In search of different ways of knowing
Framing a response
Casting new light
Drawing from a Foucaultian framework
During the second phase of my research,
With its focus on negotiations of
(which considers statements and the
I conducted iterative in-depth interviews
difference and transformative practices
formation of discursive constellations
with various ‘actors’ in the South African
in post-apartheid South Africa, my
and their effects), I performed a
art world, using a qualitative research
research can contribute to thinking
discursive analysis of the report’s
methodology
generate
regarding transformation and serve
formulations of the status of the South
concepts that can explore the lived
to highlight practices that are already
African visual art industry. I then moved
practices and experiences of artists and
engaged in the work of transformation.
into the next phase of my research
those involved in the art world to set
The benefits for research participants
and conceptualised it as a response to
against the quantitatively construed
are related to the foregrounding of the
the report and its effects as described
abstractions of the economically-focused
type of work in which they are involved,
above. The overarching questions in my
government report. Such an analysis
be that as artists, writers, gallerists, or
research are thus to explore:
may also contribute to undoing the
curators – or various combinations of
that
could
abstraction of subjectivity in hierarchical
these. The study may also be able to trace
transformative
classifications as produced in the report,
relations between people, practices,
knowledge be produced about the
because, in my second phase of research,
and artworks, which may result in
contemporary South African art
individual participants were afforded the
information that can support the work
world that:
opportunity to give their own accounts
with which they are engaged.
• How
1. Does
can
not
reproduce
the
of what they are doing and how they
problematic use of ‘gender’ and
are
transformative
The study aims to produce a more
‘race’ as binary stratification and
practices. In these interviews I was
thinking
about
nuanced understanding of the existing
classification categories?
looking for people’s awareness of how
but also evolving South African art world,
organise
binary hierarchies are maintained or
by exploring ways in which to imagine
configurations of these binary
modified, upheld or undone, in their
the art world otherwise than in the
classifications into a hierarchy?
everyday lives and work in the art
government-commissioned study, which
2. Does
3. Does
not
the
world. In the Constructivist Grounded
completely forecloses the possibility
economic dimensions of the
Theory Method framework, developed
of transformation, already at work and
visual art world at the expense
by Kathy Charmaz and which I draw
experienced, through its methods and
of institutional or aesthetic
from in my research, it is imperative to
discourse. Nevertheless, my research
transformation of hierarchical
allow participants to articulate their own
does not seek to nullify the existing
or exclusionary racialised and
accounts in their own language or terms.
government report, as it is one of the few
not
prioritise
gendered categorisations and
A special edition of the journal African Arts dedicated to the topic of gender and South African art was published in 2012. For the editorial introduction to this issue, see L. Aronson, ‘First word. Gender and South African art’, African Arts (45.4, pp.1-5, 2012) The report that Leandra’s research is based upon, Research Report: An Assessment of the Visual Arts in South Africa, was released in a consultation draft form in 2010 by the Human Sciences Research Council, African MicroEconomic Research Umbrella, University of Witwatersrand, and Thompson Research Services. For more information and to download the report, visit http://vansa. co.za/research/ human-sciencesresearch-council-andnational-departmentof-arts-and-culturerelease-nationalstudy-on-the-visualarts-for-publiccomment
resources available on the topic and does
the resulting social and personal
This approach serves as a response
identify persistent problems in the South
experiences?
to the rigid stratification of the study
African art world in relation to gendered
commissioned
government,
and racialised inequality of access and
• How can people in the South
where people are constituted in binary
by
the
recognition. My research seeks to undo
African art world be afforded the
terms. I have found that this method of
some of the report’s problematic effects
opportunity to give an account of
interviewing allows access to information
and to supplement the available account
their experiences of how difference
about the South African art world that is
by exploring different ways of knowing
is negotiated in their everyday
closer to people’s experiences, and will
through
lives and cultural and/or aesthetic
allow for an approach where people’s
drawn from both art history and social
practices?
subjectivities and voices are taken
science research, and by generating a
seriously and not muted and abstracted.
different discourse on the role of art in
qualitative
Leandra KoenigVisagie is a 2013 Commonwealth Scholar from South Africa – she is studying for a PhD in History of Art at the University of Leeds.
methodologies
• How can art be brought to bear
transformative practices through my
itself as an ‘actor’ in the South
creation of a new set of resources, arising
African art world, that contributes
from interviews and their Grounded
to its discourses and practices of
Theory analysis.
transformation?
12
Commonwealth scholarships
COMMON KNOWLEDGE December 2015