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Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice
Thesis MA (VA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | en_ZA |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867614133240725504 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Lombard, Chanel |
| author2 | Smith, Kathryn |
| author_browse | Lombard, Chanel Smith, Kathryn |
| author_facet | Smith, Kathryn Lombard, Chanel |
| author_sort | Lombard, Chanel |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis MA (VA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132627 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | en_ZA |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:47:10.728Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132627 Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice Lombard, Chanel Smith, Kathryn Moe, Ledelle Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts. People with disabilities in art Artists with disabilities Disability studies Body image in art Representation (Philosophy) -- In art Spectacular, The, in art Performing arts UCTD Thesis MA (VA)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. Lombard, C. 2025. Othered embodiments: Exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/f6cbf9be-37bf-4306-90f3-b3fe6af901b4 ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is motivated by the embodied experience of disability, focusing on how corporeal consciousness, past experiences and a self-understanding of an ‘othered’ body can challenge the notions of the disabled self. It critically engages with the absence and presence of the disabled body, exploring key themes such as abjection, corporeal consciousness, embodied knowledge, materials and materialities, modes of looking, and the medicalization of disability. Through a practice-led and practice-based approach and an auto-ethnographic lens, I analyse how my lived experiences inform my artistic practice and highlight the need to disrupt ‘normalcy/normativity’ through the disabled body as both subject and object in art. I investigate the corporeal absence and presence of disability, drawing on abject and affect theory alongside the process of thinking through making in performance, sculpture and printmaking within the context of contemporary art. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from scholars such as Rosemary Garland-Thomson, Petra Kuppers, Julia Kristeva and Drew Leder among others, I respectively introduce concepts including staring and being stared at (the mode of staring); the performative interplay between public and private spaces; abjection in relation to aesthetics and the medicalized body (disability); and corporeal consciousness through the absent body. Ultimately, this study is deeply interwoven with my own artistic practice, which explores the externalization of my disabled embodiment as traces, illustrating how thinking-through-making fosters self-understanding and self-awareness. I draw selected examples from other body artists’ work – both abled and disabled – in relation to my own work, such as Cassils, Belinda Blignaut, Judith Scott, Harriet Sanderson, and Nancy Fried, framing both the representation of the body in art (or as art objects) and the processes involved. This thesis and my practical work ultimately serve as explorations of what disability make in the world through my embodiment experiences, highlighting the complex relationships between identity, remembrance, and representation. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen oopsomming beskikbaar nie. Masters 2025-06-12T06:39:35Z 2025-06-12T06:39:35Z 2025-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132627 en_ZA Stellenbosch University 128 pages : illustrations application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | People with disabilities in art Artists with disabilities Disability studies Body image in art Representation (Philosophy) -- In art Spectacular, The, in art Performing arts UCTD Lombard, Chanel Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title | Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title_full | Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title_fullStr | Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title_short | Othered embodiments: exploring spectacle, presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| title_sort | othered embodiments exploring spectacle presence and trace through the disabled body in contemporary artistic practice |
| topic | People with disabilities in art Artists with disabilities Disability studies Body image in art Representation (Philosophy) -- In art Spectacular, The, in art Performing arts UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132627 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lombardchanel otheredembodimentsexploringspectaclepresenceandtracethroughthedisabledbodyincontemporaryartisticpractice |