The justice of art at South Africa’s constitutional court

Dr Eliza Garnsey, who recently presented her work at the LSE Department of Government Conflict Research Group seminar on Thursday 23 February, outlines the importance of art in the constitutional Court of South Africa. Dr Denisa Kostovicova, one of the organisers of the Conflict Research Group seminar has been awarded funding for a ground-breaking collaborative research project, ‘Art and Reconciliation: Conflict, Culture and Community.’ Read more about her new interdisciplinary research project and the importance of exploring the role of art in post-conflict peace-building

Framing Human Dignity: Visual Jurisprudence at the Constitutional Court

The South African Constitution affirms “the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom”. The Constitutional Court in Johannesburg was established as a key institution in South Africa’s new democracy. Built on the site of a former prison, the Court is not only distinctive architecturally including integrated artworks in the fabric of the building, it is a unique space by international comparison because it houses a large visual art collection developed by and for the Court—the core theme of which is respect for human dignity. Drawing on six months fieldwork at the Constitutional Court—which included fifty-four interviews with judges, staff, artists, advocates, and visitors to the Court—this paper examines the connections between human dignity and art at the Court. The aim is to investigate whether the realisation of human dignity by the Court, is disconnected from the aesthetics of the art collection. Is the performance of dignity in the art collection a utopian ideal, achievable objective, or unrealised potential? The art collection is a kind of visual jurisprudence which responds to, but also comprises, conceptions of human dignity as a right, a value and a touchstone of democracy—conceptions which are closely entwined with South Africa’s human rights governance, but that manifest in very different ways. The collection envisages the journey to human dignity as ongoing; it is promised but remains ungraspable. In this way, the Court is simultaneously a ‘good place’—a site constituting human dignity—and a ‘no place’, a prospect yet to be realised—a sight of human dignity. This tension is important in calibrating an idea of human dignity within a transitioning human rights discourse in South Africa

Rewinding and Unwinding: Art and Justice in Times of Political Transition

The purpose of this article is to theorize the relationship between art and justice in times of transition so that a broader spectrum of political possibilities and their implications can be imagined. The aim is to offer a way to think about, and to render visible, the web of relationships that constitute this bond. By undertaking a close analysis and narrative investigation of the art installation REwind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony, I use the artwork to elucidate four key ideas relating to paradigms, agency, encounters and space which make art relevant and meaningful to transitional justice. These four ideas frame two central arguments. First, I argue that an account of transitional justice without aesthetic dimensions is insufficient, precisely because transitional justice ‘acknowledges itself as a process inseparable from feelings of justice.’ Artworks can fill out affective topologies in ways that facilitate or stimulate recognition and a ‘feeling of being there.’ Secondly, I contend that art plays an important role in animating and activating individual narratives so that they take on collective importance. In doing so, the past can be shared so that a new political future can be imagined

Heavy weather: climate and the Australian Defence Force

This report argues that the downstream implications of climate change are forcing Defence to become involved in mitigation and response tasks. Defence’s workload here will increase, so we need a new approach. Heavy Weather makes a number of recommendations including: Defence should work with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency to establish an interagency working group on climate change and security. It would focus on addressing climate event scenarios for Australia and the Asia–Pacific  to manage the risks those scenarios pose to national resilience and regional stability.  Defence should appoint an adviser to the Chief of the Defence Force on climate issues to develop a Responding to Climate Change Plan that details how Defence will manage the effects of climate change on its operations and infrastructure. Defence should audit its environmental data to determine its relevance for climate scientists and systematically make that data publicly available. It should set up an energy audit team to see where energy efficiencies can be achieved in Defence. Australia should work with like-minded countries in the ‘Five Eyes’ community to share best practice and thinking on how military organisations should best respond to extreme weather events.   The recommendations aren’t about Defence having a ‘green’ view of the world: they’re about the ADF being well placed to deal with the potential disruptive forces of climate change

On representation(s): art, violence and the political imaginary of South Africa

The purpose of this article is to explore the multiple layers of representation which occur in the South Africa Pavilion at the Art Biennale in Venice, in order to understand how they constitute and affect the state’s political imaginary. By analysing three artworks (David Koloane’s The Journey, Sue Williamson’s For Thirty Years next to his heart, and Zanele Muholi’s Faces and Phases) which were exhibited in the 2013 Pavilion, two key arguments emerge: 1) in this context artistic representation can be understood as a form of political representation; and, 2) these artists are simultaneously state and citizenry representatives. A tension emerges between the political imaginary desired by the South African state and the political imaginary enacted by its representatives. The article draws on seven months of participant observation fieldwork at the Biennale, which included 76 interviews with people associated with the South Africa Pavilion, including government representatives, exhibition organisers, artists, and visitors. Part I explores the concept of representation in order to establish the two philosophical trajectories (political and artistic) with which this article engages – with particular reference to Michael Saward’s framework of the representative claim. Part II explores the multiple representative claims which the three artists and their artworks enact.British Academ

Performing justice for the Venus in Venice

My research examines the relationship between visual art and transitional justice – how this relationship contributes to, and affects, ideas of justice. Specifically, I seek to understand the nature, extent and significance of this relationship in the context of ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa. The research takes the form of an in-depth case study of contemporary South African visual art across international, national and local levels. This photograph shows Neliswe Xaba’s performance of ‘The Venus in Venice’ which was part of the South African Pavilion at the 55th International Art Biennale in Venice, Italy. The performance examined the life of Sara Baartman, also known in the 19th Century as the ‘Hottentot Venus’. Imagining Baartman visiting Venice in the present-day, the performance took the audience on an emotional journey which raised questions about the politics, practices and justice of display

Justice in your corner

Outside the Magistrate Court in central Johannesburg stands a sculpture of Nelson Mandela in boxing stance

Art cannot help you

Taken while living in Jeppestown this photo questions the role of art