting the political messages read in images. In my determination of the word, iconicity refers to the underlying qualities of images that inspires a sense of likeness, resonance, recognition and memory-recall. Whereas previous uses of iconicity have focussed on the word as a category to interrogate the material basis of icons as culturally impactive, my determination of the word stresses the immaterial aspects of image communication. Using Jacques Rancière’s concept of the aesthetic image, I position the selected apartheid-era photographs as constructing the politics of apartheid. The affective images of apartheid-era documentary photography contribute to an archive of virtual imagery that speak both to the local issue of apartheid and related universal issues connected to racial injustice, police brutality, and social inequalities. The images of #AmINext and #FeesMustFall are also argued to be affective images that have the potential to speak to other related social movements. In both networked social movements, the activists engage in body politics that make otherwise hidden violences visible. Lastly, I argue that the iconologies of #AmINext and #FeesMustFall consist of several perspectives of the movement formed through machinic interventions, images from the past and images that point to an empowered future for the activists.
Digital re-mediation in contemporary sculpture praxis : human-technology co-creation
(University of Pretoria, 2025-07) Adendorff, Adéle; Du Preez, Amanda; carolkuhn42@gmail.com; Kuhn, Carol
Digital Re-Mediation in Contemporary Sculpture Praxis: Human-Technology Co-Creation," presents a hermeneutic interpretation of the praxes of traditionally trained sculptors now working in a postdigital (analogue-digital) reality. It examines digital technology’s mediating role to show how the infolding of digitised bodies and embodied technologies form a co-creating nonlinear affective intra-action between the sculptor, digital device, and material. In this re-mediated hybrid reality, sculptor-digital technology relations respectively characterise a postdigital reassemblage defined by the notion of agentic matter constituting a performative sense of becoming-with the digital. Postphenomenology and New Materialism are used to theorise digital fabrication technology’s multistable conditions of use and interpret sculptors’ intentions and materially situated relationality with the device. The study shows sculptors’ embodied interactions occur through, with, alongside, and towards digital technologies, and the neomaterial aesthetic arising from this agentic entangled system of physical and non-tangible matter reterritorialises contemporary sculpture within the digital paradigm.
Representing the unknown : a comparative study of Chesley Bonestell and David Kipping's representations of outer space
(University of Pretoria, 2025-03) Brittz, Karli; carel.willemse@up.ac.za; Willemse, Carel Pieter
The representation of space has long captivated the public, artists, and scientists alike, inspiring them to envision the uncharted expanses beyond our planet and make representations of the cosmic unknown. Chesley Bonestell, a pioneer of space art, enthralled audiences with his vivid paintings of distant worlds, while David Kipping, a contemporary astronomer, harnesses YouTube to transport viewers into speculative realms. Despite their differing mediums, both Bonestell and Kipping expand our understanding of outer space through cosmological representations that bridge the gap between naked-eye observation and advanced technological mediation. By examining how scientific inquiry and artistic creativity intersect, this study compares their works, explores their creations aligned with advancements in observational technology – particularly through the lens of Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke’s sublime – in the broader context of astronomy and cosmology.
What is a human? the ontology of personhood and human-centred design
(University of Pretoria, 2024-02) Reyburn, Duncan; marno.kirstein@gmail.com; Kirstein, Marno Johan
For the last few decades, human-centred design has increasingly been a dominant paradigm in communication design. The Human-centred Design Movement (HCDM) is broadly motivated by three core ethical concerns: (1) environmental sustainability, (2) sustainable social development, and (3) designs that improve human lives by one metric or another. Despite these lofty concerns, the field continues to be beleaguered by unethical practices—even in the sub-disciplines that developed within HCDM. I argue that HCDM has faltered in its aims because it is based on human centred design principles (HcD) that fail to grapple with its primary subject: namely, to understand what a human being is, at an ontological level. Its current approach is to describe humanness in terms of design epistemology, but this demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of ethics, which is necessarily personalist. In this study I form a multi-disciplinary hermeneutic drawing on Schelerian phenomenology, Ricoeurian hermeneutics and Franklian existenzanalyse to form a more robust and coherent picture of the ontology of personhood. I critically examine the claims and commitments of HCDM through these disciplinary lenses to identify the gaps, false dichotomies and false equivocations that have hamstrung its attempts to improve disciplinary ethics in communication design. By the end of the study, I make recommendations for the way ahead, suggesting falsehoods that HCDM scholars need to stop perpetuating, truths they need to tell, and questions they need to answer.
An exploration of otherworldliness and death in avant-garde Japanese poster design
(University of Pretoria, 2025-02-18) Cassim, Fatima; Rath, Kyle; hello@lindiebotes.com; Botes, Lindie
This study examines the multi-faceted visual and metaphoric representations of otherworldliness and death in avant-garde Japanese posters from the post-World War II era. Following Japan’s surrender in World War II, the country experienced significant socio-political turmoil and transformation. It is in this context that the subversive Japanese avant-garde ethos was born. Focusing primarily on posters designed for angura (underground) theatre and film productions, this study analyses the socio-political, ideological, historical, religious and cultural reasons for the prevalence of otherworldliness and death as themes in the posters (from 1953 to 1989). To this end, a literature review presents Japanese perspectives on death, aesthetics, beauty, suicide and religion, which are intrinsically linked to the central themes of this study. Several definitions of otherworldliness are provided to facilitate a deeper understanding of the term. Philosophical and thanatological theories inform the theoretical framework, which is situated at the intersection of otherworldliness and death. The framework is subsequently applied for purposes of a comprehensive case study analysis of selected avant-garde posters. The significance of this study lies in its in-depth exploration of the underlying causes and visual expressions of the prevalent themes of death and otherworldliness in avant-garde posters, which, at the same time, reflect the socio-political and cultural milieu of post-war Japan.
A hermeneutic analysis of the representation of masculinities in Tsotsi (Hood 2005) and Inxeba (Trengrove 2017)
(University of Pretoria, 2024-08) Lauwrens, Jenni; Du Plessis, Rory; sanka.pityana1@gmail.com; Pityana, Nomathamsanqa Freya Jewkes
A hermeneutic analysis of the South African films Tsotsi (Hood 2005) and Inxeba (Trengrove 2017) on the representation of masculinities. Gender and gender performance is explored as well as how types of masculinities are portrayed and the effect(s) they have (if any) on the story. Additionally, how the directors being white, yet telling black stories, affects the storyline as well as the reception received by each film based on this factor.
Examining agency in self-portraits by selected black female artists
(University of Pretoria, 2024-10) Lauwrens, Jenni; nanzi.yanta@gmail.com; Yanta, Nandipha Nthabiseng Liziwe
Global feminism and global black feminism are central to this study as I investigate the agency of (black) women in the Western art canon because it shows how women's empowerment has developed over time. Feminist art is a crucial part of this study because it shows that female artists have navigated and challenged a traditionally patriarchal industry. This is explored through artists like Judy Chicago from the United States of America (USA) as well as Penny Siopis and Sue Williamson from South Africa, alongside critical perspectives of theorists like Marion Arnold (1996), Brenda Schmahmann (2015), and Karen von Veh (2006; 2019). In recent decades, there has been an apparent shift in the representation of black women in visual culture with global artists like Mickalene Thomas, Amy Sherald, and Wangechi Mutu expressing themes of assertiveness, confidence, and beauty in their art. By examining the works of artists like Jean-Marc Nattier and Edouard Manet, I also trace the evolution of black women’s representation in the Western art canon. I examine self-portraiture as a feminist strategy, analysing the works of famous self-portraitists like Amrita Sher-Gil, Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman who have challenged gender stereotypes along with Carrie Mae Weems and Renee Cox who convey black female subjectivity in their artwork. My primary objective for this study is to show how selected prolific black female artists, namely Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi, Billie Zangewa, and Zandile Tshabalala assert agency in their self-portraits through different (black) feminist strategies such as the oppositional gaze, self-definition, and self-love.
That’s our code : a feminine artistic encoding of memories of the South African Defence Force between 1977 and 1989 and hegemonic masculinity in white South African men
(University of Pretoria, 2023-09-26) Sooful, Avi; u15119867@tuks.co.za; Glass, Georgina Alice
This study explores memory and narrative surrounding experiences of conscription into the South African Defence Force (SADF) during the 1970s and 80s. This decade experienced the climax and end of several conflicts grouped under the collectively remembered ‘Border War’. The conscription of white South African men into the military is understood by many veterans as a coming-of-age ritual and an induction into manhood. When the National Party conceded in 1994, many soldiers felt betrayed by the government they risked their lives to protect. Many of these soldiers are silent about their experiences and this study provided an opportunity for participating veterans to recount experiences of the former South African Defence Force (SADF), specifically surrounding the creation of masculinity and the sharing of pain and trauma. I have combined two binary and gendered codes, Morse code and knitting, to encode narratives shared with me by participating veterans, thereby capturing memories from a group who feel they are forgotten. In addition, I use stitching to investigate my relationship to the SADF and trauma, using a spiral motif to explore the cathartic release of sharing stories and the great difficulty in sharing vulnerability and pain.
An autoethnographic exploration of virtual worship : exploring religious experience in cyberspace
(University of Pretoria, 2024-02) Brittz, Karli; kudahschizy@gmail.com; Chizhande, Kudakwashe
Technology has revolutionised the traditional concept of worship and impacted the understanding of spirituality. The rise of the internet and digital technologies has revolutionised how individuals interact with each other and their surroundings, including religious spaces. This autoethnographic exploration delves into the experience of virtual worship and how the digital revolution is transforming spiritual experiences. Based on my personal experiences and observations, I have investigated the world of virtual worship and discovered the unique religious experiences it offers in cyberspace. It also reveals the potential for technology to facilitate religious experiences through virtual sacred spaces and discusses the possibility of these online experiences replacing worship in physical reality. I have discovered that virtual worship provides advantages such as connecting with a global community of believers and the convenience of participating in religious activities from the comfort of their own homes. However, there are also possible drawbacks, including a lack of intimacy and connection with the physical world. This exploration highlights the intricate and evolving relationship between technology and spirituality and how virtual worship shapes our religious experiences. The study contends that virtual worship cannot substitute offline gatherings, but that online and offline spiritual practices can be used since they are vital in their different capacities. Furthermore, the study emphasises that while virtual worship experiences hold immense value as they allow flexibility and accessibility, they may lack some embodied aspects of worship, such as physical presence and shared space. Overall, this autoethnographic exploration provides valuable insights into how virtual worship experiences impact religious practice and suggests that digital technologies could complement physical worship spaces rather than replace them entirely. Thus, the study expands on the scholarship of digital culture and virtual worship by considering an autoethnographic experience of the phenomenon.
The dancing body as living archive : preserving the Cecchetti method
(University of Pretoria, 2024-03) Johnstone, Kristina; Kriel, Lize; celeste.annandale@gmail.com; Annandale, Celeste Margaret
Dance is largely an intangible form of art and knowledge. The fleeting nature of its performance makes the circulation and archiving of this type of knowledge quite challenging. It is difficult to capture its essence in a mere text or photograph. The body, in this sense, might present itself as a fundamental form of dance knowledge preservation as it is able to embody knowledge in a way that material artefacts cannot. Despite many and continual changes that occur in the arts, the technique and traditions of classical ballet have therefore remained as dancers and teachers transfer this knowledge, through their bodies, from one generation to the next. The bodies of dancers and teachers, in this sense, become a dynamic archive of embodied knowledge. This involvement of the body in processes of knowledge acquisition, retention and transference manifests the agency of these bodies as they function both as object and subject, as instrument and agent, transgressing the boundaries between the material and immaterial worlds, the visible and invisible spaces of existence and experience, as well as the past and the present. This is the notion of the body which I use in my study; a dynamic entity, with boundary-crossing abilities, which holds great significance in knowledge transfer and preservation, hegemonic resistance, artistic expression, memory, transformation and evolution. The Cecchetti Method of classical ballet training and the Cecchetti Society, with its teachers and dancers actively participating in the learning, teaching and therefore preservation of the Method, epitomises how bodies become an archive. My study is more broadly involved in the larger academic enterprise that revisits and revises the institutional archive and questions our dependence on documentary and mnemonic practices.
We’re digging the future: Afro-future mining in Africa
(University of Pretoria, 2024-04-19) Du Plessis, Rory; o.kgongoane@gmail.com; Kgongoane, Obakeng Omolemo
Mining in Africa continues to be a relevant and important endeavour in building up the African economy, however, it is also a site that encapsulates the history, (re-)organisation, and on-going consequences of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and heteropatriarchy – a few of the key issues that continue to permeate Africa’s socio-political and economic struggles. While Afrofuturism provides pathways towards future-orientated, often technological, solutions for present-day concerns, little attention is given to the ways that Afrofuturistic representations can act as critical, cultural, and political frameworks, as well as aesthetic counterpoints, to Euro-dominated conceptions of mining within African contexts. This study, therefore, engages with literature on Afrofuturism in light of Afrofuturistic visual texts such the films Black Panther (Coogler 2018) and Neptune Frost (Uzeyman & Williams 2022), as well as the artwork of African contemporary artist, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, such texts are used to explore Afrofuturistic representations of mining and the miner – past, present, and future, in Africa. In doing so, the study hopes to demonstrate the relevance and power of Afrofuturism in working through and beyond issues of the black miner’s exploitation, subjugation, and continued marginalisation; a positioning of the miner that aids and abets black living as an impossibility. Additionally, this study seeks to establish that within African contexts that are increasingly technologised, there exists new ways to narrate the lives and identification of the black miner, new ways that are often free to emerge in Afrofuturistic representations. In critically analysing Afrofuturistic visual representations related to mining in Africa, this study further uncovers how Afrofuturism utilises the power of narrative through a strategic relation of images, that although contextualised in the future, are in constant dialogue with the past. Afrofuturism’s deliberate oscillation between the past and future in the images of African mining under analysis, make the past alive to the present contexts of the living. Consequently, this re-awakening of the past for the presently living allows for a more urgent and critical re-assessment, re-investigation, and a re-imagination of new and liberating possibilities for the future that actively centre, and therefore value, the marginalised voices of the black oppressed – the black miner.
Traces of interaction : a practice-led exploration of ‘makerspaces’ in South African art
(University of Pretoria, 2024-04) Grobler, NH; marika.dutoit@gmail.com; du Toit, Marika
Recent formulations of the artist-artwork-audience relationship have considered artists as context providers, artistic objects as repositories for ideas and a means to preserve tacit knowledge. Further, audiences have been reconsidered as creating meaning situationally within exhibition spaces. Although, artists are often inclined to present an artist statement, which can be perceived as a singular and ‘correct’ way to interpret art exhibitions, and which may prohibit viewers from trusting their own sense-making capabilities and interpretative skills. An overreliance on exhibition texts could discourage the formation of alternative forms of knowledge through embodied interactions with the work. This practice-led study explores these considerations of an entangled artist-artwork-audience relationship through a participatory approach. The artworks were created with public engagement in mind, and an emphasis placed on inviting physical interventions within the exhibition space. These works were exhibited as invitations for public participation in a series of two exhibitions. Installations of this nature aim to create a space for making, collaboration and creative expression, referred to in this practice-led study as “makerspaces”. After each installation, the artist reflected on and responded to the participants’ interventions as their actions left material residues of embodied participation. The role of the artist within this entangled artist-artwork-audience relationship can accordingly raise questions regarding artistic authority, meaning-making and knowledge production. Processes of creation, destruction, assimilation and erasure were documented and reflected on, following a practice-led methodology. By encouraging the audience to investigate the materials, the traces of others and their actions this creative research aims to provoke critical insights into embodied, material engagement in exhibitions that invite audience interaction without prescriptive instruction.
Muffled violations: a practice-based exploration of artworks embedded with the traumatic memory of acquaintance rape
(University of Pretoria, 2024-06-14) Grobler, Nicola; cazlynne.peffer@up.ac.za; Peffer, Cazlynne
Muffled violations is an artistic exploration of the trauma endured by a victim of acquaintance rape. Through qualitative and practice-based approaches, this study argues that viewers may encounter affects of sexual violation and respond empathetically with the artist-researcher through an assemblage of found objects and video works in an exhibition. The artworks offer an account of rape more attuned to the psychological impact experienced by victims, rather than that of reports on sexual brutality found in journalistic media. This study also reviews a selection of contemporary works made by female artists, to investigate how art implicitly, through its particular communicative strengths can be regarded as an affective means through which representations and perceptions of sexual violence can be reconfigured. Through the making of art, this study aims to bring attention to alternative narratives of rape that often go undocumented and to position these voices within a South African context of pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Gut-wrenching : a phenomenological investigation of somatic responses to disgust in American Horror Story : Freak Show
(University of Pretoria, 2024-02-19) Lauwrens, Jennifer; Du Plessis, Rory; kellyn0203@gmail.com; Davies, Kellyn Leigh
The horror genre is very good at evoking an excess of heavy emotions and eliciting intense visceral responses in the viewer. The fourth season of the show titled American Horror Story: Freak Show (Murphy 2014–2015) follows the fall of one of the remaining freak show acts in 1942 in South Florida, focusing on the troupe of performers’ lives and the trials they face to survive. This dissertation presents a phenomenological analysis of Freak Show (Murphy 2014– 2015) to understand how this television show elicits somatic and affective responses from its viewers. It therefore focuses on the affective response of disgust as understood through the theoretical lenses of embodied perception and the abject. This study investigates how disgust plays a role in a viewer’s experience of Freak Show specifically concerning selected social issues explored in the series such as the social hierarchy, sex, homophobia, and the family unit. This study concludes by describing the transformative potential of the somatic encounter with Freak Show (Murphy 2014–2015).
A critical analysis of the representation of persons with disabilities and disfigurement in ballet
(University of Pretoria, 2023-12-05) Du Plessis, Rory; Lauwrens, Jenni; u17198519@tuks.co.za; Annandale, Alicia Elizabeth
Bodily difference has long been a social and cultural target of dominant ideologies. Misconceptions and myths regarding beauty, aesthetics and physical, cognitive, emotional and creative capabilities are in part responsible for this separation between the so-called normal/typical and abnormal/atypical body. While various contexts of difference exist and contribute to the marginalisation of many people, the disfigured and disabled body lies on the very margins of the self-other, ab/normal binaries. Ballet has been linked with countless harmful beliefs – such as intolerant and elitist principles, unattainable beauty standards and physical, cognitive and emotional health problems. Ballet therefore surfaces as another subject that predominantly receives criticism and condemnation in the academic world. Aiming to address and challenge these views, this dissertation seeks to consider three subjects – namely, disfigurement, disability and ballet – within a framework that relies on the notion of multidimensionality. This notion refers to both ballet and the body’s existence and significance beyond a merely visual, tangible and physical dimension. The intention of this study is to free these subjects from the discriminating, excluding and stigmatising ideologies that govern perspectives, understandings, interpretations and representations of them. Contesting popular ideological understandings of body and ballet, Michaela DePrince and Joe Powell-Main, two of many ballet dancers that have been labelled as disfigured and/or disabled, serve as commendable examples of the establishment 1) of a counter-narrative for those bodies that are excluded, stigmatised and marginalised, and 2) of the positive aspects and impact of ballet. Freefall Dance Company is a well-known integrated ballet organisation that celebrates the talent and identities of dancers with cognitive disabilities. By focusing on the personal experiences of these two dancers as well as the art of ballet, stripped from its ideological conventions and thus considered purely for its effects as an art form – as in Freefall Dance Company – I wish to formulate a multidimensional understanding and interpretation of body and dance. A multidimensional perspective in particular on disfigurement, disability and ballet paves a possible path towards restoring these subjects on a physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual level. Such a perspective on body and ballet allows individuals such as DePrince, Powell-Main and the Freefall dancers, who have been excluded, marginalised and stigmatised by dominant social belief systems, to freely engage in the art of dance and benefit from a multidimensional relationship with and experience of ballet. Furthermore, by demonstrating the benefits and restorative potential of this relationship and experience for the body through ballet, the art of ballet itself can also be restored.
Examining the representation of asexuality in select examples of visual culture
(University of Pretoria, 2023-11) Du Plessis, Rory; Lauwrens, Jenni; astirlingirl@gmail.com; Blunden, Stirling Julienne
This study explores the sexual orientation known as asexuality. Asexuality is defined as an identity that encompasses the little or lack of sexual attraction that some individuals experience. Asexuality is not understood to be a disorder, but is contextualised as an identifier that falls under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. Asexuality remains a marginalised sexual orientation: one that is often stereotyped, pathologised and stigmatised. The purpose of this study is critically to analyse the representation of asexuality in visual culture, such as in television characters and on social media platforms. This study offers a sex-critical (Downing 2013b) reading of asexuality. By means of a sex critical reading, the representations of asexuality are critiqued and analysed using queer theory and asexual theory. In this study I investigate a sample of television series, namely Shortland Street (Hollings, De Nave & Daniel 1992-), Faking It (Goodman & Wolov 2014-2016), The March Family Letters (Shelson 2014-2015), Sex Education (Nunn 2019-), Euphoria (Levinson 2019-) and BoJack Horseman (Bob-Waksberg 2014-2020). The television representations of asexuality are semiotically analysed by looking at both the visual characterisation and storylines of these characters. Further, these television representations are examined according to asexual theory to critique heteronormative perceptions of asexuality. In addition, this study examines alternative depictions of asexuality that differ from stereotyped representations. The analyses of these television characters provide insight into how asexuality is presented in contemporary media. Through the exploration of asexuality’s heterogeneity, this study disallows a fixed one-dimensional characterisation of asexuality. I maintain that through a large assortment of representations of asexuality, an increased visibility of asexuality on the small screen allows for the understanding and acceptance of asexuality as a unique sexual orientation. In this study I also conduct a comprehensive examination of user-generated representations of asexuality that are found on social media platforms. This study investigates visual representations of asexuality found on Twitter and Instagram, namely Yasmin Benoit (@theyasminbenoit on Twitter and Instagram) Venus Envy (on Twitter @VenusEnvyDrag and @venusenvydrag on Instagram), Michelle Lin (on @LGBT’s Instagram page) and Asexual Looks (@thisiswhatasexuallookslike on Instagram). By allowing users to form communities, visualise their asexual experience and create digital representations of asexuality, social media platforms offer asexual individuals the unique opportunity to curate their online representations iii according to their self-identified asexual identities. In addition, this study identifies and examines three recurrent tropes that are reiterated through the online self-representations of asexuality. I argue that these self-representations of asexuality, allow for a more diverse archive of representations of asexuality. Through social media platforms, asexual individuals are able to empower themselves through the establishment of their own personalised representations of asexuality. This enables individuals to find supportive communities, all the while validating their own asexual identities. These user-generated representations explore asexuality’s heterogeneity and seek to give insight into how the public, the asexual community as well as the LGBTQIA+ community perceive asexuality. Thus, these online representations of asexuality establish asexuality as a valid sexual orientation, one that exists amongst heterosexual and LGBTQIA+ orientations.

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