Between colour lines : interrogating the category 'coloured' in depictions of District Sixin the work of five South African artists

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Group Areas Act of 1950 radically affected coloured artists of the time, since it resulted in forced removals and the demolition of traditionally 'coloured' suburbs, and forced coloured people into mono-cultural suburbs with imposed identities not of their own choosing.This thesis seeks to uncover the complexities and heterogeneity of coloured identity and the effects apartheid ideologies and practices had on the personal narratives and cultural praxis of Lionel Davis, Albert Adams, George Hallett, Gavin Jantjes and Peter Clarke, who all emphasized the significance of District Six in their own articulations of colouredness. I propose that this problematic ascribed identity was at the root of most artworks produced by these artists and that their art helped them deal with their experiences within (and about) the space of District Six during apartheid.I argue that the political act of aggression by the apartheid state ironically formed the cornerstone of a new formation of coloured identity, that was shaped around political and cultural resistance. This thesis ultimately explores how these artists' collective practices evoke both a strong association with and resistance to colouredness, as they come to terms with the trauma of their dislocation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University