2021/06/01 by Deléne Human · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Participatory Visual Research Methods #Art Therapy and Mental Health #Mythology #Iconography #Meaning (existential) #Context (archaeology) #Narrative #Purgatory #Afterlife #Shadow (psychology) #Aesthetics #Literature #Archetype #History #Art #Sociology #Art history #Philosophy #Psychoanalysis #Epistemology #Archaeology
paper · pdf · doi:10.46222/pharosjot.102.16
openalex publication_date 2021/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Since pre-history, humankind has relied on archetypes and myths to describe the ineffable and has made use of fictional and mythological narratives to understand the meaning of life and death. Dying and death are topics reluctantly discussed in open society. Yet, the global COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the process of dying and death, and hence the survival of humankind. By embracing their finitude, humans attempt to create meaningful experiences in life and, therefore, attain “freedom towards death” (Heidegger, 1962: 311). This paper investigates how South African artist Diane Victor uses universally known myths and symbols of Christian iconography within a South African context to create meaning, as well as how she uses medium and exhibition sites to evoke intense emotions within viewers urging them to consider their finitude. By recognising how fragile and vulnerable life is, the artist captures the ephemeral in a poignant way. In this paper, I argue that Victor embraces the challenge of consecrating the forgotten or lost. Through incorporating religious icons, signs, and symbols in her work, Victor ‘catches ghosts’ of the ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ in, about, of and from South Africa. Her works are understood through a contemporary reading of religious (Christian) iconography and interpreted in the symbolic and fragile mediums of smoke, stain, ash, charcoal, light and shadow, emphasising the ephemerality and impermanence of the human condition.