WH ITEWASH ED THE REPRESENTATION OF WHITENESS IN VISUAL CULTURE

Anthony Christopher Dawson

Student Number: 14148902

VKK 221: Visual (Post)Colonialism(s)

Mrs. Leana van der Merwe

Department of Visual Arts

28 October 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………….................... 3 PLAGIARISM FORM........................................................................................................ 4 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………..... 5

2 DYER STRAITS: DEFINING WHITENESS AND ITS REPRESENTATION IN WESTERN CINEMA……………………………………………………………………………

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3 IT’S A (WHITE) MAN’S WORLD: WHITE SUPREMACIST CAPITALIST

PATRIARCHY………………………………………………………………………………….. 9

4 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE TRANSFORMED: REPRESENTATIONS OF

WHITE IDENTITY IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN FILM……………………... 12

5 THE DARKER SHADE OF PALE: MINNETTE VÁRI AND “MAKING WHITENESS

STRANGE”……………………………………………………………………………………… 16

6 FROM COMPTON TO CAPE TOWN: DIE ANTWOORD AND WHITE IDENTITY…….. 21

7 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………. 27

SOURCES CONSULTED……………………………………………………………………. 29

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 1: White dancers dancing on “The Corny Collins Show”, Hairspray, 2007……….. 8 Figure 2: Black dancers dancing on “The Corny Collins Show”, Hairspray, 2007……….. 8 Figure 3: Danny Archer addressing Solomon Vandy, Blood Diamond, 2006…………….. 11 Figure 4: Black workers searching for diamonds, Blood Diamond, 2006…………………. 12 Figure 5: Stander standing amongst his fellow police officers at a riot, Stander, 2003…. 13 Figure 6: Sarah Barcant partaking in a march against the horrors of Apartheid, Red

Dust. 2004…………………………………………………………………………….. 14

Figure 7: James Gregory straightening out Nelson Mandela’s tie, Goodbye Bafana,

2007…………………………………………………………………………………… 15

Figure 8: Minnette Vari, Chimera, 2001………………………………………………………. 17 Figure 9: Minnette Vári, Alien, 1998…………………………………………………………… 18 Figure 10: Minnette Vári, Oracle, 1999…………………………………………………………. 20 Figure 11: Still frame of Watkin 'Waddy' Tudor Jones as Max Normal performing a

proposed identity, Total Fuck Up, 2008………................................................... 21

Figure 12: Scenes showing Yo-landi Vi$$er as a highly sexualised object, Enter the

Ninja, 2010……………………………………………………………………………. 23

Figure 13: Yo-landi Vi$$er in blackface, and reminiscent of an African voodoo doll, which

is associated with danger, Fatty Boom Boom, 2012……………………………... 24

Figure 14: Still frame of the Tokoloshe, Evil Boy, 2010………………………………………. 25

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DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

The Department of Visual Arts places great emphasis upon integrity and ethical conduct in the preparation of all written work submitted for academic evaluation.

While the academic staff teach you about referencing techniques and how to avoid plagiarism, you too have a responsibility in this regard. If you are at any stage uncertain as to what is required, you should speak to your lecturer before any written work is submitted.

You are guilty of plagiarism if you copy something from another author’s work (eg a book, an article or a website) without acknowledging the source and pass it off as your own. In effect you are stealing something that belongs to someone else. This is not only the case when you copy work word-for-word (verbatim), but also when you submit someone else’s work in a slightly altered form (paraphrase) or use a line of argument without acknowledging it. You are not allowed to use work previously produced by another student. You are also not allowed to let anybody copy your work with the intention of passing if off as his/her work.

Students who commit plagiarism will not be given any credit for plagiarised work. The matter may also be referred to the Disciplinary Committee (Students) for a ruling. Plagiarism is regarded as a serious contravention of the University’s rules and can lead to expulsion from the University.

The declaration which follows must accompany all written work submitted while you are a student of the Department of Visual Arts No written work will be accepted unless the declaration has been completed and attached.

Full names of student: Anthony Christopher Dawson

Student number: 14148902

Topic of work: VKK 221 Assignment: The Representation of Whiteness in Visual Culture

DECLARATION

1. I understand what plagiarism is and are aware of the University’s policy in this regard.

2. I declare that this assignment is our own original work. Where other people’s work has been used (either from a printed source, Internet or any other source), this has been properly acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements.

3. I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to hand in as our own.

4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy our work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work.

SIGNATURE

Anthony Dawson Anthony Christopher Dawson Date: 28 October 2015

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1. INTRODUCTION

Visual culture, as an academic and interdisciplinary area of inquiry and study, is not bound

by the traditional representations claimed by any singular academic field; rather, visual

culture and its academic discourse encourages scholars to investigate how people learn to

see and how they comprehend what they are viewing (Smith 2014:1). Similarly, racial

studies and ethnographic academic discourses share in the impetus of interdisciplinary

inquiry and attention on social dynamic and relationships. By bringing the two academic

fields together and into dialogue with each other, one might suggest that the visual and act

of sight, being a social practice, is racialised in its execution, as well as being malleable to

the ethnic frameworks and contest of any social sphere in contemporary society (Smith

2014:1).

The intention of this assignment is to draw from the contributions of several scholars, as to

investigate and explore aspects and theories surrounding the representation of whiteness in

contemporary and western visual culture. Initially, in Dyer Straits: Defining Whiteness and its

Representation in Western Cinema, the assignment will offer insights into the definition of

whiteness, as well as expand on Richard Dyer’s (1988:47-48) theories on the contrasts

between whiteness and blackness in western cinema through an analysis of Adam

Shankman’s 2007 film, Hairspray. In addition, in It’s a (White) Man’s World: White

Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy, this text will aim to define the concept ‘white supremacist

capitalist patriarchy’, according to the views of bell hooks (2006), and intends to discuss how

the character, of Danny Archer, from the film Blood Diamond (Kwick 2006) can be seen to

embody the characteristics expressed by this theory.

In The Good, the Bad and the Transformed: Representations of White Identity in Post-

apartheid South African Film, following the intellectual insights and findings of Julie Reid

(2012:45-63), this assignment will address and also discuss the binary classification of White

characters in post-apartheid South African motion pictures; whilst also providing commentary

on the constructions of whiteness that resist these binary classifications in South African film.

In A Darker Shade of Pale: Minnette Vári and “making whiteness strange”, the assignment

will go into a concise discussion on the narratives and strategies that South African artists

use to “make whiteness strange”, as well as how Vári’s artworks offer an insurgent,

transformational and reframed construction of whiteness which deconstructs the master

narratives which define it. Finally, in From Compton to Cape Town: Die Antwoord and White

Identity, this assignment will examine how the musical group, Die Antwoord, offer new

narrative strategies which challenge, maintain and oppose prevailing discourses on White

identity in post-apartheid South Africa.

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2. DYER STRAITS: DEFINING WHITENESS AND ITS REPRESENTATION IN

WESTERN CINEMA

Scholarly insights, including those of Eric Arnesen (2001:3) contend that the study of

‘whiteness’ throughout the twenty-first century has increased dramatically, affecting

academic disciplines from literary studies and education, to history, sociology, geography

and anthropology. Arnesen (2001:6) argues that this study of whiteness, from an assorted

range of disciplines, has led to the concept been marked by overlapping and at times

conflicting definitions and theoretical bases.

The academic Bernardi (1996:104) defines whiteness as the persistence of racial hierarchies

that have systematically privileged those who count as White at the expense of those who

do not count as White. Likewise, the legal scholar, Martha R. Mahoney delineates

‘whiteness’ in her article, Segregation, Whiteness, and Transformation (1995: 1695), as a

social construction of race, which favours white privilege. According to Arnesen (2001:7),

this notion of whiteness constituting power, position and perspective is supported by the

philosopher, Charles Millis and the legal intellectual Cheryl Harris. Firstly, this is supported

by Millis in that she claims race to be a socio-political, as opposed to a biological, construct

used for differentiation; in which whiteness is seen not simply as ethnicity, but rather as a set

of power relations that make it supreme. It is further seen by Harris in that he coincides with

this definition and reasons that being white and the notion of whiteness means gaining

access to a whole set of public and private privileges and thus can be considered a “valuable

assets” and a “treasured property” (2001:7).

Richard Dyer (1988:44) supports this notion in his article, White, defining ‘whiteness’ as a

culturally constructed classification system in which major ethnic divides are made

throughout Western society, particularly amongst the Black and White populations. Dyer

(1988:44) argues that this divide amid ‘white’ and ‘black’ is imported from and naturalised by

various discourses such as Judaeo-Christianity, in which white is said to represent good;

whereas black is said to represent evil and in Western textbooks and novels which associate

white with light signifying safety, whilst black is connotative of darkness and representative

of danger.

Bernardi (1996:104) advocates that race, and the concept of whiteness in particular, has

overt representational and narrative functions in the twenty-first century cultural sphere. Dyer

(1988) appreciates these functions and has devoted much time to the analysis of the

representations of whiteness and black oppression found in twenty-first century, Western

films. Dyer (1988:44) argues that the way in which Black film characters are presented in

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these films forms part of the process of their oppression, marginalisation and subordination.

This representation in Western films reflects an ideal in which the Black society is associated

with nothingness, the absence of colour, disorder, irrationality, looseness and a departure

from the norm whereas white has come to be related to order, rationality and normality (Dyer

1988:44).

An example of a film that accurately displays this portrayal of whiteness is the 2007 musical,

Hairspray1 (Shankman 2007). A scene found in the film, which clearly demonstrates the

racial divide and the notions of whiteness, in accordance with Dyer’s (1988:44-65) views, is

the scene in which, the song, “The New Girl in Town” is sung. This scene is effective in that

it jumps from one location where three White girls stand and sing the song to the next setting

where three Black girls stand and sing the same song. This cutting from one location to the

next is effective in that it highlights the rigid binarism expressed between the two races. This

binarism is reproduced through every small detail in the films mise-en-scène.

As shown in Figure 1, the White dancers are clothed in pale pastel coloured dresses, with

sleeves and puffy tulle that goes passed their knees. Their dresses appear to be the epitome

of femininity, conveying a more sophisticated and ordered style than the brightly coloured

dresses that the black women wear in Figure 2. The Black women’s dresses are less

immaculate and more provocative, showing cut-outs by their chest and high slits up their

legs. Further comparison can be seen in the analysis of the women’s dance moves. Whilst

the White dancers choreography is concise, practiced, and in unison, the Black women’s

choreography is more free, irregular and disorderly. These remarks accentuate what Dyer

(1988:51) argues about Western films portraying elements of modernity versus

backwardness.

This contrast is expressed further through the comparison of the environments and codes of

behaviours in which each ethnic group partakes in throughout the scene. The White students

occupy two environments throughout this scene. Firstly, they appear in fully lit classrooms

with each character appearing abundantly lit whilst sitting in rows of structured desks, acting

in a dignified, calm and attentive manner. Secondly, they appear on set of the Corny Collins

Show dancing in front of a professional and expensive appearing set with a backdrop that

reads “The Corny Collins Show”. The Black students, on the contrary, first appear in a much

darker detention room or outdoors on a dirt road with all the characters casted in dark

shadows, acting in a rebellious and defiant manner, not paying any attention to the teachers

who try and control their dancing. The Black students also appear on “The Corny Collins

1 Hairspray (Shankman 2007) is a film that follows the journey of a young White girl who pursues stardom as a

dancer on a local dance show and who actively rallies against the racial segregation that is flooding her community.

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Figure 1: White dancers dancing on “The Corny Collins Show”, Hairspray. 2007. Screenshot by author.

Figure 2: Black dancers dancing on “The Corny Collins Show”, Hairspray. 2007. Screenshot by author.

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Show”; however their backdrop is less elegant and reads ‘Negro Day’ in place of ‘The Corny

Collins Show’. This replacement highlights the fact that the Black dancers are considered

outsiders to the show, which inevitably highlights their otherness and strangeness.

Dyer (1988:55) expresses that many Western films involve Black characters that do not

occupy a significant dramatic function throughout the film, but rather they have a social role

that plays a relevant part in the conflict that arises between the principal White characters.

This notion is apparent in Hairspray (Shankman 2007) in the fact that the film follows the

journey of the main White protagonist whilst dismissing the use of a Black actor in a principle

role. The conflict that arises between the protagonist and her accompanying White dancers

is as a result of the Black characters urging to get placement on the show. One can

therefore argue that the Black characters play a role in the development of the plot but are

still not considered to be valued characters. Lastly, Dyer (1988:55) notes that whiteness

expressed in Western cinema endorses the possibility of Black characters becoming White.

This belief is expressed throughout Hairspray (Shankman 2007) in that the Black dancers

aspire to be like the White dancers on the dance show. They imitate and practice the White

dancers’ routines, believing that the only possible way they could reach stardom is to

‘transform’ themselves into carbon copies of their White counterparts.

Therefore through defining the term ‘whiteness’ in accordance with the notions of Richard

Dyer (1988) and through relating those ideas to the film Hairspray (Shankman 2007), it is fair

to conclude that Hairspray (Shankman 2007) is an accurate portrayal of the term in that the

film connotes whiteness as rational, ordered and rigid and blackness as disordered, irrational

and loose.

3. IT’S A (WHITE) MAN’S WORLD: WHITE SUPREMACIST CAPITALIST

PATRIARCHY

Academics like that of Richard Dyer (1988:44-65) and bell hooks (2006) have analysed the

relationship between race, class and gender within education, art and throughout history.

bell hooks,2 addresses these issues in her 2006 video, Cultural criticism and transformation.

In the video, hooks (2006) argues that the phrase ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ is

a term that she constructed as a means of outlining the social and political systems

prevalent in the twenty-first century. hooks (2006) argues that this phrase reflects an agenda

2 An American feminist author and academic, as well as a social activist for racial and gender equalities

(Jankowski 2011).

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of White hegemony and other forms of racism that are used to keep particular ethnic groups

in order.

According to hooks’ (2006), ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ is a phrase that

highlights the interlocking system of domination that defines our reality. hooks’ (2006)

asserts that the domination that outlines our society is neither solely race based nor solely

gender based and that rather these issues function simultaneously in outlining our existence.

It is for this reason that hooks’ includes both ‘white supremacist’ and ‘patriarchy’ in the

construction of the phrase, thus ensuring that both matters are adequately addressed.

Additionally, hooks (2006) notes that the use of the word ‘white supremacy’ is used over

‘racism’ in that the term ‘racism’ keeps White people at the centre of the discussion; whereas

‘white supremacy’ evokes a political world in which one can frame oneself in relationship to,

thus allowing for a more comprehensive interpretation.

With this definition in mind, hooks’ (2006) argues that in twenty-first century visual and

popular culture, cultural texts are used as a means of constructing particular representations

with the notion of ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ at their core. In Cultural criticism

and transformation (2006), hooks’ addresses her particular interest in the representations

expressed in films, arguing that film directors construct images through conscious

manipulations that perpetuate ‘white supremacy’ and racism. Ultimately, hooks (2006)

contends that films reflecting this ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ are ones in which

representations favour White males. An example of this representation can be noted in the

film, Blood Diamond3 (Kwick 2006). Through an analysis of the film, it is made apparent that

Danny Archer, the White male protagonist, is an effective embodiment of the term ‘white

supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ and all that it stands for.

Archer exemplifies the term in his ability to govern everyone around him. This is seen

particularly in Archer’s ability to dominate and control his Black counterpart, Solomon Vandy,

and his White female colleague, Maddy Bowen, throughout their journey to recover a rare

diamond. Although all three individuals are on the same journey and therefore should be

considered equals, Archer dominates the journey by calling the shots, negotiating deals and

coming up with solutions to the issues they face. Archer’s authority over Solomon Vandy is

highlighted in the film through the use of dialogue shared between the two males. The

dialogue reflects a particular reliance that Vandy has on Archer. This is noted when Archer

says, “without me you're just another Black man in Africa” and “you need my help whether

you like it or not”. Archer’s dominance can be noticed further in the film in the manner in

3 A film that follows the journey of three young people on a quest to recover a rare diamond that has the power to

transform their lives.

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which Archer addresses and treats Vandy. As shown in Figure 3, Archer often speaks down

to Vandy, instructing him to perform certain tasks as if Solomon were his inferior worker and

not an equal companion on their journey.

Archer’s ability to undermine

and control his female

colleague, Maddy Bowen, is

also seen in the film in

Archer’s dialogue directed at

Bowen in which she is

portrayed as passive and

insipid. This enfeebling can be

seen clearly when Archer

comments, “You come here

with your laptop computers,

your malaria medicine and

your little bottles of hand

sanitizer and think you can

change the outcome, huh?”. It

is made apparent here as well

as throughout the film that

Archer has little faith in

Bowen’s abilities and feels a

particular omnipotence over

her.

The term ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ is embodied further in the film when

comparing the duties and responsibilities tasked to White and Black people, and men and

woman. Whilst Archer symbolises power and authority in that he deals with key tasks for

which the local economy is dependent on; such as the circulation and exchange of conflict

diamonds and the killing off of the rebels. Vandy on the other hand, represents the masses,

particularly those belonging to lower social classes and standings, and is put in charge of

less important duties such as fishing and looking for diamonds in a river along with the other

ordinary Black men in Sierra Leone, as seen in Figure 4. Archer’s higher position is noted

further in the fact that his responsibilities are considered to be more important than that of

Bowen’s, his female colleague. Bowen is a photojournalist, which although may seem like an

important duty within the context of the film, it is still considered a profession that is less

Figure 3: Danny Archer addressing Solomon Vandy, Blood Diamond. 2006. Screenshot by author.

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respected than the duties Archer is put in control of, thus once again reflecting hooks’ (2006)

notion of ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’.

Finally, one can argue that Archer embodies the phrase ‘white supremacist capitalist

patriarchy’ in that he has a domineering, selfish, powerful and patriarchal nature. Archer is a

hard man who thinks about nothing else other than his own greed and satisfaction. He does

whatever it takes to get the conflict diamonds and make money, even if it means using

people along the way. Therefore, through defining the term ‘white supremacist capitalist

patriarchy’ according to the viewpoints of bell hooks (2006), whilst applying that definition

and the concepts characteristics to the Blood Diamond (Zwick 2006) character, Danny

Archer, it is made clear that Archer fits the mold when describing a White supremacist

capitalist and patriarchal person in that he is consciously constructed to perpetuate a

Western societal ideal reflecting White supremacy and patriarchy.

4. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE TRANSFORMED: REPRESENTATIONS OF

WHITE IDENTITY IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICAN FILM

In The remythologisation of white collective identities in postapartheid South African film

(2012:45-63), Julie Reid addresses matters concerning to the reconstruction of White

identities within post-apartheid South African film. Reid (2012:45) argues that for the most

part, South African post-apartheid history films construct whiteness and White identity in

over-simplified binary formulas that have resulted in White figures lacking complexity. Reid

(2012:45-63) analyses these binary classifications through outlining particular myths of

Figure 4: Black workers searching for diamonds, Blood Diamond. 2006. Screenshot by author.

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whiteness that have become recurrent in post-apartheid South African films and their

narratives.

The first persistent classification of White figures apparent in post-apartheid South African

films, according to Reid (2012:51), is that of the ‘bad White perpetrator’ and the ‘good White

perpetrator’. Reid (2012:52) states that the bad White perpetrator is a character that is

conveyed performing actions of abuse towards their counterpart, Black characters and

whom are shown displaying no feelings of remorse, guilt or need for forgiveness for their

wrong doings. In the film Catch a Fire (Noyce 2007), Nic Vos4, is considered the bad White

perpetrator, in that he oversees the torture of a wrongfully accused Black protagonist and his

innocent wife. The fact that Vos shows no signs of regret or shame for this transgression

proves why he can be considered a bad White. Furthermore, Vos is considered a bad White

in that he partakes in disturbing and uncanny behaviour, such as teaching his young

daughters to use a firearm and inviting one of his Black prisoners over for dinner for no

apparent reason which is uncharacteristic of White prison guards.

Reid (2012:55) contends that often this bad White perpetrator attains an element of

collectivity in that their characteristics and actions are linked to a particular collective of

people. The bad White perpetrators’ link to the collective is invoked through a set of common

codes of which the group is notorious for. With regards to the bad White perpetrator, these

collective common codes that link the individuals include the use of violent actions,

4 A leading member of an anti-terrorist squad in Catch a Fire (Noyce 2007).

Figure 5: Stander standing amongst his fellow police officers at a riot, Stander. 2003. Screenshot by author.

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mercilessness, Afrikaans accents, a uniformed dress, rude and racist behaviour towards

Black people and sometimes the accompaniment of symbols of the Old South African flag.

This sense of collective bad Whites can be seen in Figure 5, taken from the film, Stander

(Hughes 2003) which shows the collective White Police force armed and ready at a riot

against a Black community. It can be seen further in the film, Drum (Maseko 2003) when

Henry Xumalo is tortured by the White prison warders at the prison, in that the warders are

collectively violent, aggressive and ruthless towards the Black prisoners.

Reid (2012:53) notes that the most significant difference between the ‘bad White perpetrator’

and the ‘good White perpetrator’ is in the good Whites ability to display remorse and guilt

and in the fact that they are often more deserving of forgiveness. In the film, Red Dust

(Hooper 2004), Sarah Barcant is encoded as the good White figure due to her ability to

associate easily amongst and help Black people. Barcant is also considered a good White in

that she openly displays her disdain towards the policeman who commit atrocities and

torture towards Black prisoners during the apartheid era. The fact that Barcant carries this

sense of guilt for past indiscretions clearly proves why she is considered a good White.

Barcant’s compassion towards the Black community is expressed in Figure 6, which shows

her taking part in a Black march encouraging people to speak truthfully at the Truth and

Reconciliation meetings.

A further classification of White figures in post-apartheid South African film is the ‘bad White’

that turns good (Reid 2012:55). This grouping typically involves a narrative in which one

Figure 6: Sarah Barcant partaking in a march against the horrors of Apartheid, Red Dust. 2004. Screenshot by author.

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meets a White character that is associated with the bad White perpetrator myth, yet, as the

plot unfolds, a series of events leads to this bad White transforming into a good White. Part

of this transformation involves feeling sorrow and remorse for past actions and finding new

ways to associate themselves with their ethnic counterparts and equals. James Gregory, in

Goodbye Bafana (August 2007) is an accurate portrayal of this myth. At the start of the film,

Gregory is a chauvinistic, racist and heartless man; however, as the plot unfolds, Gregory

starts to befriend Nelson Mandela and starts to feel regret for his past judgments. Gregory’s

‘transformation’ is concretised when he secretly places a copy of the Freedom Charter in his

breast pocket; thus showing his empathy and understanding towards his Black prisoners.

This transformation can be seen in Figure 7, where Gregory learns to have a mutual respect

towards Mandela and ultimately converts himself into what Reid (2012:56) defines as a good

White.

With this being said, however, Reid (2012:56) also addresses the fact that there are

examples of constructions of whiteness in post-apartheid South African films that resist

these binary classifications. This is what Reid (2012:56) refers to as ‘the new White’

representation. The new White representation proves that certain myths of whiteness in

South African film are undergoing development and are in a state of mythic maturation. Reid

(2012:57) reasons that often this new White classification does not fit neatly into the mythic

categorisation of a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ White but rather is a completely new construction. These

deviations from the mythologised representations of whiteness can be seen in the film

Invictus (Eastwood 2010) through the character Francois Pienaar. Although Pienaar is

Figure 7: James Gregory straightening out Nelson Mandela’s tie, Goodbye Bafana. 2007. Screenshot by author.

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portrayed as a good White throughout the narrative as he displays a willingness to accept

the new status quo and attempts to suppress the racial animosity shown by his White

teammates, he does not display the principle mythic criteria of a good White which is that of

showing remorse for the horrors of apartheid’s past. Additionally, Pienaar describes a new

portrayal of whiteness because his character in the film is based on an actual person and

public figure. This contrasts to the original myth of White characters, that where placed

within real historical narratives but were actually fictional characters. In this sense, one might

suggest that Pienaar, subsequently, becomes the signifier for a new White myth, or at least

is an indication that certain myths of whiteness in South Africa are undergoing development.

Therefore after discussing Julie Reid’s (2012:45-63) interpretation of the binary classification

of white figures in post-apartheid South African film and analysing how new constructions of

whiteness in post-apartheid South African films are resisting this binary classification, it is fair

to conclude that the representation of whiteness in post-apartheid South African film is

currently experiencing developments that are moving away from the conventional myths

constructed in the South African cultural sphere.

5. THE DARKER SHADE OF PALE: MINNETTE VÁRI AND “MAKING

WHITENESS STRANGE”

In the years following the end of Apartheid and the start of South African democracy,

contemporary African and South African visual culture and artists began to engage with

racial and social imbalances offering a response that allowed for the re-imagination and

comprehension of strict representational codes that reinforced racial distinctions and

binaries, particularly emphasising whiteness (Van der Watt 2005a:119). These new

dichotomies, in post-apartheid South African representation, introduced a conundrum for

White artists and the hypervisibility of whiteness because “ignoring whiteness perpetuates

invisible advantage [and hegemony], and acknowledging it reifies a claim to apartheid’s

visible advantage” (Draper 2013). Yet, as van der Watt (2001:65, 2005a:132, 2005b:27)

insists, whiteness in the South African vernacular has never been invisible, unlike European

and/or American milieus, rather an inescapable site of trauma, as both perpetrator of and

witness to racial oppression, which has led White artists to a cultural dominion in which they

can confront “the heart of whiteness… and negotiate white responsibility”.

Art, through representation, has the task and role of articulating and keeping memory alive;

however, it should be done in such a manner that it connects with both the viewer and the

creator, by asking them to reflect and, ultimately, act (van der Watt 2005b:29). According to

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van der Watt (2001:66), these ideas of renegotiating responsibility and guilt, witnessing

trauma and the introspection of whiteness are achieved through “making whiteness strange”.

When examining how White South African artists have addressed and engaged in the

practice of “making whiteness strange”, van der Watt (2001:68-71, 2005b:27-29) identifies

two central aesthetic approaches in crafting such through a performative mode of

representation.

The first approach involves abrupt tactics which are powerful in awakening political

consciousness attributed to the spectators of the artistic creation (van der Watt 2001:70).

Following this line of thought, one might advise that this approach makes use of stark

narratives on whiteness through the direct exploitation of guilt and trauma, thereby

compelling audiences and observers to tackle aspects and ideas on whiteness and the

White identity (van der Watt 2005b:27). Although, Liese van der Watt (2001:70-72,

2005b:32) examines this approach on the narration of whiteness in relation to other White

South African artists, such as Kendell Geers; it is fair to propose that examination following

this approach’s aesthetic and characterisation can be applied to artworks produced by

Minnette Vári.

Figure 8: Minnette Vári, Chimera (video still), 2001. Digital video animation, duration: 180 seconds; audio: 300 seconds. Dimensions variable (Serge Ziegler Galerie 2009).

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This is evident in Chimera (2001), see Figure 8, by Minnette Vári through her appropriation

of the Greek mythological creature of Chimera.5 In the artwork, Vári chaotically films the

frieze of the Voortrekker Monument, an important icon to the White Afrikaner identity and

Nationalist government. In the video animation, Vári captures the sounds and reactions of

the onlookers at the site, whilst digitally splicing herself in the guise of Chimera into selected

frames (van der Watt 2004). Bearing this in mind, one might suggest that Vári attempts to

expose the evils and social ills of the Nationalist government, as Chimera serves as a fertile

metaphor of domination and excesses of power (van der Watt 2004). Vári makes whiteness

strange in this artwork by making her body graphically different, but more so through directly

addressing histories which fall outside of the White South African historical narrative, “the

things unsaid, the stories untold, the truths whispered and the lies proclaimed” (van der Watt

2004). These aspects are identified through the Chimera’s lion face which transforms into a

Zulu warrior and later an Afrikaner, or rather Voortrekker, girl, as well as portions of the video

animation which morph with the marble frieze (van der Watt 2004). Chimera (2001), Figure

8, can be said to embody the first approach in “making whiteness strange”, as its projection

5 Chimera is a grotesque hybrid creature from Greek mythology. The creature's form is composed of a lion's

head, a goat's body and the tail of a serpent or snake (van der Watt 2004).

Figure 9: Minnette Vári, Alien, 1998. Digital video animation, duration: 52 seconds; audio: 134 seconds. Dimensions variable (Goodman Gallery 2012).

19

and splicing of imagery constructs an interrupted chronology that forces viewers to

acknowledge and attend to brutal feelings of guilt, trauma and displacement, as “the borders

between home [the White South African historical identity] and world [post-apartheid South

Africa] become confused” (van der Watt 2004).

The second approach, in “making whiteness strange”, makes use of an aesthetic which

explores the ongoing inquiry into the self and ventures into the realm of trauma and

“empathic unsettlement”,6 hence making it a more interiorised and intimate master narrative

on whiteness (van der Watt 2005b:29). This, in turn, would be suggestive of the reading that

artworks produced in this fashion allow artists and viewers alike to witness their own traumas

by confronting their past and sharing in a sense of co-responsibility, compelling them

towards a new and liberalising identity (van der Watt 2004). Vári’s Alien (1998), Figure 9,

conveys these notions, of confronting the past and shared responsibility, through her

appropriation of real news clippings; the artwork is a series of news footage, taken from

1993 to 1998, which have been distorted and the subjects of which have been replaced with

an avatar of Vári’s naked body7 (van der Watt 2001:68). The avatars’ bodies do not mimic

the exact actions of the subjects captured in the newsreel, hence creating a fragmented

impression of eyewitness accounts (van der Watt 2001:68). One might suggest that Alien

(1998), against this reading, has “made whiteness strange” through its graphical

representation of the White body, as well as directly tackling the idea of incommensurability,8

estrangement and disarticulation between the integration of memory and perception into

White understandings of South African history and context through its structural and visual

components. The looped structure of the video animation and the fragmented soundtrack

could be said to embody the White body’s internalised strife in finding closure for trauma and

guilt (van der Watt 2001:71, 2005b:31).

The piece, Oracle (1999), see Figure 10, continues in this subversive vein of the interiorised

narrative and the self; the artwork is a looped video, which could be said to draw inspiration

from Alien (1998), in which Vári appears naked and eating what is supposedly a piece of

flesh9 (van der Watt 2001:70).Oracle (1999) can be critically read, bearing in mind the white

6 The concept of “empathic unsettlement”, theorised by Dominick LaCapra, is based on the notion that empathy

is an affective dynamic between one’s self and the other, in connection with the witnessing of trauma, with the intention of integrating the past into the present reality. It should, stylistically, not provide a harmonising narrative, as this would prove to be futile and inappropriate to its intention (van der Watt 2005b:32). 7 Vári uses her own body in the artwork, yet it is removed of any distinguishing features. The resulting morphed

appearance makes the subjects of Alien (1998) somewhat anonymous and representative of a universal identity

and/or persona (van der Watt 2005b:30). 8 The term, incommensurability, refers to the discrepancy between personal and historical accounts in the act of

witnessing (van der Watt 2001:68). 9 The viewer, upon closer inspection, discovers that the flesh being devoured is actually news clippings on Africa

and South Africa. In some readings, Oracle (1999) and its subject have been linked to Oswald de Andrade’s

20

body, as a mode of “empathic unsettlement” in Vári’s subject’s incongruous physical

appearance and behaviour. Additionally, the artwork could serve to be evocative of the

White identity attempting “to become part of a new nation interiorising all the… elements of

conflicting histories into the self” and engages with its portion of responsibility in the shared

South African past (van der Watt 2005b:33). In this sense, one might contend that the

narrative of a hybrid identity, posed by Oracle (1999), in the digestion of information can be

likened to the thought of a liberalised White identity (van der Watt 2004).

The art of Minnette Vári and her adoption of the “making whiteness strange” aesthetic are

significant because they both provoke the never-elapsed South African history whilst

engaging in the culture of critical reflection of the fragmented, disorientated and

discontinuous White South African reality (van der Watt 2005b:31). This is realised through

her master narratives and foregrounding of whiteness as a visual which pull both creator and

viewer into confrontation with the past and responsibility, and expressing the trauma of

witness, as well as navigating the conflicted and hypervisibility of the White self and identity.

Following this line of thought, one may infer that Vári’s artworks come from a place of known

whiteness and have found a mode, this being the aesthetic of “making whiteness strange”,

which has the agency to be “continuously [re-]visualising whiteness and what… [its] position

means in the present” (van der Watt 2005b:35).

metaphor on postcolonialism and postcolonial identity embodied in the image of cannibalism (van der Watt 2005b:33).

Figure 10: Minnette Vári, Oracle, 1999. Digital video animation, duration: 120 seconds; audio: 360 seconds. Dimensions variable (van der Watt 2005b:32).

21

6. FROM COMPTON TO CAPE TOWN: DIE ANTWOORD AND WHITE IDENTITY

Academics and scholars have sought to examine how citizens and artists have used artistic

expression as a means of reshaping and redefining social dynamics and identities in the

post-apartheid, democratic South African landscape (Scott 2012:746). Through the insights

of academics, like Hannelie Marx and Viola Candice Milton (2011:723) and Claire Scott

(2012:746), concern has been expressed over the relegation of the White South African

identity in the post-apartheid era, and whether or not artists have fashioned a commitment to

appropriately questioning notions of self and the ‘other’, as well as addressing the

uncertainties surrounding the future configurations in South Africa of racial and cultural

identities (Klopper 2013:129). The focus of these lines of enquiry, in the relocation of White

identity, have focused on the rap-rave group, Die Antwoord, through their use and aesthetic

of zef style with overwhelming visuality in the group’s music videos and mixture and their

appropriation of English-Afrikaans in rap lyrics (Chruszczewska 2014:68).

Die Antwoord, which translates from Afrikaans as “The Answer”, is a Cape Town-based

rave-rap group consisting of three principal members: Ninja, Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek

who ascended to national and international acclaim, in February 2010, after the release of

their music video, Enter the Ninja (NINJA & Malpage 2010a), on YouTube, went viral

(Woodward 2011:14). Prior to Die Antwoord’s meteoric rise to stardom, the members of the

group had a longstanding relationship with the alternative South African music industry. This

is most notable in Ninja, the latest persona of Watkin ‘Waddy’ Tudor Jones, who formerly

performed as different characters and

was involved in other musical groups

and conceptual projects10 (Buchanan

2014:9); as is seen in Figure 11 where

Tudor Jones performs as Max

Normal. Similarly, Yo-landi Vi$$er,

otherwise known as Anri du Toit, has

had various collaborations in South

African music, prior to becoming a key

player of Die Antwoord, mainly with

Max Normal. Claire Scott (2012:747)

asserts that Die Antwoord’s collective

persona is meticulously constructed

10

‘Waddy’ Tudor Jones has been involved in various personae and projects in the South African music scene, including performative identities such as Max Normal and MC Totally Rad, as well being a member of musical group, Constructus Corporation (Scott 2012:747, Buchanan 2014:8-9).

Figure 11: Still frame of Watkin 'Waddy' Tudor Jones as Max Normal performing a proposed identity, Total Fuck Up. 2008 (Buchanan 2014:10).

22

through the reinvention of the members’ selves and the appropriation of various cultural

artefacts and South African identities, as means of legitimising peoples and groups which

had previously been marginalised. This mixture and appropriation is most evident in the

articulation and construction of zef culture and zef style. Following Scott’s (2012:747-748)

idea on the reinvention of the musical group’s members and its collective persona, one might

suggest that this aspect can be viewed as an example of a narrative strategy offered by Die

Antwoord, in the reconstruction of post-apartheid whiteness through the re-creation and

reshaping of Tudor Jones’ and du Toit’s performative personalities and characters. Similarly,

Anton Krueger (2012:400), in quoting Christopher Ballantine (2004:105), writes:

White musicians [in South Africa] have stressed the need for self-reinvention in music… These songs play with the malleable identities; tokens of disdain for fixed or essential identities, they are hopeful signposts towards a more integrated future.

The articulation of zef culture and style through the members’ vivid personae remains a

significant element of Die Antwoord’s phenomenon of relocating racial, specifically White,

identity and class (van der Watt 2012:413). Zef, being the key notion that defines Die

Antwoord is a uniquely South African concept and terminology. Amanda du Preez

(2011:106) believes the term is derived from the Ford Zephyr car which is symbolic of the

South African White working class during the 1950s and 1960s, and connotes a 'white-trash'

Afrikaner aesthetic which is accrued through American popular culture debris (Smit 2015:3).

While zef previously represented what is ‘poor’ and ‘common’ in the South African

vernacular, it has ironically distanced itself from its original meaning and shifted towards a

‘fresh’ and ‘cool’ definition that holds credibility (Marx & Milton 2011:735, du Preez 2011:106,

Truscott 2011:97, van der Watt 2012:411). Krueger (2012:402) affirms this perspective

because, as he suggests, zef has “been reclaimed as a marker of authenticity”. It is plausible

that die Antwoord makes use of zef to narrate themselves because of “their ironic

appropriation of a marginalised white identity” which confronts the seriousness and

perceptions assumed and held by White South Africans, in this way constructing a new

narrative of engagement on White identity through parody (Scott 2012:757). While some

academics, such as van der Watt (2012:409), have suggested that Vi$$er's representation

of femininity is contradictory. On the one hand is her stereotypical image of women in

mainstream rap music as sexual objects, and on the other hand, she appears violent and

scary in both her behaviour and physical manifestation on the ‘other’, see Figure 13, in Fatty

Boom Boom (NINJA, Neale & Bergh 2012) through her cultural appropriation of African

imagery of a mythical creature and resemblance to a voodoo demigod (Chruszczewska

2014:70-71). The visual coding of an eroticised danger allows Vi$$er to satirise stereotypical

23

Figure 12: Scenes showing Yo-landi Vi$$er as a highly sexualised object, Enter the Ninja. 2010. Screenshots by author.

24

Figure 13: Yo-landi Vi$$er in blackface, and reminiscent of an African voodoo doll, which is associated with danger, Fatty Boom Boom. 2012. Screenshot by author.

gender roles through her embracement of promiscuity and grotesque exaggeration, thus

creating a narrative strategy which challenges the binary oppositions between stereotypic

beauty and femininity and the abject which serves as the embodiment of an iconoclastic

potential (du Preez 2011:104, van der Watt 2012:414). Furthermore, one might argue that

Yo-landi's persona, encapsulated in cultural ideas on marginalised beauty and femininity, is

overloaded with meaning that hides underneath the arrangement of guises adopted by the

artist, offering a fluid White identity constructed from a vortex of cultural influences and

exchanges (Chruszczewska 2014:71).

Yo-landi's counterpart is Ninja who makes use of zef signifiers and cultural appropriation,

through tattoos representative of South African Coloured gangster groups and affiliations,

golden teeth and block-like haircut, to invoke an image of social marginality, thereby

transforming zef into a site of rebellion that revaluates the status of the White working class

to a position of power in contemporary South African identity (Chruszczewska 2014:72). The

‘white-trash’ narrative could feasibly be interconnected with White racial identity, as the

aesthetic expression “racialises whiteness in a sense and it becomes… visible” (Marx &

Milton 2011:737). Amanda du Preez (2011:104) proposes that this exaggerated image

presented by Ninja serves to parody ideas on a particular idea of masculinity, much like

Vi$$er's appearance and its relation to femininity. When comparing and examining the two

corresponding physical appearances, of what are essentially social outcasts, Die Antwoord

25

offers a new narrative on White identity through their rebellion and celebration of social and

cultural boundaries and contamination (Marx & Milton 2011:724, van der Watt 2012:413).

The amalgamation of varying South African cultural influences and identities in zef artefacts

enables Die Antwoord to navigate and dissemble White identities, in the post-apartheid

landscape, through the ideas of liminality11 and cultural hybridity (Marx & Milton 2011:735).

Marx and Milton (2011:738-739) contend that subjects occupying a liminal space are able to

linger beyond the critical gaze which observes White and Non-White identities, thus

permitting these persons, via a reconstructed identity narration, to experience an experiential

transformation of cultural fusion. Pursuing this understanding, one is able to propose that Die

Antwoord uses this liminal stage and the idea of hybridity as a tool and counter-narration that

challenges current discourses on White identity in post-apartheid South Africa. Amanda du

Preez (2011:102) explores the concept of the liminal space and Die Antwoord in relation to

the ideas of the carnivalesque and the monstrous and each other. In her findings (2011:112-

114), du Preez advocates that Die Antwoord uses these marginalised elements, which are

usually excluded from consumerist instrumentality, to bring shock and spectacle to the

forefront of popular culture, thereby writing a counter-narrative of “post-hegemonic

potential... [that] emerges from the carnivalesque affects they [Die Antwoord] have on their

audiences”. It would be fair to suggest that Scott’s (2012:751,757) reading of Die Antwoord

and their use of the absurd,

performances and cultural

signifiers, as is observed in Figure

14 referencing the Tokoloshe in

Evil Boy (NINJA & Malpage 2010b),

in conjunction with traditionally

White visual tropes, implies a

degree of normalcy in their visual

narratives. In doing this, Die

Antwoord both identifies new

‘avenues’ of belonging whilst

exoticising South African whiteness

making it visible, and constructing a

White identity counter-narrative,

11

The concept of liminality and the liminal space, derived from Latin's 'limen' meaning threshold, was initially introduced by Victor Turner in 1967. Turner argued that the concept centred on the idea of ambiguity and ambivalence in which this in-between space could allow for the active exchanges of concepts, cultural understandings and ideologies (Le Ann 2006). Le Ann (2006) indicates that liminality and the liminal space be read as a metaphorical realm where social, artistic and political ideas and concepts are in constant states of being questioned and mediated.

Figure 14: Still frame of the Tokoloshe, Evil Boy. 2010. Screenshot by author.

26

through means of disassociation, in the formation of a cultural ‘other’ (Scott 2012:752). The

counter-narrative offered by Scott (2012:752), is suitably linked with the concept of liminal

space, as one observes the use of artistic expression and social amalgamation in the new

White experience, which intersects and overlaps with many differing cultural and social

narratives, in the South African post-apartheid encounter.

The counter-narrative on White identity, as proposed by Scott (2012:745-761), presented by

Die Antwoord has be discussed in earlier scholarly works, including Marx and Milton

(2011:729) and Krueger (2012:400) in reference to zef and the Voëlvry movement12 because

Afrikaans music, during and after the 1980s, established itself and its musicality by opposing

the status quo that existed amongst White South Africans, mostly during the apartheid

regime, and white privilege (Krueger 2012:400). Anton Krueger (2012:406) believes that zef

culture and music groups like Die Antwoord could be viewed as a contemporary evolution of

the Voëlvry movement. This is because of the fact that contemporary Afrikaans musicians,

through cultural contamination and the generation of a cultural hybridity, “are exploring an

explicitly anti-authoritarian [White] identity with fluid boundaries” (Krueger 2012:406) and

“have opened up a space for a generation fed up with politics and the burden of being

white… in post-apartheid South Africa” (Marx & Milton 2011:743). Moreover, Smit (2015:3)

verifies this commentary based on White rappers and how the practice of rap emphasises

their whiteness, hence eroding the invisibility of White identity and white privilege. This is

seen in Enter the Ninja (NINJA & Malpage 2010a), Figure 12, and its lyrics, where Ninja

satirises the meaning of ethnicity and race in South Africa, in which the statements of Ninja’s

‘mixed’ identity attempts to channel and embody the democratic South African vision of the

“Rainbow Nation”, offering a resilient narrative strategy, based on cultural fusion, that

challenges dominant discourses on White identity (Smit 2015:4).

However, sceptics, like Sean O’Toole (2012:399), argue that Die Antwoord is more

concerned with commercial success rather than, genuinely identifying with artists from the

Voëlvry movement, calling for any meaningful examination of the codes in their work.

O’Toole (2012:398) concludes that the group offers a “temporal and spasmodic sense of

South African whiteness” founded on apolitical parody. Equally, some critics disagree on the

idea that Die Antwoord, truly, offer a progressive narrative strategy on South African White

identity, but rather maintain existing ideas on dominant discourses on whiteness (Haupt

2012:422, Kitchiner 2013:65). Both Haupt (2012:417) and Kitchiner (2013:66-67) assert that

Die Antwoord’s performance does not reveal a new and alternative narrative to White South

12

The Voëlvry movement, meaning 'free as a bird, was a form of musical and artist expression, during the 1980s, that expressed the anti-apartheid views of the white Afrikaans youth through the genre of rock (Hopkins 2006:8). The principal objective of the movement was focused on showcasing to the Afrikaner youth to the political change that was required under the apartheid government (Hopkins 2006:8).

27

African identity, instead they perpetuate existing and past discourses that transmit enduring,

often White, beliefs of Black inferiority. Die Antwoord makes use of the gangster trope, both

in reference to African-American communities and South African Coloured groups, through

the visual strategies and signifiers of blackface13, shown in Fatty Boom Boom (NINJA, Neale

& Bergh 2012) – Figure 13 – in which Yo-landi Vi$$er adorns her White skin with black paint

and the exaggeration of African-American rap imagery, as well as linguistic tactics that

distort the initial art of hip-hop and rap culture (Kitchiner 2013:70). This is illustrated in Fok

Julle Naaiers (NINJA & Garret 2012) through visual cues that are indicative of a racial

apartheid-like hierarchy where Whites are superior, Coloureds form the intermediary and

Black subjects remain at the periphery (Kitchiner 2013:74). Therefore, Die Antwoord’s

seizure of gangster rap imagery, tropes and rhetoric become a medium for the formulation of

Black identity which, in turn, develops Black invisibility into the founding means for White

superiority (Kitchiner 2013:74).

The unadulterated heterogeneity and hybridity employed by Die Antwoord through the

cultural contamination of zef culture in the group's music and art both actively recreate and

reshape South African White identity through new narratives and counter-narratives, whilst

maintaining pre-existing ideas in dominant discourses on South African whiteness. Thus,

one might conclude that the narrations presented by Die Antwoord aim at transforming the

South African White identity by means of mixing South African aesthetics, rap visual and

linguistic cues and post-apartheid social dynamics into a ‘freak’ identity that is devoid of

defined ethnic and racial definition. However, for the moment, it remains an “identity-in-

translation” (Chruszczewska 2014:79).

7. CONCLUSION

Following these insights, from various scholarly discourses, into the definition of whiteness

and its representation in both contemporary western popular and high culture, it is evident

that the visual and the act of sight are racialised in its practice (Smith 2014:1). The portrayal

of stability and rationality depicted in White characters in cinema stands in juxtaposition to

the representation of Black subjects and their depictions (Dyer 1988:47-48). Moreover, upon

closer investigation and drawing from the academic contributions of bell hooks (2006)

through an analysis of ‘white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’, it becomes clear that the

13

According to Adam Haupt (2012:417-418), blackface is a practice which travesties Black people and is performed by White subjects; it is predominantly used for parodic performance and racist ridicule. Blackface, as a practice which was established in the nineteenth century, is problematic owing to the variety of meanings associated with it that were devoid of Black cultural regulation. It is important to acknowledge that blackface “reveal[s] less about black subjects and more about white racist projections of black identity” (Haupt 2012:418).

28

social practice of looking and seeing, as well as the depiction of the visual, is not only

racialised, but it is also gendered. This is a consequence of the western media’s consistent

representation of the patriarchal and domineering White male character and the perpetuation

of the societal exemplar of White and male privilege which are captured in Blood Diamond’s

(Zwick 2006) Danny Archer. In turn, these findings highlight the pertinence of

interdisciplinary discussion and inquiry between visual culture and racial studies discourses,

as well as other academic fields and their inputs. In so doing, it will enable visual culture to

offer greater understandings into the contexts and practices which frame the visual, sight

and the active practice of looking (Smith 2014:1).

It would be insufficient to conclude this assignment on the basis of the need for further

inquiry into these social practices and frameworks without being conscience of the

representation of whiteness in the South African context and experience. As van der Watt

(2001:65, 2005a:132, 2005b:27) acknowledges whiteness and the White identity has never

been invisible in the South African socio-political milieu, but rather has and continues to be

hypervisibile. Given the findings, one might conclude that South African popular culture and

art attempt to re-visualise the South African White identity through representation. While,

some representations, such as post-apartheid South African film, might present a

reductionist and oversimplified binary that offer a mythologised interpretation of the White

identity (Reid 2012:60); other representations, including the aesthetics belonging to Minnette

Vári and Die Antwoord, attempt to offer new narratives and counter-narratives which defy the

dominant discourses that define South African whiteness. One could suggest that this is

achieved through the creation of a representative space and platform, which comes from a

place of known whiteness and allows, through cultural contamination, amalgamation and

hybridity, for transformation. Therefore, after highlighting these aspects on the

representation of whiteness and the White identity in post-apartheid South Africa, it is

evident that the contemporary White South African identity, whilst trying to directly confront

and be devoid of racial definition through visual representation, remains in a state of flux or

rather an ‘identity-in-translation’ (Chruszczewska 2014:79), as it is “continuously [re-

]visualising whiteness and what… [its] position means in the present” (van der Watt

2005b:35).

29

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