CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Copyright © Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria, South Africa 2005 First published 2005 ISBN 1-86854-614-4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Refereeing procedure Editorial panel Referees Published papers 1 Trauma, pain, and identity Leanne Engelberg (Independent art contractor and consultant, South Africa) Site: Manifestations of memory and trauma Ruth Lipschitz (Independent art historian, South Africa) The Volksempfängers (1975–1977) by Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz: reworking myth and history 2 Memory, pain, and identity Gerard Schoeman (Rhodes University, South Africa) Melancholy constellations: Benjamin, Kiefer, Kentridge and the play of mourning Maureen de Jager (Rhodes University, South Africa) Speaking in a language of obstacle and delay: mute matter and mourning in the work of Doris Salcedo Tanja Sakota-Kokot (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) Baghdad café: rhetoric, ‘embedded’ journalists and the ‘other’ in the war in Iraq 3 Visual colonialisms Kathryn Mathers (Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pretoria, South Africa) The reverse gaze: the impact of the South African gaze on American travelers Jeanne van Eeden (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Pretty as a picture: constructing the picturesque at The Lost City 4 Identities across borders Michael Herbst (Rhodes University, South Africa) The postmodern corps morcele as an effect of capital Carine Zaayman (University of Cape Town, South Africa) Computers, sex and pop: new media objects in contemporary Japanese cultural production Visual Culture/Explorations Refereed Conference Proceedings ©2005 ii 5 Trauma, pain, and commemoration Elizabeth Rankin (University of Auckland, New Zealand) Museum as memorial: some southern sites Liz Stanley (University of Newcastle, United Kingdom) Looking at the taciturn exterior: On legendary topography, the meta-narrative of commemoration and palimpsest monuments of the concentration camps of the South African War 6 Constructing identities Alex Rotas (University of the West of England, United Kingdom) What you see is not necessarily what you get: ‘Culturally diverse’ visual artists work on show outside the gallery space in the UK Stella Viljoen (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Photoshopping for femininity: The feminine as allegory of the modern Leoné van Niekerk (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Curating multiplicity: Documenta 11 as a model for global representation 7 Aesthetics of terror: 9/11 and after Benita De Robillard (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) Iraq and 9/11: Time, death and empathy 8 Theory matters Bert Olivier (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa) Re-affirming the value of the image, and its social implications: Shlain and Lacan Jillian Carman (Independent art historian, South Africa) Disciplined language Dirk van den Berg (University of the Free State, South Africa) Framing images under iconoclash conditions 9 Visual design Ria van Zyl (University of Pretoria, South Africa) Looking ‘good’: citizens of a new brand world Note regarding visual material: Please note that it has not been possible to include all the visual material in these proceedings. Please contact the author of a paper for more information. Visual Culture/Explorations Refereed Conference Proceedings ©2005 iii Foreword The international conference Visual Culture: Explorations was dedicated to an interdisciplinary exploration of visual culture and was hosted by the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria in July 2004. This was the first time than an independent conference of this kind was hosted at the Department of Visual Arts. Over seventy abstracts were received, and almost forty papers were selected by the convenors. Papers were delivered by delegates from. Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The sessions were structure around themes that are topical in the discourse of visual culture, as well as in many allied disciplines and fields, especially those that are interested in aspects of the visuality of culture. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference was confirmed by the fact that the speakers come from the following disciplines/fields: Anthropology Art History Asian and African Studies Communication Cultural and Heritage Tourism Cultural Studies Design History Education Fashion Studies Film Studies Fine Arts Historical and Heritage Studies Information Design Philosophy Sociology Visual Culture Refereeing procedure The papers delivered at the conference were selected by the convenors according to abstracts submitted by the presenters. Out of seventy abstracts received, only forty were selected for the conference. After the conference, the presenters were invited to submit their papers for consideration in the peer reviewed conference proceedings. The 19 papers subsequently received were submitted to two referees, who were asked to comment on the academic merit of the papers and whether they constituted original research. Thirty-one national and international referees, who are acknowledged specialists in the field, were consulted (see list below). The recommendations made by the referees were returned by the editors to the researchers, who were asked to address the suggestions/comments made by the referees in revising their papers. All the papers in this volume were revised by the researchers before publication. The original referee reports are in the possession of the editors. Visual Culture/Explorations Refereed Conference Proceedings ©2005 iv Editorial panel Prof J van Eeden, Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria Dr E Basson, Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology, University of South Africa Referees Prof Chris Bailey Northumbria University, United Kingdom Dr Eunice Basson University of South Africa, South Africa Ms Barbara Buntman University of the Witwatersrand / Independent art historian, South Africa Dr Jillian Carman Independent art historian, South Africa Dr Elfriede Dreyer University of Pretoria, South Africa Prof Trudie du Plooy University of South Africa, South Africa Dr Amanda du Preez University of Pretoria, South Africa Prof Pieter Duvenage Bond South Africa, South Africa Prof Pieter Fourie University of South Africa, South Africa Mr Federico Freschi University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Prof Danie Goosen University of South Africa, South Africa Prof Anske Grobler University of Pretoria, South Africa Dr Michael Herbst Rhodes University, South Africa Dr Lize Kriel University of Pretoria, South Africa Prof Sabine Marschall University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Prof Catherine McDermott Kingston University, United Kingdom Prof Bert Olivier Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa Dr Frikkie Potgieter University of South Africa, South Africa Dr Annette Pritchard University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, United Kingdom Prof Elizabeth Rankin University of Auckland, New Zealand Prof Colin Richards University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa Ms Robyn Sassen Independent art historian, South Africa Mr Arnold Shepperson University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Prof Bridget Theron University of South Africa, South Africa Prof Dirk van den Berg University of the Free State, South Africa Dr Liese van der Watt University of Cape Town, South Africa Dr Bernadette van Haute University of South Africa, South Africa Ms Stella Viljoen University of Pretoria, South Africa Ms Karen von Veh Witwatersrand University of Technology, South Africa Ms Carine Zaayman University of Cape Town, South Africa Visual Culture/Explorations Refereed Conference Proceedings ©2005 v SESSION: TRAUMA, PAIN AND IDENTITY PAPER TITLE: SITE: MANIFESTATIONS OF MEMORY AND TRAUMA LEANNE ENGELBERG [email protected] This paper will examine the importance of site in terms of memory and trauma with specific reference to the District Six Public Sculpture Project (Heritage Day, 24 September 1997, District Six) (DSPSP), as well as the site1 of the presentation of this conference paper. The DSPSP took place within a transitional period of South African history, following soon after the historic 1994 elections. It clearly marks its historical reference to the forced removals in District Six (1968-1981), which marked or reflected on socio-political change on Heritage Day. The current relevance of the DSPSP is that land restitution is presently taking place on the scarred landscape, on which the temporary interactive exhibition was displayed. The paper will focus on selected artworks from the exhibition in which artists worked with the site’s past and memories to memorialise and work through trauma. I would also like to briefly push the idea of trauma and memory further with regard to the site of the presentation of this paper in terms of reworking the past in terms of art restitution and the van Tilburg Art Collection, housed in this particular site. I will also discuss a personal association. I will address this in the second part of the paper. This paper will now focus on the setting of the DSPSP exhibition, which forms an integral part of the individual artwork’s meaning. District Six was named the Sixth Municipal district of Cape Town in 1867. The area was inhabited by a diverse multi-cultural, working-class mixed racial community, urbanised from the early- to mid- 1800s. On 11 February 1966, the apartheid government declared the area a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act of 1950 under which South Africa was divided into separate territories designated