UP Journals (Univ. of Pretoria)
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Give the Black Girl the Remote: Decolonising and Depatriarchalising1 Knowledge and Art in Black Panther and Colour Me Melanin: Decolonising Speculative Fiction
No full textThis article explores two texts set in Africa to determine to what extent they exhibit decolonial and anti-patriarchal impulses. They are Ryan Coogler’s 2018 film, Black Panther, and the adult colouring book, Colour Me Melanin (Kekana 2019), which features 27 portraits of African women paired with 27 poems inspiring pride in women’s African heritage. Black Panther features a Black superhero: the hypermasculine T’Challa, although its technological genius is not T’Challa (the eponymous Black Panther), but his sister Shuri, disparaged by traditionalists in Wakanda as ‘a child’. Despite her irreverent and iconoclastic approach to tradition, sixteen-year-old Shuri is ‘the smartest person in the world, smarter than Tony Stark [Iron Man]’ (Malik 2023). Despite these promising features, the film’s portrayal of Shuri – a Black girl nerd who is manifestly her brother’s equal in the arts of war and technology – stops short of a complete depatriarchalisation of the norm that reserves superhero status for men. Further, Black Panther contains a number of concerning representations that reinforce, rather than disrupting, the colonial view of Africa. Colour Me Melanin may be called speculative fiction in that it points to a future that is yet to come as it shifts the locus of women’s beauty away from whiteness and places it firmly in the domain of Black African women’s embodiment. All the same, some aspects of this multimodal text signal its affinity for colonial taxonomies and ways of thinking about ethnicity
Being (in)formed by indigenous voices: First steps to using graphic narratives to decolonise speculative fiction: Decolonising Speculative Fiction
No full textThe Greenlandic visual artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have produced a series of four graphic narratives to represent distinct moments in Greenland’s history, spanning the pre-colonised and colonial period. These narratives employ aspects of magic realism and adopt an approach to narrative that focuses on the supernatural and presents modes of being that contrast with their audiences’ understanding of realities that are ordinarily (only) visible. I argue that these graphic narratives use strategies from speculative fiction that frame the modern European presence in Greenland and the narrative of colonialism as one of several multiple realities in the Arctic, rather than its central axis, leaving open the possibility for indigenous Greenlanders to speak on their own terms. This enables these graphic narratives to illuminate aspects of knowledge (including features of oral legend and supernatural encounters) that were previously discredited in colonial discourse. Furthermore, I show that attending to how embodied aspects of Greenlandic Inuit storytelling traditions can be captured in the graphic narrative medium may be an effective decolonial strategy, which could be employed by speculative fiction. I thus advocate methodologies for speculative fiction that strategically broaden its boundaries in order to address its intractable colonial legacy. Informed by approaches that focus attention on form — such as Marks’s haptic visuality (2000) and visual theories of the power of hand-drawn comics (Groensteen 2010, Chute 2008) to engage the reader/viewer in both an embodied and reflective way — I assert that including graphic narratives which employ strategies of speculative fiction may present a unique opportunity for the genre to mount a powerful challenge to a colonial knowledge production
Storytelling, belonging and identity in the graphic design classroom: A critical reflection: Stories Worth Telling - crafting stories through the art of design
No full textIn a diverse student cohort, learning can be designed to encourage belonging and celebrate identity in the classroom. However, in increasingly international student cohorts, international students can find themselves displaced, living and working in new environments, and might struggle to find their voice and express their heritage in the context of their studies. By designing curricula to encourage storytelling, educators can help students to find their voice and identity as designers, and create a space for safety, vulnerability, and belonging in the classroom. As such, this paper is situated in the context of graphic design higher education and takes the form of a critical reflection, comprising a self-evaluation of the use of storytelling in the classroom based on the author’s teaching experience. Rhizomatic learning (Cormier 2008) is discussed in relation to its application in the context of a graphic design classroom and its relevance in a curriculum designed to support storytelling. The critical reflection follows Brookfield’s (2017) model for critically reflective teaching and takes the form of a series of vignettes featuring student projects – part of an editorial design project run annually for final-year students in the BA Information Design programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In addition to these vignettes, the critical reflection references a design research workshop run for students of MA Graphic Design at the University for the Creative Arts in the United Kingdom
That Which We Do Not Remember - a solo exhibition by William Kentridge at Goodman Gallery Cape Town, 30 November 2017 - 13 January 2018
Get PDFThat Which We Do Not Remember presents new work from two of William Kentridge’s recent opera productions, Lulu and Wozzeck, alongside several major projects he worked on in between, including the ambitious Tiber river mural project in Rome, and a new series of prints, titled Blue Rubrics (Goodman Gallery 2017:1). It is a rich and dense show, revealing of the artist’s approach to discarding, abandoning, and returning to ideas and the very processes of thinking and creating, time and again
Editorial
Get PDFIn this issue of Image & Text the topics range from zombie-like spectatorship to the asylum. The media covered includes magazines, film, photography, art installation and digital interfaces. The South African cultural landscape is particularly framed with contributions on the local film industry and women’s magazines, the archive and remembrance. In an attempt to make the transition from a print-based journal to an exclusively online version, readers may notice a slight change in the layout and look of this issue of Image & Text. The new appearance, which will be finalised in the next issue, enhances the topics and themes covered by the journal. The six articles presented, although varying in tone and approach, confirm the quality of contemporary and local research in visual cultures.
Kuns en die verwerking van die verlede
Get PDFTen spyte van ʼn demokrasie van bykans twintig jaar sit Suid-Afrikaners steeds opgesaal met die komplekse nalatenskap van ʼn verlede gekenmerk deur rassespanning. Direk na die eerste demokratiese verkiesing in die land in 1994 was Suid-Afrikaners vir ʼn kort rukkie saamgesnoer in ʼn euforie van ʼn sogenaamde reënboognasie onder die vaandel van neo-patriotisme en die Afrika-renaissance. Sedert President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela in 1999 die leisels aan Thabo Mbeki oorgegee het, is daar ʼn teleurstellende agteruitgang in rasseverhoudings. Om antwoorde te probeer kry op die vraag hoe en watter rol kuns kan speel om met die verlede vrede te maak, interpreteer ek twee werke van Willem Boshoff, naamlik Panifice (2001) en Writing in the Sand (2000). Die teoretiese raamwerk vir hierdie artikel vind aansluiting by Paul Ricoeur se voorstelle vir ʼn nuwe kyk op geskiedenis deur ʼn verbeeldingryke omgang daarmee. Daar word ook aangesluit by Giorgi Verbeeck se insigte ten opsigte van ʼn terugkyk op die verlede vanuit ʼn eietydse perspektief en omgewing.
Materialising HIV/AIDS in the Keiskamma Altarpiece
Get PDFIn this article, I use the idea of “pointure” as the starting point for suggesting how the choice and treatment of materials in the Keiskamma Altarpiece might be read in associative terms. Drawing on the theories of Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger along with work by Norman Bryson, I also explore how the treatment of materials affects the ways in which the work may be comprehended, and propose that a series of visual devices are used which encourage the beholder to experience a sense of being invited into a nurturing milieu associated with a process of healing, which is orchestrated and managed by women
Analysing the Kenya film and classification board’s discretion to ban and its impact on the realisation of digital rights and digital inclusion in Kenya
Get PDFThis article critically examines the scope of discretion vested in the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) under the Film and Stage Plays Act in regulating films and stage productions in Kenya. Specifically, the paper questions the absence of a clear standard or test for the determination of what constitutes ‘decency’ or ‘public interest’ in the KFCB’s approval or disapproval of films and posters for public exhibition. Furthermore, the paper evaluates the compatibility of this discretionary power with the constitutional guarantee of artistic freedom of expression under Article 33 of the Kenyan Constitution. Finally, the paper explores the potential impact of KFCB’s discretion on digital rights and digital inclusion in Kenya. By interrogating these issues, this paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing debates on the appropriate balance between regulation and protection of artistic expression, on the one hand, and the realisation of digital rights and digital inclusion, on the other
‘Consent’ and confusion casting doubt on the validity of a customary marriage: Mgenge v Mokoena & another [2023] JOL 58107 (GJ)
Get PDFIn Mgenge v Mokoena & another [2023] JOL 58107 (GJ), the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, per Rome AJ, considered the validity of a customary marriage concluded between the bride (the first respondent) and the deceased groom with reference to the requirements outlined in section 3 of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998. The mother of the groom (the applicant) challenged the validity of the marriage certificate. The main issue under inspection is whether the applicant’s lack of participation in, consent to, or knowledge of the customary marriage is sufficient to rebut the prima facie proof of validity offered by the marriage certificate. In this contribution, I recount the Court’s systemic approach to determine if the applicant’s misunderstanding of the purpose or intention of the events that transpired and her absence in participating in the negotiations and entering into or celebration of the customary marriage invalidates the prima facie proof offered by the marriage certificate. I explore the Court’s approach to the requirements for a valid customary marriage, specifically the negotiation and celebration requirements, as well as the integration and physical handing over of the bride. I also briefly inspect the role of expert evidence and living customary law. This judgment demonstrates the dynamic and evolving nature of living customary law in South Africa and the approaches adopted by the judiciary when exploring customary law issues like the validity of a customary marriage
Creating sacred spaces: A study of storyworld building: Stairways and Ruins
No full textThis article reflects on artworks that Colette Lotz produced for the Stairways and Ruins exhibition. The article is structured along the lines of pre-production, production, and post-production as the practice-led methodological approach. The works were made using photographs of clouds and other structures taken by the artist and main author,1 and rendered digitally into symmetrical reflections. T hus, s acred s paces w ere c reated – t he w orks p redominantly show skyscapes and are therefore “celestial”. Because of this structuring of the works, the imagery becomes abstract and otherworldly, appearing like Rorschach Inkblot tests. We relate the works to sacred spaces as storyworlds. The term storyworld stresses the constructive and imaginative nature of the works