Cloetesville: In the making: Negotiating identity formation in Cloetesville
Title
Cloetesville: In the making: Negotiating identity formation in Cloetesville
Subject
A visual archive of a collective drawing workshop co-coordinated by Terri Dennis (2017)
Description
In the making: Negotiating identity formation in Cloetesville
This research project explores how collaborative drawing can facilitate a process of collective decision making among coloured male youths in Cloetesville. The seven young men I worked with range between the ages of 9 and 16 years and are from Cloetesville, Stellenbosch. I was led by the first phase of the research to the question, How can collaborative drawing function as both making history and doing research through making? Concurrently I wish to explore the synthesis of local and global cultural forms becoming the language used to express identity, and consider the implications in this context.
The introductory phase of the project is complete, which took the form of a five-day drawing and printing workshop in the Department of Visual Arts of Stellenbosch University in June 2017. The workshop included blind contour portrait drawing, name design and identity collage activities, all culminating in the collaborative screen-printing T-shirt task. For the latter the participants had to come up with an original collective design, using three colours. The group soon decided to make football T-shirts with their names printed on the front and the collective football team badge on the back. Some arguments arose regarding colour choice, their group name and other elements of the design, so they decided they would vote on the options.
Hip-hop culture is an important aspect of the identity of all the participants. What was interesting was the manner in which these young men came to create their team badge by appropriating American hip-hop and international signs, symbols and slogans to form a new symbol with which they all identify. A further research project will include individual interviews with each participant to gain deeper understanding of why they decided to propose or agree with including certain aspects relating to local and international cultural production. I am interested in how these works created can facilitate critical thinking about the signs and symbols appropriated. The next part of my research will be to consider how these artworks can be put into historical context by the participants so that they see themselves as critical makers of new knowledge, as researchers through making.
This research project explores how collaborative drawing can facilitate a process of collective decision making among coloured male youths in Cloetesville. The seven young men I worked with range between the ages of 9 and 16 years and are from Cloetesville, Stellenbosch. I was led by the first phase of the research to the question, How can collaborative drawing function as both making history and doing research through making? Concurrently I wish to explore the synthesis of local and global cultural forms becoming the language used to express identity, and consider the implications in this context.
The introductory phase of the project is complete, which took the form of a five-day drawing and printing workshop in the Department of Visual Arts of Stellenbosch University in June 2017. The workshop included blind contour portrait drawing, name design and identity collage activities, all culminating in the collaborative screen-printing T-shirt task. For the latter the participants had to come up with an original collective design, using three colours. The group soon decided to make football T-shirts with their names printed on the front and the collective football team badge on the back. Some arguments arose regarding colour choice, their group name and other elements of the design, so they decided they would vote on the options.
Hip-hop culture is an important aspect of the identity of all the participants. What was interesting was the manner in which these young men came to create their team badge by appropriating American hip-hop and international signs, symbols and slogans to form a new symbol with which they all identify. A further research project will include individual interviews with each participant to gain deeper understanding of why they decided to propose or agree with including certain aspects relating to local and international cultural production. I am interested in how these works created can facilitate critical thinking about the signs and symbols appropriated. The next part of my research will be to consider how these artworks can be put into historical context by the participants so that they see themselves as critical makers of new knowledge, as researchers through making.
Creator
Terri Dennis
Files
Collection
Citation
Terri Dennis, “Cloetesville: In the making: Negotiating identity formation in Cloetesville,” RADA , accessed May 21, 2024, https://collections.sun.ac.za/rada/items/show/306.