Pouvere en bewakers: Suid-Afrika en Afrika in die visuele kunste

Abstract

'n Dialektiese spel van betekenisse stig verbande tussen twee kontrasterende beelde uit die kunsgeskiedenis: 'conference' (eksemplariese gebeure in die akademiese diskoers oor kunswerke) en 'Argus Panoptes' (die transformasie van die mitiese veeloogige wagter tot kunstige versiering). Die botsende implikasies van die beelde le leidrade bloot om ideologiese waardes in die visuele kunste ook van Suid-Afrika op te spoor. Die aanname dat verskeie moderne ideologiee gemotiveer word deur die historiese begeerte na algehele menslike outonomie, dien as hipotese vir die kritiek. Verbande word gele tussen bepaalde aspekte van die "beskadigde estetiese lewe" van die modernisme en die negatiewe sosiale gevolge van die bree rigting waarin verskeie prosesse van modernisering, ook in Suid-Afrika, verloop. Ten slotte word enkele parallelle tussen postmodernisme en postapartheid beproef.

A dialectical play of meanings establishes links between two contrasting images from art history, viz. 'conference' (as exemplary event of academic discourse on works of art) and 'Argus Panoptes' (as mythical, many-eyed guardian transformed into artful decoration). The conflict of meanings generated by the initial metaphorical contrast uncovers clues for the detection of ideological values in the visual arts, also of South Africa. The ensueing critique advances from the hypothesis that the historical desire for the achievement of total human autonomy motivates and links several modern ideologies. Some aspects of the "damaged aesthetic life" of modernism are selected for critical correlation with the negative effects which the general direction of the diverse processes of modernization had on societal life, also in South Africa. In the final remarks certain parallels between the notions of post-modernism and post-apartheid are briefly considered.