“Video aesthetics in the work of Berni Searle”- Delphine LOPEZ, dissertation for the first year

of master in History of Art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, June 2013 [Abstract]

Following the end of racial segregation (1994), identity politics have become the figurehead

of contemporary creation in South Africa. The “post-apartheid kids”, a new generation of artists

including Berni Searle (born in 1964 in Cape Town) were keen on achieving a typically South African

art. However, the entrance of South Africa on the international scene operated major changes in

the country’s orientation. On the art scene, contemporary artists turned from a national scale to an

international one polarised by more global stakes. On the other hand, increasing processes of

globalisation understood as the expansion of capitalistic logics to every aspect of life appears as

another threat for identity politics as defined in the 1990s. A new paradigm must be defined to

make justice to the richness of the artistic production of an artist such as Berni Searle. In order to

fully apprehend the originality of her works, a reflection on contemporary theory of intersectionality

as well as insights into materialist feminism will be developed. The use of video medium by the

artist will be precisely analysed as, through it, Berni Searle produces a complex vision of female

identity. Our reflection on the very properties of video, and its ambiguous relation with the logic of

capitalism will try to highlight the unfolding of a true aesthetics in which the viewer is a crucial

actor.

Home and Away, Berni Searle, 2003, video stills, double screen projection, 16mm shot, transferred on SD card, 6min, colour and sound synchronised, commissioned for NMAC, Vejer, Spain, Image from: M. Dewilde, B. Josse , M. Westen (eds), Berni Searle-Interlaced, (Culturecentrum Brugge, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arhem, Franc Loraine, 2011)