How do doorway and threshold motifs condition the act of looking, and what do they reveal about the reciprocity between artwork and spectator? Drawing on Jacques Derrida's concepts of the Hymen and "Hostipitality", this article treats thresholds (literal and metaphorical) as sites of exchange in which welcome and exclusion coexist. By comparing examples from Antiquity and the Renaissance to modern examples, I show how architectural and spatial details orchestrates a visitor's approach and foreshadow the negotiations that unfold when the participant confronts an artwork. Close visual analysis, anchored in reception theory, demonstrates that images and artworks likewise "migrate" across temporal, cultural, and geographic boundaries, projecting into the participant's space while inviting (or resisting) the viewer's entry. This reading reshapes the artwork-participant encounter as a dynamic of conditional hospitality: each party simultaneously opens and guards its boundaries. By fusing architectural history with visual-culture analysis, the study introduces a new interpretation of how artworks regulate access, assert agency, and unsettle their beholders.
This arts-based research investigates the nuances of urban living, and the role art making as an everyday practice can play in cultivating a deeper sense of connection to urban environments. With focus on the fluidity of the urban form and the complex relationship its inhabitants share with the material and imagined aspects of its ongoing construction, this article employs Walter Benjamin's archetypal "ragpicker" as a comparative figure through which artistic practice can be understood. To further expand on the concept of "ragpicking" as an approach to catalysing a deeper engagement with one's immediate environment, this article critically reflects on select artworks from a recent body of work called "Paper Trail" that explores the intricacies of a suburban neighbourhood in Gqeberha through the materiality of paper. Existing as both a dynamic creative surface and workable material, this study explores the possibility for tactile engagements with creative materials to foster a greater sense of connection to the urban context.
The distinctive oeuvre of award-winning South African architect, Hans Heyerdahl Hallen between 1959 and 1987, has not been systematically studied. The authors of this paper, and a recently published monograph, contend that Hallen's work displays a conscious incorporation of artistry in collaboration with artists and craftspeople, that heightens the sensory experience and perception of his buildings, and these combine to induce a strong sense of proprioception for the viewer. The ability to sense one's own position and movement in space without relying on visual input alone was unique at this time. These aspects of Hallen's architecture are explored in selected works located in Durban and Gauteng. The research is significant for its recovery of the unique contribution that Hallen's work made to modern architecture in South Africa. His contemporaneous strategy to integrate art and architecture notably enhanced the sensory experience of his buildings, leaving an architectural legacy that demonstrated a strong sense of purpose, meaning and social justice during a difficult period within a divided nation.
Despite their historical significance, mission settlements in South Africa have largely been studied through a colonial architectural lens, overlooking the contributions of the Khoekhoen, the First Indigenous Peoples, who applied their knowledge, technologies, and local materials in shaping these built environments. This paper seeks to re-examine these heritage sites to reveal new narratives that acknowledge Indigenous agency in their construction. This research focuses on the mission settlements of Bethelsdorp, Hankey, and Enon in the Eastern Cape. Through a postcolonial architectural knowledge persisted, adapted, and became inscribed within these settlements. Bhabha conceptualises the "third space" as an interstitial and insurgent cultural zone emerging through processes of acculturation. Edward Said's (1994) perspectives on narrative were applied to reinterpret all the sources, offering a "third-space" reading of heritage places, and facilitating the emergence of a decolonised narrative. This paper presents findings through photographic evidence and architectural drawings, revealing traces of Khoekhoen Indigenous Knowledge Systems within the mission architecture and landscape under study. Beyond its significance to the First Indigenous Peoples of these settlements, this research also proposes a new model for re-examining of built heritage, challenging prior exclusions of indigenous architecture and contributing to a "third-space" definition of vernacular architecture in the Eastern Cape.
Among African communities, vernacular architecture plays a significant role in the preservation of heritage and thus in the retention of the people's cultural identities, inspired by the vibrant traditions and the natural environment. Both women and men take part in the building of traditional rondavel houses (dihlaka) and courtyards (malapa), but the contribution of women to the final product is greater because they gather the materials needed for the construction and deal with its design, its decorations, and the regular maintenance of the dwelling. The objective of this paper is to highlight the significance of vernacular architecture in rural areas as a stimulant for cultural retention. Purposive sampling was used to select specific thatched houses. On field visits, the researcher used photo documentation as a method to gather visual data on his inspection of homesteads and conducted interviews with selected cultural practitioners who are familiar with the vernacular architecture of the Northern Sotho people and its ideological premises that indicate a symbolic relationship with their cattle and the local environment. The researcher furthermore inspected structures in the Capricorn District Municipality with a specific focus on visual cultural signifiers at the Bakoni Malapa Northern Sotho Open-Air Museum. The question this paper seeks to answer is how do cultural practitioners in this region use vernacular architecture as a form of culture retention project and to attain environmental conservation? Cultural retention theory is used as a conceptual framework and narrative theory to explain how communities use their architecture to retain and preserve essential aspects of their culture. The results of this study reveal that indigenous architecture continues to play a significant role in the preservation of local culture and functions as an educational tool to teach communities about their cultural practices and create awareness about sustaining the environment.
The craft of architectural hand drawing is steadily regressing, separating the immediate hand-brain connection that fosters creative thought. This article re-asserts that discourse through an in-depth study of a hybrid drawing by South African architect-educator Errol Pieters (1951-2020). Here, "hybrid drawing" refers to a single hand-drawn, multi-layered sheet that integrates conceptual, representational, and technical information so that the entire design process-from concept to buildable solution-is legible in one image, rather than separated across digital-analogue media. Using an Artefact-led Layered Visual Analysis (ALVA), the study examines Pieters' 1984 cupboard elevation as an intrinsic case. The method involved: (i) stratified digital deconstruction of the scan to isolate six information strata; (ii) typological coding against existing literature; (iii) threshold analysis of overlaps between artistic and technical layers; and (iv) reconstruction of the likely sequence in which Pieters developed the sheet, triangulated with interview and archival sources. Findings show that, for Pieters, artistic exploration and technical resolution evolved in parallel on the same surface, demonstrating that separating these processes can disrupt design thinking. The case further suggests that such hybrid drawings can restore the embodied, iterative dialogue between imagination and execution now diluted by screen-based workflows. By naming and detailing the ALVA method, the paper offers a replicable tool for historians, educators, and practitioners seeking to study or revive the craft of hand-drawn hybrids in contemporary architectural practice.
This paper explores the role of digital modelling software in expanding entrepreneurial opportunities for artists, particularly in large-scale public artworks, architectural collaborations, and industrial design. While traditional craftsmanship has often been framed as inherently hands-on, digital tools offer a means of preforming-visualising, refining, and communicating sculptural ideas before fabrication. By integrating theoretical perspectives on making, digital tools, and their role in the creative industry, this study highlights how emerging artists can leverage these technologies to build sustainable creative careers. With this approach, artists are in a position to present fully developed designs to clients before physical production begins, allowing for more fluid negotiation and reducing the risks inherent in traditional methods. Additionally, these tools facilitate networks with industry professionals such as fabricators, engineers, and manufacturers, making it easier for artists to scale their projects from concept to completion, and legitimise their presence and value within the industry. The paper identifies four key benefits of this approach: visualisation, cost-effectiveness, rapid prototyping, and industry networking. In exploring these intersections, this paper aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the role of digital tools in contemporary art, particularly within the South African context, and to consider how such tools can empower emerging artists to navigate the challenges of the creative industries.
Architecture students need guidance to make sense of the complexities of organising space and place-making whilst being challenged to give agency to the communities they are designing for. The teaching and learning efforts are more significant for students when they experience crosscultural activities in contexts outside their immediate sphere of influence and engagement. The main question is how can architecture students use their lived experiences through service learning to demystify environmental levels between spaces and celebrate culturally significant architecture through acts of care and engagement. Furthermore, the skills of rural women artists' Basotho litema practices in the Free State landscape should be celebrated. Efforts to establish new relationships between future architects and litema artists provide an intersectional perspective for design space and understanding the local heritage of culturally significant architecture in the Free State. These relationships and celebration opportunities give a new place of interaction in a less intimidating environment for contextual learning experiences of visual local rural art and architecture. For the theoretical framework, the socio-psychological theories of 1) Symbolic Interaction Theory and 2) the Socio-Historic Theory utilise the methods of 1) Design Thinking and 2) Participatory Action Research aimed at sustained relationships of care. The University of the Free State has worked with community partners since 2021 at three rural farm homestead sites within a four-hour drive from Bloemfontein. These sites provided the source for qualitative data from students on service learning, domestic thresholds, spatial organisation and culture while interacting with local rural women artists. These acts are needed to teach the complexities of physical and social attributes, abstraction, and embedded meaning around space-making for architecture students.
The paper will examine the early urban formation of Johannesburg as a dreaming; an utopian action that bound up imperial imaginaries and extractive realities to create dreamscapes that were at once reminiscent of the imperial home, and yet foreign to it. These built fantasies, the modes and forms of their execution, and the political, social, and legislative instruments that enabled their realisation, continue to structure and determine the contemporary city in significant ways. The paper will present ongoing research into the utopian character of the formation of Mayfair in 1896 by mining magnate J.B. Robinson, how it structured Johannesburg, and how subsequent acts of dreaming by other actors are having to react to that first essentialist vision. Through archival research, drawings, material culture, arts, and cultural movements, it will discuss and critique Robinson's English ideal and its subsequent mutation into a multiplicity of other ideals that is reconstructing architecture, legislation, tenure, and occupation below the official gaze. In this frame, utopia becomes a contradictory and continuously operating imaginary reshaping the post-colonial city as a shifting dreamscape. Understanding this dreamscape and its impact is essential to understanding the urbanism that is emerging in Johannesburg. The research fits into broader discussions on ways in which African cities are presented in global scholarship, and the role of the utopia in generating new conceptual frameworks for thinking, writing, and engaging with the post-colonial city.
This paper presents a thought experiment comparing an "actual" Outsider Art environment-the Owl House, created by Helen Martins-with an outsider art environment generated by ChatGPT (which uses DALL-E). As part of this experiment, I prompted ChatGPT to envisage an outsider art environment in the same Karoo town of Nieu-Bethesda, where the real Owl House is located. Outsider Art environments in the "real world" are produced by artists themselves, reflecting their effort to transform a deeply personal environment through structures, images, and symbols significant to them. The artist imagines a space that embodies their unique vision. In contrast, images of the outsider art environment generated by Artificial Intelligence appear impersonal and are not rooted in a singular artistic vision. To emphasise the contrast between a singular vision created by an Outsider Artist and those generated by ChatGPT, I draw on Michel Foucault's concept of parrhesia-the courageous act of speaking the truth, often at personal risk. Thus, I suggest that the Outsider Artist functions as a parrhesiast (truth-teller) in their creative endeavour, whereas the outsider art environment imagined by ChatGPT cannot be regarded as a "truthful" environment.
This paper examines the role of music as a form of artivism and explores how male musicians engage in combating gender-based violence (GBV). The study adopts a comparative lens, focusing on Arivu of the Casteless Collective in Tamil Nadu, India, and South African Afro-Soul singer-songwriter Loyiso Gijana. Arivu's Snowlin, part of the Therukural (voice from the streets) series, memorialises the deaths of Snowlin, killed during environmental protests in Tamil Nadu, and Asifa, an eight-year-old victim of gang rape and murder in Kashmir. Similarly, Gijana's Madoda Sabelani (Men Must Answer), sung in isiXhosa, directly confronts South Africa's femicide crisis, blending Afro-Soul and gospel to create a personal and political call for accountability. Methodologically, the paper employs virtual ethnography, analysing YouTube circulation, lyrical testimony, and visual narratives to understand how these songs resonate across digital platforms and generate affective publics. Drawing on feminist theory, hegemonic masculinity, and cultural resistance frameworks, the analysis shows how both artists use music to mourn victims, resist patriarchal impunity, and mobilise collective consciousness. Findings suggest that male musicians can play a pivotal role in rethinking masculinity and challenging GBV, not only through lyrical protest but also through the creation of digital memorials that foster solidarity and remembrance. The study concludes that music artivism transcends entertainment to become a weapon against silence and systemic oppression. It recommends greater recognition of male allyship in feminist struggles and calls for integrating artivism into broader strategies of social justice and GBV prevention.
The Ajanta cave murals were completed by Indians between the second century BCE and the fifth century CE. The thirty caves display enormous, mainly Buddhist images, with both stylised and realistic depictions of human, plant and animal life. This refined art indicates centuries of effort, trial and error, and practice. The art was not signed by either individuals, guilds or groups, because Indian thinking prioritised the creation over the creator. Perhaps most intriguing is that the initial stages of development appear to have been preserved by artists' guilds and practice systems through oral transmission. Yet, these templates appear to have been shared almost exactly across India and neighbouring countries by traveling Buddhist monks, pilgrims, scholars and artists. When the work at Ajanta was ending, these templates began to be written down and conserved in texts, thus, becoming the earliest written treatises on art in the world. These treatises provide detailed technical knowledge of preparing the ground, drawing and laying out colours - like ancient "do it yourself manuals". This paper is based on visual research, site visits, and wide textual referencing.
This article introduces cartographic performance methodology (CPM) as aperformance-as-research framework for understanding how dance theatre can function as a mode of inquiry. CPM describes how meaning is mapped through movement, space and symbolic objects within performance. The article articulates CPM through Uncovering (2024), a site-specific dance theatre production developed at Tshwane University of Technology during the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based-violence campaign. Grounded in artivism, Uncovering unfolds across four spatially connected vignettes in which clothing functions as a metaphorical burden, carrying memory and resistance. These vignettes guide the audience through a series of sites that expose the body as a crime scene, explore inherited silences, interrogate constrained masculinities, and gesture towards collective agency. CPM frames performance as a cartographic act in which embodied and spatial processes are organised and interpreted through mapping. Drawing on reflective accounts and visual documentation, the article demonstrates how CPM functions as a transferable methodological framework for performance-as-research in socially engaged dance theatre.
Contemporary jewellery is a medium through which identity, narrative, and artistic vision are expressed. This article explores how South African contemporary jewellery contributes to critical engagement with gender-based violence (GBV). While jewellery is often regarded as a decorative adornment, this study considers its function as a medium for social commentary. The work of contemporary jeweller Geraldine Fenn is examined to understand how individual and collective gender narratives are embedded in her artistic practice. Using her series of brooches as a case study, the article analyses how wearable objects visually challenge gender dynamics. A qualitative research design is employed, drawing on life history research methodology, feminist theory, and hermeneutic phenomenology as a theoretical framework to interpret the complex dimensions of Fenn's artistic creations that challenge conventional gender norms. The article proposes that her series of brooches positions contemporary jewellery as a medium of cultural critique, foregrounding women's agency and contributing to broader discourses on gender equality and social transformation.
Gender-based violence (GBV) continues to affect university campuses across South Africa, demanding spatial responses that are not only functional but ethically and culturally attuned. This qualitative interior design study explores how co-design can inform the development of service spaces that support prevention, reporting, and survivor care. The study within a South African university involved walking interviews and a participatory workshop that engaged medical and psychological support staff in mapping and co-creative activities. Participants utilised generative toolkits and spatial modelling to express their embodied knowledge of service gaps and spatial limitations, integrating it into their decision-making processes. The findings reveal the need for adaptable, confidential, and welcoming environments that convey care, safety, and trust. This study enhances gendered spatial practice and trauma-informed design by positioning co-design as an ethical methodology in infrastructure planning that responds to GBV. It argues that co-design as a methodological praxis can promote the incorporation of lived experiences into the spatial and cultural framework of higher education institutions.
Gender-based violence (GBV) remains critically high in South Africa despite legal interventions, with toxic masculinity as a key driver. This study examines how contemporary South African art portrays positive masculinity, defined as emotional vulnerability, empathy, and non-violent conflict resolution, as cultural resistance to GBV. Using feminist visual culture theory and semiotic analysis, this research examines selected works by South African artists Mzoxolo Mayongo, Loyiso Mkize, and Lindiwe Mayisela, chosen for their explicit engagement with themes of masculinity. Analysis reveals recurring themes of soft masculinity, emotional openness, and resistance to dominant gender norms. These artworks function as counter-narratives that normalise alternative masculine identities. Findings highlight art's potential for cultural change around masculinity by providing accessible alternatives to toxic masculine ideals, contributing practical strategies for leveraging cultural production in GBV prevention efforts.
