18 SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture In 2024, the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture continued to consolidate its position as a hub for research and postgraduate supervision in the visual arts. Under the leadership of Professor Brenda Schmahmann, the Chair maintained a dynamic programme of scholarly work, capacity development, and public engagement. The team supporting this work included Associate Professor Irene Bronner and administrator Neelofir Nagdee, alongside a cohort of postdoctoral research fellows: Dr Melissa Gerber, Dr Everjoy Magwegwe, Dr Theo Sonnkeus (until April), Dr Elain Sullivan (until July), and Dr Hazel Cuthbertson, who joined in November. The year was marked by numerous accolades. Irene Bronner was promoted to Associate Professor, while Brenda Schmahmann received an NRF B1 rating and a certificate recognising her outstanding contribution to UJ’s accredited research outputs and postgraduate graduations for the 2021 and 2022 academic years. Melissa Gerber won the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture’s Postdoctoral Excellence Award and the prestigious Westrup Prize for an article published in 2023. Professor Schmahmann also began a three-year term as co-editor of *Public Art Dialogue*, a journal published by Taylor & Francis. The Chair’s teaching and supervision portfolio was strong, with Dr Hazel Cuthbertson graduating with a PhD early in the year and doctoral candidates Ayobola Kekere-Ekun and Sinthemba Twalo submitting their theses in October. Three master’s students – Lira van Staden, Tlotlo Sereisho, and Lerato Maisela – completed their studies. A key highlight was the international conference “Creating a Disturbance: Interventions to Historical Monuments and Statues,” hosted by the Chair in November. With 26 presentations, the event will yield two special journal issues in 2025 – one in Public Art Dialogue and the other in De Arte. The previous year’s conference on public art also led to a book, accepted for publication by Routledge and scheduled to appear by the end of 2024. The year also featured important collaborative initiatives. Professor Schmahmann worked with Visiting Associate Professor Staffan Löfving on a workshop and discussion event for the South Africa–Sweden University Forum (SASUF) in May, and with Emeritus Professor Karen von Veh to cohost a research panel on gender and human-centredness at the ACASA Triennial in Chicago in August. In addition, work continued on a special issue of Critical Arts focusing on indigeneity and visual sovereignty, emerging from a 2023 conference co-organised by Löfving and research associate Paul Weinberg. Co-edited by Löfving, Shanade Barnabas, and Schmahmann, most articles were published online in late 2024, with the print edition set for 2025. Community engagement remained central to the Chair’s activities. In May, the team hosted an exhibition and seminar on the work of South African artist Gerard T. Benghu, curated by Juliette Leeb-du Toit and enabled by Irene Bronner. In August, an exhibition of work by Christine Dixie was held, followed by a seminar, after which Dixie generously donated two series from the exhibition to the University. The SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg invites you to The book launch of Gerard T. Bhengu Edited by Juliette Leeb-Du Toit (Auckland Park: Staging Post, 2022) Accompanied by the opening of Gerard Tshelenkosi Bhengu (1900 -1990): his temporality and intellect An exhibition of paintings curated by Juliette Leeb-du Toit Thursday 23 May 2024 | 17:30 for 18:00 At the Gallery of the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg, 33 Twickenham Avenue, Auckland Park. The project will be introduced by contributing author Anitra Nettleton, Professor Emerita at the University of the Witwatersrand. There will be an in-person walkabout by the exhibition curator Friday 24 May | 16:00 – 17:00 There will be a hybrid seminar by the editor and contributing authors Monday 27 May 2024 | 09:00 – 10:30 Portrait of a married smiling woman (c.1970) Watercolour on paper 360x265mm Signed br Gerard Bhengu Coll: Cerny Collection DISCLAIMER: The University of Johannesburg encourages academic debate and discussion that are conducted in a manner that upholds respectful interaction, safety of all involved, and freedom of association as enshrined in the law, the Constitution, and within the boundaries of the University policies. The views expressed during events are expressed in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Johannesburg. All events taking place in this venue may be photographed and video recorded for marketing, social media and media purposes. By attending this event, you grant the University of Johannesburg permission to use and publish any recorded material. The SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg, invites you to a guest seminar The Virtual Memorial: Temporality and Sociality in a Bosnian Image Archive by Staffan Löfving Associate Professor, Department of Language, Literature and Intercultural Studies, Karlstad University and Visiting Associate Professor, SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, University of Johannesburg. In this seminar, anthropologist Staffan Löfving will address the memory work of 30-year-old war photographs disseminated online. His account will focus on how they resist temporal containment and their unexpected social agency offline. DATE Friday 22 November 2024 TIME 2 – 3.30 pm followed by refreshments. The seminar will be in hybrid form. Please contact Neelofir Nagdee nnagdee@uj.ac.za for a link if you plan to attend online. Soraja Zagić and Tijana Kolaković, four and five years old, in Hrasno, Sarajevo, on September 10, 1994. Photo: Staffan Löfving Christine Dixie DisOrder – Trade-Off V (2020) DISCLAIMER: The University of Johannesburg encourages academic debate and discussion that are conducted in a manner that upholds respectful interaction, safety of all involved, and freedom of association as enshrined in the law, the Constitution, and within the boundaries of the University policies. The views expressed during events are expressed in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Johannesburg. All events taking place in this venue may be photographed and video recorded for marketing, social media and media purposes. By attending this event, you grant the University of Johannesburg permission to use and publish any recorded material. The SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture University of Johannesburg invites you to Trade-Off an exhibition by Christine Dixie DATE Thursday 22 August 2024 / TIME 5.30 for 6.00 pm VENUE Gallery of the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, 33 Twickenham Avenue, Auckland Park, Johannesburg During the most stringent period of the lockdown in 2020, Christine Dixie produced DisOrder –Trade-Off, the first of a series of works engaging with the impact of COVID-19. The work, comprising nine prints, alludes to a media discourse about a necessary “trade-off” between, on the one hand, damage to the economy that would result from the lockdown and, on the other, dangers posed by the spread of infection if people were not kept apart from one another. However, “trade-off” also alludes to a complex relation of language to image. This conceptual idea is developed further in this exhibition through the showing of DisOrder – Trade-Off along with a recent artwork – one that is constituted froma written text in which Brenda Schmahmann engaged with DisOrder – Trade-Off and its meanings. DisOrder–Trade-Off features three key actors or protagonists – a princess, a plague doctor and a dog. The exhibition includes Blueprint for a Breathless World, a work in diaphanous fabric in which these three figures also appear. Acknowledgement: The text that Dixie uses is from a chapter Brenda Schmahmann authored for A Show of Hands: Crafting Concepts in Contemporary Art, edited by Ileana Parvu, Berlin: De Gruyter (in press). Thank you to Ileana Parvu and De Gruyter for approving its inclusion in Dixie’s artwork in advance of the book’s publication. Christine Dixie DisOrder – Trade-Off II (2020) DISCLAIMER: The University of Johannesburg encourages academic debate and discussion that are conducted in a manner that upholds respectful interaction, safety of all involved, and freedom of association as enshrined in the law, the Constitution, and within the boundaries of the University policies. The views expressed during events are expressed in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Johannesburg. All events taking place in this venue may be photographed and video recorded for marketing, social media and media purposes. By attending this event, you grant the University of Johannesburg permission to use and publish any recorded material. The SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture University of Johannesburg invites you to a seminar by Christine Dixie responding to her exhibition Trade-Off DATE Monday 26 August 2024 TIME 3.00 to 4.00pm followed by refreshments VENUE Seminar Room of the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture, 33 Twickenham Avenue, Auckland Park, Johannesburg VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE Please contact Neelofir Nagdee nnagdee@uj.ac.za for a link to the event. Derived from Velázquez’s Las Meninas, the princess, the plague doctor and the dog appear as central figures in the series of nine prints constituting The DisOrder – Trade-Off. They are also central to Blueprint for a Breathless World and appear in various guises in the video Blue Sequence. The seminar will look at how these three figures developed, overlapped, and materially shifted during the making of these works.
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