PhD | South Africa’s Constitutional Court Art Collection: Curating Postapartheid

PhD-Candidate: Stacey Vorster | University of Amsterdam | South Africa’s Constitutional Court Art Collection: Curating Postapartheid | Supervisor: Carrol Clarkson | 2015-2019

In this research, I aim to draw on the theoretical frameworks of Jacques Rancière, Carrol Clarkson, Mieke Bal and Carli Coetzee to critically evaluate the art collection of the South African Constitutional Court, its history and the ways in which it reflects the potential of “aesthetic acts” to contribute to the “long ending of apartheid”. In one sense, the study is located in understanding how the collection and its exhibition constitute a visuality of law, national identity and reconciliation. Building on this however, the research project is a broader enquiry into the potential role of curatorial practice in postapartheid South Africa. Having recently passed the twenty first anniversary of the first democratic elections of South Africa it is vital to consider the ideologies reflected in and stories being told through the broad range of aesthetic acts that are beginning to characterise national identity and justice.