Petits récits: creative perspectives of Chinese encounters in Zambia
- Authors: Mwaba, Stary
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Personal narratives , Lyotard, Jean-François, 1924-1998 , Art and society -- Zambia , Social practice (Art) -- Zambia , Art and globalization -- Zambia , China -- Relations -- Zambia , Storytelling in art , Colonization in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146355 , vital:38518
- Description: This mini-thesis, which supports my MFA exhibition Black Mountain, articulates on-the- ground creative perspectives of the Zambia-China discourse, through the representation of little narratives - les petits récits - connected to personal experiences. Through my creative production as an artist, I respond to perceptions of the Chinese presence in Africa. I utilize historical and contemporary personal narratives to complicate existing perceptions of Chinese presence in my home context of Zambia. “Petit récits”, or “little narratives”, in Francois Lyotard’s term, refers to personal stories of individuals that subvert dominant master-narratives and their legitimization in social-cultural structure. In the case of China’s presence in Zambia, I refer to the dichotomized narratives in the media as metanarratives which pay little attention to the people on the ground and propose the approach of “little narratives” to foreground the lived experiences of Zambians who have individual encounters with Chinese in various social spaces. By employing the narratives of my family members through installations, paintings, and drawings, I intervene in a broader China-Africa discourse that is often driven by economics and politics, and I attach importance to the little narratives. In my thesis I divide my material into three chapters; each chapter grows out of an encounter with the presence of China (and Chinese people) in Zambia in relation to the very personal narratives of family members - Zoë my daughter, my grandma, and Ngolo my cousin. The first chapter focuses on my work Chinese Cabbage as my entry point to this topic, which is based on a school experiment I did with my daughter Zoë. In this chapter I also discuss the current discourses around China’s presence. Chapter two revisits the Zambian-Chinese historical encounters in memory of my grandma’s insaka stories about the construction of TAZARA Railway, and thus my works discussed in this chapter attach importance to the individual engagements from a historical perspective. Chapter three discusses in particular the controversial issues around Black Mountain and the works inspired by my cousin Ngolo’s stories of mining in Black Mountain and dealing with the Chinese traders.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Ukwowa mumwela nabangeli: transcendence, flight and inculturation in Zambian devotional artwork
- Authors: Mulenga, Aaron Samuel
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Idols and images in art -- Zambia , Transcendence (Philosophy) in art , Christianity and culture -- Zambia , Flight in art , Christian art and symbolism -- Zambia , Representation (Philosophy) , Black people in art , Ethnicity in art , Group identity in art , Art and society -- Zambia , Yombwe, Laurence
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146278 , vital:38511
- Description: With a focus on my artistic practice, this paper seeks to interrogate the tensions and overlaps in various representations of transcendence that have shaped my spirituality by interrogating how these have featured in Eurocentric Christian iconography and Zambian cultural practices, particularly cultural artefacts used for spiritual flight, housed in Zambian museums. Transcendence is understood by some as a change in a person’s physiological or psychological state that allows them to go beyond their experience of time, place or being. I understand transcendence to be the moment that one’s spirit is elevated beyond the limitations of their physical body. The use of Biblical text relating to flight will also be discussed as a comparative study to explore how transcendence through flight operates within Christianity and a Zambian cultural context. Furthermore, I shall interrogate how black artists (particularly Zambian), such as Laurence Yombwe, address the omission of black people from Christian iconography (which is predominantly depicted as white people). I aim to highlight the important role that representation plays in allowing for an individual to experience transcendence. I believe inculturation is a fitting solution to address some of the pitfalls in Christian iconography brought about due to the lack of representation of black people. Inculturation can be understood as an adaptation in the way the gospel of Jesus is preached to non-Christian cultures, and in turn, how these cultures influence the teachings of the gospel. Finally, I will explore how transcendence as a concept applies in my artworks and how the materials I use highlight this concept. Through my art, I grapple to combine what seem like disparate spiritual paradigms, arising from my culture and my faith. My artwork seeks to contribute to the work that particular artists (a majority of them black) are grappling with to correct the lack of representation of black people in Christian iconography. I will use the notion of inculturation as an avenue through which to interrogate the tensions I experience while exploring the concept of transcendence.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Visualising Chinese presence: an analysis of the contemporary arts of Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Authors: Zhang, Lifang
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Art, Modern -- 21st century , Art, Modern -- 21st century -- Chinese influences , China -- Relations -- Zambia , China -- Relations -- Zimbabwe , Art and society -- Zambia , Social practice (Art) -- Zambia , Art and globalization -- Zambia , Art and society -- Zimbabwe , Social practice (Art) -- Zimbabwe , Art and globalization -- Zimbabwe
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/146618 , vital:38542
- Description: With the revival and rapid growth of relations between China and African countries in the present century, the “China-Africa relationship” has become a topic of close attention globally and the media and politicians have been dominating the mainstream discourses with dichotomised narratives. China-Africa engagement has also spurred academic research, most of which is oriented toward large-scale economic, political, and strategic concerns. In this context, it is significant to conduct in-depth research exploring specific engagement between Chinese and African people on the ground. Contemporary artists based in Africa have started to represent, through artworks and performances, their experiences and expressions of relations between China and various African countries. However, an examination of twenty-first century connections between Africa and China in relation to the contemporary visual arts is a new area of study and only a limited number of scholarly works exist. To contribute to the research in this area, this thesis explores the ways in which artists engage with specific realities and lived-experiences of Chinese presence through their artistic practices, with a focus on a selection of artists from Zambia and Zimbabwe. Through visual analysis, interviews and field work, this thesis provides a systematic investigation of contemporary arts of Zambia and Zimbabwe in relation to Africa- China encounters, engaging with four aspects: the discursive field, the material presence, individual experiences of encounters, and the broader relational connections within the arts. This thesis argues that, motivated by the histories and realities of African societies, artists from Zambia and Zimbabwe, through their artistic practices, form part of the Africa-China engagement and insert their agencies in the south-south relations between Africans and Chinese. Therefore, this thesis demonstrates the value in approaching the broader discussion on Africa-China engagements from the perspective of contemporary art, arguing that, with the social concerns of the artists and the expressive capacity of creative forms, visual arts are able to embrace diversity, dynamics, complexities and contradictions, and, therefore, can develop the topic beyond the stereotypical narratives about Africa-China relations to a more nuanced understanding of African-Chinese encounters in specific contexts.
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- Date Issued: 2020