Visual ethnographies of displacement and violence: land(e)scapes in artists’ works at Thupelo Artists’ Workshop, Wellington, South Africa, 2012

Abstract

This article draws together processes of art-making and academic ethnographic writing. It does this by including artists’ written comments on the personal and self-reflexive processes of artwork construction, as well as images of artworks, within academic discussion, in relation to emphasising the ‘turn’ within ethnography towards a more sensory, creative, emotive, embodied, interactive and performative approach. Consequently, the article functions as an exploration and illustration of what might constitute ‘ethnography’ in contemporary art, and art in ethnography, considering claims to similarity between the two. The focus of this multilayered article is on depictions of cultural, historical and corporeal violence in relation to land(e)scapes and self/culture/place and displacement, through the contributions of five artists who took part in a Thupelo International Artists’ workshop (emphasising the exchange of ideas, techniques and collaboration). Nineteen artists congregated in an isolated forest area in Wellington, South Africa, including the author in her capacity as both anthropologist and artist. Despite their different backgrounds, the artists drew on similar modes of working within visual ‘auto-ethnographies’ of socio-cultural displacement, in relation to collective violence, histories and conflict, operating as both ethnographers and archivists. Ultimately, through a consideration of overlaps between art and ethnography in relation to the works and auto-ethnographies depicted, it is suggested that this article, in occupying the ‘space between’ the disciplines, may also operate as an artwork.