Free & Untorn

In 2011, my tuition was R 35,020 for one year including a registration fee of R 3200 but not any of the books, stationary or living costs. Ok, I lived at home, but then again my sister was completing her Masters at the same time as I was finishing the BA, so for 2011 my mother probably had to pay around R70000 to the university. Without achievement bursaries and family waivers and my mother's hard work as a tour guide we probably would not have had the privilege of higher education.

For about a week now my FB feed has been flooded with student protest from all around the country. Friends at different universities repost and provide commentary of what is going on, giving a broader overview than the media has been able to. Yesterday I had a long Skype session with a friend about why the protests are happening now, what the problems at the heart of them were, what this means going forward. Six students in Cape Town have been arrested and accused of high treason as thousands of others today march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to call for a meeting with President Zuma on the shocking price increases of tertiary education.

I am too far away and have been unaffected by any of this as for the past two years I have payed €500 in total as Germany doesn't have tuition fees, just a student contribution. I have profited from a system that highlights education and even provides financial aid through BAföG (a law that allows for a monthly stipend of up to €650 where half is an interest-free loan that has to be repaid 5 years after completing the degree) to those whose parents do not have the financial means to support them. Naturally, the two countries are vastly different and Germany has one of the strongest economies, thus having the funds to support tuition-free learning. For many of the students currently protesting, they might be the first in their family to even get to university, the first to have a chance at something better. And is this not what everyone wants: for those who come after us to do better and to have it better? Instead there is global warming and ISIS and corruption and #BlackLivesMatter and Alaskan oil fields and billions in mismanaged funds and and and.

But this protest back home, man, it stirs something inside of me, somehow the hope that change for the better may come from this, that somehow there has been a small shift in people's attitudes that simply said: no more. We have ignored this up to now, we have laughed about a president that cannot even read his party's membership numbers, we have accepted the crime rate, we have accepted Nkandla, we have accepted the xenophobia, we have accepted the fear of one another, we have all said that something must change but what and how and then gone back to our braai and watching the rugby/cricket/Isidingo/7de Laan.

So perhaps this, this could be it. This, more than petty politics between the ANC and the DA. This, more than bridges collapsing on the M1 or grandmothers still using the 'K' word or Marikana. This, because the born frees have had enough. This could be our June 16, 1976.

Nothing

Most often, art does nothing for me. I'll search for who it might be aimed at and who might purchase it, but ultimately art is a gut reaction, a stirring of an emotion that says: Ah! Now this, this I like! In turn, what I like might not be liked at all by others. Or one might admire the craftmanship but not the subject matter. Art is a fickle, intangible response by the self to what it experiences when looking at/touching a 2D image or 3D object.

This week I went to two exhibits, and the first one was rather disappointing. It was titled Metro Musings and held at the University of Pretoria's Rautenbach Hall on Monday evening. I randomly saw an invite on FB and decided to attend. It was rather disappointing because most of the works were by fine arts lecturers, and it didn't seem all that cool. Maybe my eye just needs better training.

The sun going down on my way to the exhibit.

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 1), 2013

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 2), 2013

Diane Victor - Vagrants from the circle (Panel 3), 2013

Elfriede Dreyer - Ship of Fools I, 2012

Frikkie Eksteen - Detail from Blindfold - South, 2013

Frikkie Eksteen - Blindfold - East, 2013

Pieter Swanepoel - Whitewash, 2013

Magdel van Rooyen - Concrete Conversations, 2010

Magdel van Rooyen - Detail from Concrete Conversations, 2010

Leana van der Merwe - Untitled II, 2013

Someone told me

2008.
It was time to chose what I wanted to study.
Law? Yes. Law.
But I wanted to keep the languages, somehow.
BA Law? Sounded good. The "law" part made it sound official enough to contrast with the frivolity I had often heard associated with a BA degree. For instance, when my older sister went to the university's campus with me for their open day we walked past the Humanities building and the drama students were performing something. My sister said: "Just don't study something in the Humanities, they are all weird".
So I thought the whole law dealio would lead to success and happiness and just a great life, and would protect me from being associated with the weird people.

Somehow I mistakenly only enrolled for a general BA, without the -law, and that has been the best error I have committed so far. By coincidence I took a visual communication course because my one friend said it was easy and all one did was watch music videos. Yay, easy peasy credits.

Now, years later I am really happy not to be a lawyer. Sure, sometimes I think other professions make more money, but my non-profession at the moment and my desire to never stop studying is a happiness factor that other things would have deprived me of.

Look, no one wants to constantly hear that what they studied/are studying is a joke, that they won't find work, that anything in the humanities is just a recipe for struggle. No one should be ignorant enough to believe themselves immune to recessions, changes, choices and personal disasters that happen at 2PM of a perfectly normal Tuesday. That is just the way life rolls, it is not restricted to Bachelor of Arts graduates.

And so the rector of the University of the Free State, Prof. Jansen, seems to think as well:

"Don't kid yourself about BAs
Jonathan Jansen: "So what's the difference between a BA degree and a large pizza?" one of my student leaders recently asked a large group of parents inquiring about sending their child to university. "A large pizza can feed a family of four," she joked. I laughed, then cried.
Laughed, because of the obvious wit of the comparison. Cried, because this is one of the most misleading pieces of information about BAs in South Africa today.
It was not that I had not overheard "BA jokes". At my previous university, there was rampant talk among female students of a "BA man-soek" specialisation (BA find-a-husband). After all, what other reason could you have for doing a BA than to prowl the campus for a life mate?
Sadly, many parents buy into this myth about the uselessness of a BA. The actuarial science degree gets you a specific job, as do degrees in marketing, optometry or accountancy. With this common-sense, though often wrong understanding of a degree, parents guide their children away from a BA towards "something more practical" or "something that can get you a job".
The truth is I have seen as many BA students get good jobs as I have seen BComm Accounting students without jobs. In fact, I would argue that a BA from a good university is likelier to get you different kinds of jobs - not a bad option in an economic recession - than a single-career job that comes with a degree in physiotherapy or in law.
Why is that? A good BA qualification from a good university would have taught you generic competencies seldom learnt in narrow occupational degrees. A good BA would have given you the foundations of learning across disciplines like sociology, psychology, politics, anthropology and languages. A good BA would have given you access to critical thinking skills, appreciation of literature, understanding of cultures, the uses of power, the mysteries of the mind, the organisation of societies, the complexities of leadership, the art of communication and the problem of change. A good BA would have taught you something about the human condition, and so something about yourself. In short, a good BA degree would have given you a solid education that forms the basis for workplace training.
The head of Johannesburg's Stock Exchange, a gentle man called Russell Loubser, taught me a valuable lesson the other day. I was talking to this astute businessman about the training function of universities when he gently chided me, the education man, with timeless wisdom. "No professor," he said, "you educate them. I train them."
This is where the American colleges get it right when they talk about a liberal arts education in the undergraduate years. There is more than enough time for the occupational training that comes later and is best done in the workplace.
What we fail to do at South African universities is educate young minds broadly in ethics, values, reasoning, appreciation, problem solving, argumentation and logic. Locked into single-discipline thinking, our young people fail to learn that the most complex social and human problems cannot be solved except through interdisciplinary thinking that crosses these disciplinary boundaries.
Anyone who thought HIV/Aids was simply an immunological problem is the victim of the kind of narrow training restricted to the biomedical sciences. The syndrome is as much a sociological, economic, political and cultural problem as it might be a problem of virology. Do not get me wrong: HIV causes Aids, period. What I am arguing is that its resolution will take more than an injection, and that is the broader value that a BA degree can offer a well-educated youngster.
So the next time you hear people make jokes about a worthless BA degree, tell them about Bobby Godsell (the BA graduate who served as the CEO of AngloGold Ashanti), Vincent Maphai (the BA graduate who rose to serve as chairman of BHP Billiton), Clem Sunter (the famous scenario planner and former chairman of the Anglo American Chairman's Fund), Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (the former deputy president of South Africa) or Saki Macozoma (the chairman of Stanlib and Liberty Life).
The list of highly successful graduates with BAs, or equivalent degrees, is endless.
Then go out and buy your family a large pizza." 

 Copied from the UFS Humanities FB page.

hahahaha

Wednesday was the final battle. The same lady comes every year from Bloemfontein to see if our French is up to par and give the final stamp of approval. Since my first year I have had some aversion towards her, but luckily I've learnt to smile and nod and wait for her to finish asking a question that is hidden somewhere in her ten minute elaboration on my dissertation. It all went fine. Now I am donedonedonedonedonedone. It is exhilarating and anxiety-inducing at the same time, this not knowing what and where and when and how.

Until the future and I see eye-to-eye, here are my summer reads, courtesy of one last meander through the university's library:

1. Aravind Adiga: The White Tiger (2008) 

2. Carson McCullers : The heart is a lonely hunter (1940)

3. J.P. Singh: Globalized Arts (2011)

4. Frank Rose: The Art of Immersion (2011)
      or a review on The Guardian

5. Ilija Trojanow: Der Weltensammler (2006)

6. Irvine Welsh: Trainspotting (1993)

7. Anna Gavalda: Ich wünsche mir, daß irgendwo jemand auf mich wartet  (1999: Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part)

8. Anton Harber: Diepsloot (2011)

9. John Kinsella: Peripheral Light (2004)

10. Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis ( 2003)

There is winter in every spring

I was sweating like a pig. It was really hot in the Rautenbach Hall. Maybe menopause was hitting me about 30 years too early, but I spent most of the final year Fine Arts students' exhibition, entitled Exhibit A, thinking about if it would be terribly rude to lift my arms and walk around like a zombie to cool down. Or if drinking another white wine/fruit juice mixture would help. Or if there was some fan I could go make friends with. It was all to no avail. Maybe sweating this profusely could count as a workout.

I don't really know what artists do, except that they spend time in their studios drinking coffee, watching Adventure Time (or some equally banal series), moaning about having too much work to do, being rewarded for constantly fucking up whilst doing nothing, and going to a lot of gigs where there is mediocre art and free wine to make it all seem less mediocre.

Exhibit A somehow does not fall into the "hey art you bore me" category (I went again when it was raining and empty-ish to verify that the initial assessment was not due to heat stroke or something). There are a lot of different media on display, ranging from sculpture to photography to installations to drawings and paintings. However, many of the students did incorporate something digital, be it a projection, or a video, or thinking that showing the audience your Photoshop skills qualifies as a great work of art.

My cousin and I walked around, trying to decide what would we buy if we had money. If I was a somewhat trendy guest house owner, where the beds are covered with crisp white linen and the walls painted in something off-white/sand-ish, I'd buy some of Libby Bell's works to add a hint of colour and local flavour (because I am a trendy guest house owner, none of that typical 'this is Africa' art and beadwork would suffice).

Libby Bell,  This is my home, not yours -series, 2012

Libby Bell, Close-up of Acacia gates, 2012

Now, if I'd own a hair salon that charges exorbitant amounts for a terrible hair cut, I'd purchase one of Zaheera Ismail's hair-prints and hang them up so that clients could a) see what an awesome hair stylist I was, b) how when I do hair the face becomes irrelevant (except for the ear, of course), and c) how it becomes art (or something equally pretentious).

Zaheera Ismail, Red Space, 2012

My cousin liked Xandri Pretorius' prints of semi-fragmented people. It does fit in some clinically white bachelor pad, situated in some blocky appartment building in Joburg and bought as a 'thoughtful' birthday gift by a hipster friend that wants to be more than just friends.

Xandri Pretorious, Fragmented: Kayla (Or it could be Nushka, I cannot recall), 2012

To me it seems like all the 4th years wanted to prove that they could not in fact do anything that is similar to classical art and actually requires some effort and talent, preferring instead to take photos with their Canon DSLRs on 'Auto'-setting and watching YouTube videos in order to learn how to merge layers in Photoshop.

Cue Danai Chinyenze's "Photography/Digital Art". Although decent to look at, I assume he did nothing of substance throughout his studies at University and in order to produce an extensive body of work in the very short timespan before the final exhibit he resorted to taking meth and jumping around in front of (yet again) the camera. Those YouTube-advice videos prove fruitful as in every image we see multiple Danais merging on 2D. This is done mostly in black-and-white, because every one knows that photography in monochrome is always more art than mere mechanical (or is it digital now?) production.

Danai Chinyenze, 2012

Heidi Fourie produced buy-able paintings if one is old and/or likes life to be still. I mean, she can paint, that is indisputable, but I wonder if her skills would not have been better used on something besides collections of tea bags and dying Frangipani flowers.

Heidi Fourie, 2012.

Justin Bergh did a number of chalk, charcoal and ink drawings of baboons, which I have no opinion on. I guess they would sell well because they are already framed and people could buy it and hang it up in their spare bedroom immediately.

Justin Bergh, Untiltled 6, 2012, and Allen Laing's pedestal and sculptures reflected in it.

In a corner of the hall Allen Laing has recreated his studio, because his sculptures are only noticeable if they are a chaotic clutter that threatens to fall from a slanted shelving unit. Art is not made only to be purchased, but I assume artists have to survive somehow if their parents are not rich people from Mpumalanga, or wealthy enough to fly their non-Capitalism-endorsing children to Dubai for a quick getaway. Laing might win prizes, but no one buys the stuff he makes. If I were not broke without the prospect of ever earning real money, I'd buy the pedestal he made to put his freakish little sculptures on instead of the art. I like the pedestal and am fascinated by the King of Limbs, but the rest I'd give to disadvantaged children to play with until the sculptures break and can be returned to the ground as dust. Hopefully Paris will incite some fresh inspiration where it is not Allentimeallthetime.

Allen Laing's  mock studio

There are two things I did like. One is a print by Zaheera Ismail entitled Screened Palm because it does not fit in with her hair-salon prints and looks ghostly. I watched Casper as a child, so ghosts are great. Or it could look kind of Cleopatra-ish because of the milkyness. It doesn't really matter what it looks like, though.

Zaheera Ismail, Screened Palm, 2012

The other is Annika Prinsloo's (Cut)opia. We were wondering if she had laser-cut all the little figures and details, but the absence of burn marks and being told that she hand-cut everything proved us wrong. The main reason I like it is because it looks like it took an enormous amount of time to make and a dedication to getting the works just right.

 Annika Prinsloo, (Cut)opia, 2012

Earlier I stated that Exhibit A did not bore me. Instead, I found it disappointing. Not all art appeals to everyone else, but the ability to appreciate what one does not like still has to be a possibility. And this is where most of the artists (some I have not mentioned because I just cannot remember their work and was thus not interested in photographing it) are a let down. It feels as though there is no real passion for their craft, as though they only produced enough objects and images because their degrees depended on it, not because they actually liked what they were doing.

Overall, Exhibit A was a lesson in personal disillusionment with what artists do. We grow up thinking that the stereotypical artist produces work because to live there is no other option but to follow this intense affection. Even though earnings are dismal, the artist must sway from the corporate path that others have taken, because his/her work is like a love affair, an ardent affection that has to be maintained, ha, til death do them part.

Instead, it seems like young artists merely make "art" because they want their parents to buy them an iMac and finance four years of mediocrity. Nothing I saw was inspired (except for Prinsloo, maybe). Art has to stir something, has to evoke an emotional response, but this was just bland, like getting a plain slice of white bread when you were expecting a Dagwood.





* I tried not to get the artworks' names wrong, but there might be errors.
** This is a subjective opinion, others might feel that this exhibit was great.

Codex

This guy Michael and I share mutual friends and therefore our paths cross on occasion. Also, he is in his final year of Graphic Design, and I am in my final year of Visual Studies, and we both fall under the Visual Arts, so we've had a few overlapping classes. Last week the designers had their final year exhibition, and I was extremely surprised at what they could actually do. In class they formed this arrogant entity that swerved in five minutes late and looked down at everyone that did not do information design. After the exhibit (and obsessive verbal diarrhoea  about how awesome Michael is) a friend asked that if the designers could do all of these things, what had I spent my last four years on? My answer was: "Looking". I can look at things really well.

Visual Studies is not a glamorous field of study. You won't find a job as a visual studier, whatever that may be. You most likely won't earn a lot of money, ever. In fact, I have been told to not get married to anyone who did a BA, but should rather cast my love-net towards engineers and others who will actually earn some moolah so that I can continue looking at things. You need to be flexible, and to be willing to adapt to where you find employment. The law, engineering, finance, all of that is like this : [ ]. It fits nicely, there are rules and equations and things that bring order to the world. Looking is like this : __|~~~~|#|~~|~___``````+/~|~+°°|
It is a combination of signs and it is up to you to choose what it could mean, to interpret what line and shape and colour form.

On Thursday I handed in my dissertation. It is done. Now just write the French dissertation and wait for the December holidays to begin and mangos to be back in season. C'mon mangos. Come back to me.

Here are some images from the Exposure exhibit by the Information Design 4th years of the University of Pretoria.

Tanya van Tilburg

Learning

Tomorrow we present the proposals for our Honours degree in Visual Studies. Last week I presented my idea for my French Honours. And although at the moment it feels like I am slightly swamped with work, it is so exciting. The idea that I will get to research what interests me and write about it and read read read just sounds so great. I know it will probably be stressful and I haven't even really begun and the year is still quite long. These dissertations will certainly not be easy. But man, I am itching to write and read and discover ways of thinking that I had not considered. Yes. Let the fun begin.

We don't need no education.

found on 9gag

Although 9gag is definitely not the most reputable source for news, this image is from the student protests in Bogotá, Colombia. For months they have been demanding free education and against proposed reforms to privatise tertiary education. For more information you can refer to the BBC's article.

This morning I was speaking to my sister about finishing my last exams next Wednesday and about thereby finishing my first degree. Since it is a BA ( Bachelor of Arts), many people dismiss it as being a degree for young ladies to find a husband and also as being useless in the market place. I know learning about post-humanism and Cartesian duality might not rake in big bucks for me in the future, and that I'll probably always be underpaid and overworked, and that finding a job will be harder than if I had studied engineering. But I am good at thinking. Not so good at math and calculations and numbers. So is it not more important to be good ( and associated with that, happy) than to be bad at your job and hating it?!

In any case, I am privileged to have studied at all, and to be able to further my education. This is a protest I would have liked to join, not students protesting about a fiesta being cancelled.

Swift Transitions 2

The 4th year Fine Arts students have to host an exhibition at the end of their final year. Last year, they were divided into three groups with different themes, and my friend Delène Human exhibited her ark. The other works are also by last year's group, but I cannot find the name of the artists.

Delène Human

This year, there were onyl two groups and both exhibited under the title Swift Transitions at the Pretoria Art Museum. If you are interested, this exhibition still runs for I think 2 weeks, so you can check it out. It costs something ridiculous like R5. 

Museum Hours: Tuesdays to Sundays 10:00-17:00
Closed on Mondays and Public Holidays

The first group was very disappointing and my friend and I were standing there, wine-less, not understanding anything and not even being treated to a pretty sight. I know art is not just something pretty ( yay for 3 years of art history) and that the status and definition of what constitutes art is constantly being questioned, but often I can not understand a work and still see something appealing in it. Sometimes, you can look at a work and inexplicably like it. In 2004 I went to Germany to visit my dad and travel with a friend. In Berlin, the MoMA was hosting an exhibition and we went. On a laptop screen Jackson Pollock's stuff just looks like a toddler had fun with paint and canvas, but up close, the works are immense and somehow suck you in. You can stand and look at it for hours without needing an explanation or looking for understanding, merely content in looking at paint on canvas.

So in comparison to the first Swift Transitions, Part II was greatly enjoyable. The work was interesting, there was wine and it didn't feel like a wasted evening.
Here are images of some of the works:

Ann-Marie Bothma, Reaction Ovservations ( video)

Stephanie Geral, Ambivalent Subject Matter 1

Lelani Nicolaisen, Hysteria

Herman le Roux, Number 5

Stephanie Geral, Connections 3

Leana van der Merwe, Baby's First Three Months ( out of nappies, earbuds, lace, wipes, breast pads..)

Leana van der Merwe, Surge

Leana van der Merwe, Surge (detail)

Christiaan Harris

Christiaan Harris

Christiaan Harris

I liked Leana van der Merwe's stuff because it is made out of ear buds and diapers and still looks very cool. Also, Christiaan Harris staged his photographs in Three Acts, and the last act is shot in 3D, so to look at the images one had to put on some 3D glasses. I thought that was cool because no one looks good wearing 3D glasses and yet everyone did it. Art :1, Superficiality:0.

Bloei my pers

View from the Human Sciences Building at the University of Pretoria

Dit voel as of ek hierdie jaar die Jakarandas vir die eerste keer sien. Ek weet ek swot nou al amper drie jaar hier en dat ek dit seker al voorheen moes raakgesien het, maar in ander jare was die pers bloeisels eer 'n irritasie omdat ek elke keer op hulle gly en amper my gat sien. 

Maar hierdie jaar wil ek net van die hoogste verdiepeing moontlik afspring en op die enorme kussing van Jakarandabome land wat deur die stad versprei is. Kyk na die fotos: dit is werklik soos pers wolkies wat deur die stad se strate trek. 

By die universiteit sê hulle as 'n bloeisel op jou val sal jy jou eksamens goed deurkom. Ek weet nie, die hitte wat met die lente deur die stad trek laat my aan drankies by die swembad en somervakansie by die see dink, en nie aan die stapel lees- en leerwerk wat langs my op die tafel lê nie. Die papierberg gluur vir my en laat my weet dat ek nooit alles sal gelees kry nie, so ek voel as of ek nie eers gaan probeer nie. Mens moet nie teen papier veg nie. Net 'n skêr kan hier wen en ek recycle maar eer. 

So hier volg 'n paar kiekies van die stad wat ek in die afgelope paar weke geneem het. 

  

Here is a translation for the non-Afrikaans speakers:

It feels as though I am seeing the Jakarandas for the first time this year. I know I've been studying here ( Pretoria is known as the Jakarandacity) for almost three years, but previously the blossoms were more of an irritation because I always slipped on them and almost fell. 

But this year I just want to jump off of the highest building and land on the enormous pillow of Jakarandatrees that are spread throughout the city. Look at the photographs: they look like little purple clouds that line the streets of the city. 

At university they say that if a blossom falls on you, you will get good results in your exams ( November is exam time here). I don't know, with the heat that has accompanied the start of spring I am thinking of drinks by the pool and long summer vacations by the sea, not about the huge pile of readings I have to get through. The mountain of paper is eyeing me and letting me know I will never make it, so I don't even want to try. One shouldn't fight paper, only scissors can win and I am more of a recycling kind of girl. 

So here are a few images that I've taken over the past few weeks.