Narration and Focalisation in the Installation Art of Jan Van Der Merwe

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Narration and Focalisation in the Installation Art of Jan Van Der Merwe Narration and focalisation in the installation art of Jan van der Merwe L Rathbone 10216561 Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor Philosophiae in History of Art at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Supervisor: Prof NPL Allen Co-supervisor: Prof HJG du Plooy November 2014 For Mark i TABLE OF CONTENTS A DVD with moving images featuring video clips from the artworks accompanies this text. Dedication i Acknowledgements xii Abstract and keywords x Opsomming en sleutelwoorde xiii List of figures, tables and diagrams xv CHAPTER ONE 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Preamble: a personal encounter with Biegbak/Confessional (2003) 1 1.2 Introduction and contextualisation 5 1.3 Jan van der Merwe as an installation artist 12 1.4 Narratological points of departure: Narration, the fabula, and 13 focalisation 1.5 Intermedial narratology 17 A survey of literature on intermedial narratology 19 1.6 Problem statement, research questions, and aims and objectives 24 1.7. Central theoretical statement 26 1.8 Methodological framework 28 1.9 Contribution of the study 29 1.10 Chapter division 31 32 CHAPTER TWO ART HISTORICAL CONTEXTUALISATION: JAN VAN DER MERWE AND INSTALLATION ART 2.1 Introducing the artist and his genre: Jan van der Merwe as an 33 installation artist 2.1.1 Jan van der Merwe: brief artist’s biography 34 2.1.2 Publications on Jan van der Merwe’s work 40 2.1.3 Some key issues in Van der Merwe’s oeuvre 45 From ordinary to liminal: some transformations 46 The transformative nature of rust: gender, labour and alchemy 54 The patina of time: memories and absence 61 2.1.4 Contextually speaking: Van der Merwe as a contemporary South African artist 64 2.2 Installation art ii 2.2.1 Introduction 2.2.2 Approaches to installation art 69 2.2.3 Installation art: an historical context 80 2.2.4 Installation art: some definitions 88 2.3 Chapter summary 96 CHAPTER THREE 97 INSTALLATION ART AND THE ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE 3.1 An introduction to time and space in installation art 98 3.2 Time and (installation) art 103 3.2.1 Introductory comments 103 3.2.2 Time, visual art and the pre-text 104 3.2.3 Other devices that suggest time 111 3.2.4 Temporal experience in installation art 118 3.2.5 Video, installation and time 124 3.3 Space in (installation) art 128 3.3.1 Introductory remarks 128 3.3.2 Space and the frame/plinth 134 3.3.3 Space and perspective 140 3.3.4 Space and the exploration of media 145 3.3.5 Space and place 147 3.4 Character in (installation) art 152 3.4.1 Introductory comments 152 3.4.2 Character and the visual arts 153 3.4.3 Character complicated 154 3.4.4 Character inside the artwork 157 3.4.5 Characters absent from the artwork 162 3.4.6 Character in installation art 164 3.4.7 The artist as character 167 3.4.8 The viewer as character 172 3.4.5 Character and event in (installation) art 175 3.5 Chapter summary 179 iii CHAPTER FOUR 182 THEORETICAL POINTS OF DEPARTURE 4.1 Introduction 182 4.2 Problematising narratological concepts in installation art 185 4.3 Narration in installation art 198 4.3.1 What narration does, and how narration happens 199 4.3.2 Narration and narratorial agency 202 4.4 The fabula in installation art 4.4.1 Defining the fabula 214 4.4.2 The fabula problematised: installation art 215 4.4.3 The extended fabula 224 4.5 Focalisation in installation art 4.5.1 Focalisation: a brief historical consideration 228 4.5.2 Defining focalisation 231 4.5.3 Focalising issues: regulation and mediation; visuality and cognition 232 4.5.4 Focalisation and the fabula 236 4.5.5 The location of focalisation 239 4.5.6 Focalisation and narration 241 4.5.7 Can narrators or characters focalise? Or can both? 242 4.6 Chapter summary 247 CHAPTER FIVE READING THE WORKS – SPACE AND TIME NARRATED AND FOCALISED 248 5.1 Introduction 251 5.2 Methodological procedure for interpreting the installation artworks 5.3 Space narrated and focalised 257 5.3.1 Space in the works selected: individual consideration 259 Biegbak/Confessional (2003) 259 It’s cold outside (2004) 274 5.3.2 Concluding remarks: space narrated and focalised 282 iv 5.4 Time narrated and focalised 284 5.4.1 Time in the two installation artworks 284 Biegbak/Confessional and It’s cold outside Genette’s understanding of time applied to Biegbak/Confessional and It’s cold 288 outside Deleuze on repetition: time thickens 294 5.4.2 Concluding remarks: time narrated and focalised 296 CHAPTER SIX CHARACTERS AND FABULAE NARRATED AND FOCALISED 299 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Dimensions of postmodern characters 302 6.3 The artist as character 307 6.3.1 The authorial role of character focalisation 307 6.3.2 Paratextual elements – titles, prefaces and artist’s statements in 313 Biegbak/Confessional and It’s cold outside Titles of artworks 316 Preface-like statements 323 Biographical information, the name of the artist and anecdotal information 326 How paratextual elements suggest character and point to first possible 328 fabulae 6.4 Absent characters 330 6.4.1 Introductory remarks on the absent characters: who are these people? 330 Are they ghosts? 331 6.4.2 Re-membering the absent ones: the conflation of participant and absences 333 6.4.3 Selves in search of others 337 6.4.4 Radical empathy: identifying with and re-membering the absent other 339 6.5 The participant’s character functions: The self in search of the 342 other; the self as other 6.5.1 I focalise, you focalise, we all focalise together: transforming, engaging and 349 becoming v 6.6 Narration and focalising: fabulae 354 6.6.1 Constructing the fabula: first levels of abstraction 355 6.6.2 The other one is I: the more abstracted, extended fabulae of mourning, absence 358 and re-membering – as memory 363 Fabulae of mourning and memory 6.7 Synthesis and chapter conclusion 367 6.7.1 Summary and conclusions: character narrated and focalised 367 6.7.2 Summary and conclusions: fabulae constructed 370 CHAPTER SEVEN 374 CONCLUSION 7.1 Introduction 375 7.2 Summary of sections and insights 375 7.2.1 Chapters 2 and 3 – the artist, his approach to installation art and installation art narratologically expounded 7.2.4 Chapter 4: Narratological-theoretical complications in the context of 382 installation art 7.2.5 Chapters 5 and 6: interpreting the artworks 384 Time and space 384 Characters 387 Fabulae 391 7.3 Concluding insights 393 7.4 Suggestions for further research 394 SOURCE LIST 396 vi Acknowledgements I am grateful to the following persons and institutions for their contribution to this thesis: I have been honoured to work with promoters whom I came to regard as mentors in a significantly more expansive sense than providing me with study guidance. Thank you, Prof. Nicholas Allen, for getting me started on this study, for encouragement and for sharing your wealth of knowledge with me, for asking probing questions and giving insightful feedback, and for your sense of humour throughout. I want to thank Prof. Heilna du Plooy for immediately agreeing to jump aboard when I approached her, for opening up the wonderful world of narratology to me, and for the enthusiastic, steady and generous manner in which she guided me. I want to thank Jan van der Merwe for sharing his artistic vision and ideas in a number of very helpful conversations; for granting me access to his studio and his original artist’s images, for being utterly generous with information and for consistently receiving me with kindness and hospitality. I gratefully acknowledge the North-West University for granting me extended study leave. I am thankful to my colleagues at the Art History subject group whose willingness to absorb many of my duties during my study leave meant that I could focus on my research. Thank you for the many sacrifices you made. A special word of thanks goes to the helpful staff of the Ferdinand Postma Library at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University – for always offering professional, efficient service and for prompt replies to my seemingly endless requests. I want to thank family and friends who expressed an interest in my work and well-being - especially my son Louis, who is very dear to me. I am much indebted to my mother, for huge doses of physical and emotional support, for instilling in me a love of knowledge, and for casting a thorough eye over the final draft. Thank you to Mark, who imbued the final stages of my studies with a great sense of wonder. And, finally, Soli Deo Gloria. I am blessed in more ways than I can begin to understand. vii Financial support in the form of a doctoral bursary from the North-West University is gratefully acknowledged. viii ABSTRACT This study is an interdisciplinary exploration. It presents a narratological interpretation of selected installation artworks by the South African artist Jan van der Merwe (b. 1958). In particular, certain peculiarities of narration and focalisation processes are explored with reference to the artworks Biegbak/Confessional (2003) and It’s cold outside (2004); these works are representative of the artist’s large-scale rust-based installation artworks that also incorporate screen elements, usually with looping video imagery, as part of the artworks.
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