scholarly journals Art? Science? .... Alchemy: The materiality of spiritual expression in artistic creation revealed through the analytical techniques of a heritage conservator

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggi Loubser ◽  
Salome le Roux
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Chemical Components ◽  
African Art ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art Form ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Spiritual Impact ◽  
Spiritual Expression

To the uninitiated, it is quite probable that the results that art conservators derive from analytical techniques, may resemble alchemy, but they do not create gold from lead. Instead, they represent the composition of an object as its chemical components. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) has long been used for the compositional determination of minerals and metals in the mining and manufacturing industries, and over the past few years the applications in art and conservation increased rapidly. In addition, technical photography (in which filtering determines which wavelengths of light reach the camera) has the ability to create a new art form – one that, apart from being visually appealing, can provide information on the materials which had been used by the artist. In this manner, a whole new layer of information may be revealed, adding to the aesthetic and spiritual impact of the work. In this article, two objects of African art, namely a century-old prayer scroll from Ethiopia and a twodecades old sculpture by South African artist Lucky Sibiya, are investigated to see if this ‘alchemy’ can reveal that which even the artists were unaware of.

scholarly journals Trace Elements in Mediterranean Mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis from the South African West Coast

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Bezuidenhout ◽  
Nicole Dames ◽  
Alfred Botha ◽  
Marina V. Frontasyeva ◽  
Zoya I. Goryainova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
South African ◽  
Mytilus Galloprovincialis ◽  
Soft Tissues ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Major And Trace Elements ◽  
Inorganic Contaminants ◽  
Bivalve Molluscs ◽  
Icp Ms

Abstract Invasive bivalve molluscs, Mediterranean mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were used as sentinel biomonitors of pollution by inorganic contaminants in Saldanha Bay and the Langebaan Lagoon area of South Africa. Two complementary analytical techniques, ICP-MS and NAA, allowed for determination of concentrations of 31 major and trace elements including heavy metals and arsenic in the soft tissues of the mussels. Distinct seasonal patterns were found in the dynamics of these concentrations, with the mussels accumulating much more trace elements in winter than in the summer. In general, the mussels that grew naturally also demonstrated higher concentrations of As, Cd, Fe, Hg and Zn than those that were farmed. Fe showed the highest levels with a maximum concentration of 444 mg/kg followed by Zn with a maximum of 228 mg/kg. The concentrations of Mn and Pb were significantly higher in the Port of Saldanha close to the jetty where ores containing these metals are loaded in comparison with the other sampling sites. It was concluded that bivalve molluscs present themselves as effective biomonitors when assessing marine aquatic pollution by inorganic contaminants in the Saldanha Bay region.

scholarly journals Behind UCT’s Removed Art: the Writing on the Wall

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Ivor Powell
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Campus Community ◽  
African Art ◽  
Student Protests ◽  
The Past ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Potential Damage ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University

Editor’s note: This commentary was first published in the South African Art Times, and is reproduced here with permission.During the past two years, fine art has been under attack at the University of Cape Town (UCT), with artworks defaced, intentionally destroyed by fire and blacklisted during various student protests. In response, some 74 works of art from the University’s collection—by some of the country’s most acclaimed artists—have been taken down or covered up “on the grounds of their vulnerability to potential damage” or because “some members of the campus community have identified certain works of art as offensive to them—for cultural, religious or political reasons.”

The Affective Experience of Space

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Schaub
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
The Public ◽  
Human Voice ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Work Functions ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Aesthetic

This article investigates the aesthetic conclusions that the Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller draw from the basic phenomenon of listening—such as the “horizon of simultaneity” of sound and vision—in their own creation of their audio- and video-walks. It describes how their work functions as social experiments in the public sphere. The thesis is that their works “vampirize” sounds and actively assimilate them to natural acoustic tracks and traces, thus becoming affective traps for their pursuers. Cardiff and Miller lead the participants astray in their desire to actually “see” what is “only” to be heard. Thus an uncanny criminology of artificially laid traces is to be predicated on the seductiveness of the disembodied human voice as guiding narrative. Cardiff’s and Miller’s intriguing art form improvises a new way across the ravages of time by inventing new vestiges of the past.

scholarly journals Seemingly ‘impossible’ art forms: Strijdom van der Merwe’s land art in the context of the South African art market

Literator ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Le Clus-Theron
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Art Market ◽  
Land Art ◽  
Full Time ◽  
The South ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
African Art ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
The 1960S

This article explored the work of Strijdom van der Merwe, the concept of land art and the notion of the artist’s book in the context of the historical and contemporary art market. The premise of the article is the view that if something can be called art, it can also be sold, even if it is an art form that seems ‘impossible’ to sell, such as land art. This article considers the position of Van der Merwe, the pre-eminent South African land artist, in the somewhat unlikely context, of the South African art market. Van der Merwe is a successful full-time land artist, which is a rare phenomenon in the South African art scene. Indeed in the 1960s, land art was deemed impossible to sell anywhere, and this article explored the extent to which this is still the case today. The research method of the article comprised semi-structured interviews and a literature review. It was argued, in view of Van der Merwe’s work, that whilst it may be true that if something can be called art, it can be sold, then the proviso ‘somehow’ must be added when referring to seemingly ‘impossible art’.

scholarly journals Assessing the presence of pesticides in modern and contemporary textile artifacts using advanced analysis techniques

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (02) ◽  
pp. 138-143
Author(s):  
Elena Cornelia Mitran ◽  
Irina Mariana Sandulache ◽  
Lucia Oana Secareanu ◽  
Mihaela Cristina Lite ◽  
Ovidiu George Iordache ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
The Past ◽  
Art Objects ◽  
Textile Art ◽  
Advanced Analysis ◽  
Identification And Quantification

The examination of contemporary textiles continuously offers amazing perspectives of the past for anyone who explores them. The ethnographic textile pieces are complex, both from the perspective of the component materials and regarding the techniques used for their manufacture. The action of conserving the cultural and artistic patrimony is firstly a matter of scientific research and then of technical execution. However, the possible health effects on the personnel, which are directly involved in the actions of sampling, conservation or restoration of the textile art objects, must always be taken into consideration. Textile objects can be contaminated with various toxic residues (e.g., pesticides). When investigating archaeological, modern and contemporary textiles it is very important to maintain the integrity of the artifacts, as they cannot be replaced, and the consumption or damage of even a small part of them for analytical purposes should be undertaken only if the data cannot be obtained differently. For determining the presence of pesticides in the samples they must be subjected to processes such as: extraction, enrichment of samples, isolation, identification, and quantification. Given the above, the most common methods of extraction and determination of pesticides present in textile artifacts were briefly discussed. Punctually, the analytical techniques used in the case of three selected pesticides (malathion, methoxychlor and permethrin) were evaluated

The Use of Advanced Analytical Techniques for Characterization of the Chemical, Physical, and Crystallographic Nature of a Surface

1973 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 132-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Herfert
Keyword(s):  
Surface Characterization ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Depth Of Penetration ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Scanning Electron

Studies of the nature of a surface, either metallic or nonmetallic, in the past, have been limited to the instrumentation available for these measurements. In the past, optical microscopy, replica transmission electron microscopy, electron or X-ray diffraction and optical or X-ray spectroscopy have provided the means of surface characterization. Actually, some of these techniques are not purely surface; the depth of penetration may be a few thousands of an inch. Within the last five years, instrumentation has been made available which now makes it practical for use to study the outer few 100A of layers and characterize it completely from a chemical, physical, and crystallographic standpoint. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) provides a means of viewing the surface of a material in situ to magnifications as high as 250,000X.

Transmission Electron Microscopy of Protein Macromolecules

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 424-425
Author(s):  
Henry S. Slayter
Keyword(s):  
Biological Systems ◽  
Metal Vapor ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Chemical Methods ◽  
Molecular Weights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Physical Chemical ◽  
Transmission Electron

Electron microscopic methods have been applied increasingly during the past fifteen years, to problems in structural molecular biology. Used in conjunction with physical chemical methods and/or Fourier methods of analysis, they constitute powerful tools for determining sizes, shapes and modes of aggregation of biopolymers with molecular weights greater than 50, 000. However, the application of the e.m. to the determination of very fine structure approaching the limit of instrumental resolving power in biological systems has not been productive, due to various difficulties such as the destructive effects of dehydration, damage to the specimen by the electron beam, and lack of adequate and specific contrast. One of the most satisfactory methods for contrasting individual macromolecules involves the deposition of heavy metal vapor upon the specimen. We have investigated this process, and present here what we believe to be the more important considerations for optimizing it. Results of the application of these methods to several biological systems including muscle proteins, fibrinogen, ribosomes and chromatin will be discussed.

Suicidal Behavior in Black South Africans

Crisis ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourens Schlebusch ◽  
Naseema B.M. Vawda ◽  
Brenda A. Bosch
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
South African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
To Come

Summary: In the past suicidal behavior among Black South Africans has been largely underresearched. Earlier studies among the other main ethnic groups in the country showed suicidal behavior in those groups to be a serious problem. This article briefly reviews some of the more recent research on suicidal behavior in Black South Africans. The results indicate an apparent increase in suicidal behavior in this group. Several explanations are offered for the change in suicidal behavior in the reported clinical populations. This includes past difficulties for all South Africans to access health care facilities in the Apartheid (legal racial separation) era, and present difficulties of post-Apartheid transformation the South African society is undergoing, as the people struggle to come to terms with the deleterious effects of the former South African racial policies, related socio-cultural, socio-economic, and other pressures.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document