Umakoti

Figure 1: Ndongeni, S. (2015) Umakoti clothing.

My cultural heritage is a mixture of Bhaca, Xhosa and Zulu; however I grew up identifying more with the Xhosa, as that is the side I was predominately exposed to, although I would be traditionally referred to as iBhaca. Having been raised in a family which did not practice traditional customs,  I would say that my understanding of many Xhosa traditions and cultural practices was minimal when I began with this report.

Through my personal journey of becoming umakoti and through the research, I have found that there are rules to be followed and even a specific hierarchy even among the brides within her new family. These are determined by many factors one of these being how long one has been married; thus giving umakoti that has been married longer superiority over a recently married umakoti., this is regardless of the wife’s age.

Although this research report is based on the bridal narrative, it will, however, be mainly addressing the plight of the Xhosa umakoti. As addressed in a later section, Christianity is the main religious denomination which has had an influence on the Xhosa culture and this report will, therefore, be outlining the Christian perspective of marriage rather than the more westernized or universal marriage concepts. For discussion purposes this report will be adopting the Xhosa and Christian perspective of a marriage union, those being heterosexual marriages, a marriage between man and woman (Goodacre,2007; Church, 2002).

For the umakoti who  practices and observes the Christianity,their bridal journey will involve the following:
a. Ukwenda/ Xhosa marriage customs
b.  Christian marriage customs.

This report will highlight the main concepts with regards to umakoti:

1. Labola/ bride price
2.    Ukuthwala-(bridal abduction)
3.   Child marriage
4. Ukuyala
5. Ukuhlonipha

The caged bird series

1. The angle I have chosen to tackle my report from is through using two mediums in order to express one idea, these mediums being poetry and jewellery.  The Jewellery piece in figure 1 was one of the developments of this series, where I was still discovering how to express the idea of being caged verses negative space.

Figure 1: Ndongeni, S (2019). Caged bird bugle and tube beaded neckpiece

Since this was one of the initial concepts that I had worked with, I have listed the three major topics I have chosen to discuss this particular series under.
1.The Poem
a. Written
b. Spoken word

2.The Explorations
The list below are the initial ideas fro my cage bird deisgn, I have palced them in their order of development
a. Cage bird concept 1
b.Cage bird concept 2
c. Cage bird concept 3
d.Cage bird concept 4

3. The Jewellery

What kind of Imagery and symbolism have they used?

Ndongeni, S (2019). Xhosa Fertility Charms Display, East London Museum.b

While at the museum, I had found that there was a lot of symbolic imagery used within the traditional Xhosa beadworks. I will however be only discussing those which are relevant this research report. 

Ndongeni, S. (2019). Xhosa love dolls , East London Museum. 

The Xhosa love dolls in the picture above were traditional worn by young girls who had the "misfortune" of not receiving a marriage proposal. These were not made by the young woman themselves, but were however made by old woman and were then to be secretly worn around the neck, until such a time the young girl received a marriage proposal.

These dolls were believed to have the ability to attract a husband.These dolls would therefore fall under the classification of spiritual jewellery. 

What kind of Imagery and symbolism has she used?

As previously stated, the main focus of Stuntman's narrative works are women and she therefore relies on a lot of imagery which will depict the various aspects of created womenhood in order to express her narrative. 

Figure 26 Figure 27 Barbara Stutman, (1996) Stacking Reality Brooch. [ONLINE]

In her series entitled "Stacking Realities",  as seen above; she has created a womanlike figurine with a tray attached to her. 

Figure 28 Stutman, B (1993). One Being Female. Brooch [ONLINE]

Her work is a creative collection which uses a vast number of imageries all centred on that specific subject matter. An example of this is the 4 part brooch taken from her "One Being Female" series. With these Brooches, she has incorporated the use of tampons alongside fine silver, Spandex, colouredcopper wire, brass and copper. 

Figure 29 Stutman, B. (1998) It’s a girl! 2 Fine silver and coloured copper ring. [ONLINE]

She sometimes also used shoes, specifically high hills in order to mock media for their false idea of their ideal women.

As seen in the three examples provided, she has relied on the usage of various imagery based on the specific subject matter, but all pertaining to  women. 

Caged bird formation

Emily Christiana Bryne

In her work, Bryne's main aim is to use her narrative jewellery as a means to engage with the wearer and her audience.

Engagement ring, understanding connection. (2009)

The jewellery item designed by Bryne is one of her earlier experiments where she was trying to explore the concept of connection and ways in which she could depict it using jewellery. I have chosen the above picture as it embodies the concept of expressing a narrative using contemporary jewellery. As it focuses more on the narrative it is meant to depict to an audience.

What I have found to be interesting about this piece is how it allows for an actual physical connection to another person. She went even further with her exploration by including an actual microphone as part of the ring design. This would then enable a person's heartbeat to be heard when placed on their heart, which will be then transmitted through the heartbeat she has created.

I have found the design to have taken many elements and thoughts into consideration, not simply relying on the mind of the viewer to dissect the designer's meaning.

1. Which Issues does she address in her work?
2. How does she deal with them?

                                 i.            Which materials has she used and why?

                               ii.            Which Techniques has she used?

                              iii.            What kind of Imagery and symbolism has she used?

• How is her work similar to mine?

Poetry as a Narrative

All poetry is narrative as each word or line expresses a message. As defined in the beginning section of Narratives poetry, poetry uses language to express its chosen perspective of reality. Using poetry devices such as metaphor, rhyme meter, etc; the poet can transfer thought, feeling, and experience.

Traditional poems focused attention to rhyme structure, rhythm, and other poetry devices, while the more modern narrative poems tend to break those traditional rules and may even have no specific rhyme within the poem itself. However, one common reality that remains though is that it tells a story, it provides brief or intense descriptions concerning the subject matter and is ultimately more dramatized, unlike the other poetry classifications.

This report has therefor defined poetry any given emotion, thought or situation. As a painter would use their colour and art principles in order to create  a specific feeling or portrayal of a subject in order to engage with an audience, so does a poet with words. However, they would use poetic principles in order to achieve this.

Xhosa keepers

Figure Xhosa woman wearing a Keeper. (ONLINE) Figure 1  Xhosa woman wearing a Keeper. (ONLINE)[1]

Figure 2 Xhosa woman wearing a Keeper. (ONLINE)

The woman in the picture above is wearing a Xhosa traditional Keeper which depicts the stage she is now in as a Xhosa wife. The triangles symbolize an older married woman, and the fact that the woman in the Keep has no legs is an indication that the woman wearing the keeper feels that she is worn out at this stage in her life and she, therefore, will not have any use for her legs. 

Caged Bird

The concept of the 'Caged bird' narrative, is a concept of a cage being like an actual prison, as it is restrictive in nature, restricting the physical, mental, social etc. These are the general feelings associated with a cage or a prison, as seen in the picture below.

Man in prison

 There video below is meant to display birds in flight, the reason why I chose it is that I want show the contrast between the depressing picture of prison and that of a bird flying. Usually birds symbolize flight, freedom, movement, exploring and by nature able to reach new heights.

The broken wings, would then represent the prison, since a bird with a broken wing would be restricted from knowing the freedom it ks accustomed to.


Man in prison URL:https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-typical-day-in-jail.htm
Birds in flight URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1wp1RnC7kk

Happily ever after

Cinderella 

When I embarked on the journey of creating a bridal themed collection, I was soon faced with the challenge, would I as a jeweller follow the status quo by creating jewellery which would paint a narrative identical to the one portrayed by media? Or would I create a collection of jewellery based on the narrative of millions of women and young girls who never find this Prince Charming?

The above picture is an example of what media portrays, as appealing as it may be create the Cinderella tale, I felt that there were some real stories which were being swept under the red carpet she walks on. 

Therefore with my work, I wanted to try to narrate the bridal/ umakoti narrative of those who never got to live that fairytale ending. I feel that as much as they are represented in statistics and numbers, that those were and are lives, which have stories and perspectives which need to be told. Their lives are not just more stories, but their reality.

I have therefore tried to use jewellery alongside poetry in order to capture these idea. Within a story, a movie to be specific its not just the words which express the story, but all the small pieces which inform one story, such as the lighting, the music, the props and clothing. In a similar way, the jewellery which I will be making will also rely on the colour, the textures, the words and the symbols in order to effectively portray the narratives.

Picture URL:https://sites.google.com/site/07cinderella23b/my-happily-ever-after

Quick thoughts

After the previous posts based on my artworks I began to do a similar write up based on my B. Tech narrative works. As I began to reflect on the symbols, metaphors and the words I had used; I realised that with some of the pieces and poems, I completely pushed the boundaries, or at least mine.

The above picture is an example of what I mean by pushing the boundaries. The picture was one of the artworks, if I can call it that, that I had made a few years ago. When I had initially chose it  from the stuff in the box, I felt that it would be a perfect reference point for my suicide pieces. However, after doing the suicide version of it, I started to find even the pieces to be more than going beyond the box.

I suddenly feel that my topic in itself is pushing in terms of a bridal narrative, and to add suicide in the mix, it sounds a bit morbid. I wanted realistic, to show the millions of narratives swept under the carpet, i finally realise why they are swept under the carpet. Nobody wants to associate marriage, bridal, umakoti etc with sadness and anything negative; hence the fairytales. 

Painted thoughts 2

The above painting is one of the remakes I found. In this painting I was trying to narrate the idea of temptation vs Jesus praying at the garden of Gethesemane. I had made the tree take thr form of a woman as she was the one who was deceived by the snake, who then went on to give the fruit to Adam and hence the fall of man. The other significance of the woman is the fact that God had declared that it would be the seed of woman that would crush the head of the snake. The third significance of the woman is the idea that God calls the church His bride, hence having a woman in the form of a tree would be of great significance especially at that specific scene. 

The significance of the snake was the fact that the devil had entered the snake when he tempted the woman, which then lead to the snake being cursed. The other reason is that, many people associate the snake with evil and the devil for this reason. Therefore having the snake wrapped around the tree/woman, would be symbolic of how he had deceived the woman, and how he continues to deceive the woman Christ views as His bride.

According to the first books in the New Testament, it is recorded that before Jesus was arrested, He prayed for Himself, the disciples and future believers. This was an intense time of prayer as He had known all that He was about to suffer, we have no exact knowledge as to what was happening during this time in terms of the spiritual battle that was being waged however it was so intense that Jesus even if asked "Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from me..." The cup being symbolic of what He was about to suffer in order to save mankind. 

These are the reasons why I had chosen to work with these specific symbols in the painting 

Ikhomo-ilobola

One good thing about the day was my second attempt at the rhino cow.I still need to make a few adjustments before I can getting to cast, but this is a huge improvement from the one that I had made last year. The first picture is the cow's front view, am not sure if I am too happy about it and I might need to tweak it abit, reason being that when worn it will be the first thing a person sees and I need for it to be visibly accurate as I can get.

Cow front view 

The second picture is the cow and the frame, judging from the printing, I must have  made some mistakes because the frame was meant to be connected to the cow, so I will need to work on that and consider how I can make the proportions work for the cow.

Cow and frame

I am happy with my side view, there isn't much that I would like to fix with it.

Cow side view 

Close up view

Virtual gallery part 3

 “Too much is not enough”.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/15597031/Too-much-is-not-enough 

From the third paragraph I was able to discern that when working with narrative jewellery, one needs to consider the title of the piece very carefully so as to guide others towards their narrative and in their understanding of their work. This is especially important when the artist or jeweller has used symbolism which is not familiar nor known by their audience. An example of this would be using figurative elements so as to express an idea. An example I came across which depicted this paragraph was the work of Reka Lorincz, as seen above, which is a comment on the consumer mentality.

‘Til death do us part (part 3)

The following growth point of the suicide concept was having all these little beaded headless female figures hanging on the noose. I however, found this concept and layout to be a little too troubling so thought that I should keep them on ice, until I could find a less disturbing design composition for the beaded women.

Til death do us part (part 2)

• 

I then decided to use actual rope, so that I could play around with the concept further, I melted the bottom, added beaded work, I got creative with it. This then gave me the idea that I should use some form of imagery which would represent a women, without it being too graphic in nature. I then thought of the most obvious symbol for a woman, which is a flower.

I then  though that instead of just having the flower hanging at one end, I could tell a story or make my comment by having this flower image at one end of the rope, and a beaded female figure beaded onto the other end.

 I still have to work out the actual poem, but the idea behind it is that, she started off as a flower, and the ground she was forced to live in was the death of her. Something along those lines, I still have process it and the design itself.

‘Til death do us part…

In my research, I have come across one sad truth that throughout history, many women have found an escape from this life in death. In some cases they survived the suicide attempt, while in other cases they found peace; if peace is what awaited their souls. I listened to the voice of desperation in the voices of those that survived and watched the faces of mother’s who remained mothers, yet no longer had a daughter. It is reality, it is part of human history, and sadly it is part of the bridal narrative history; one I wanted to address in my work somehow. Without having written a poem, I set out to start off the design and conceptualization process and these are some of the pictures of the stuff I started creating from the suicide angle of the bridal narrative. I had started off by purchasing a rope which resembled the rope which was used as a noose in many olden day movies; I wanted to capture the familiarity of the noose image we were mostly exposed to. So I had asked Nick show me how to tie one.

Design concept two

One of my first design and narrative thoughts was to look at the cow in itself as a key element for inspiration. I started off with looking at the cow pattern and tried to stylize it as seen in the picture below.

Cow pattern 

 I still have to decide what it is that I will make with the elements, but I just loved the idea of using gold and royal blue to depict the cow skin and its patches.

cow faces

I then decided to try the idea of making a cartoon-like cow with the beading and I actually enjoyed the outcome, although I still need to  finish off the piece of jewellery with the beaded cow faces.

I had gone on to expand on the labola concept by first designing a cow’s head using the Rhino design programme, I did this with the intentions of printing the cow head so that it would be the most dominate feature in the piece of jewellery which I would make. I have included some of the initial CAD/CAM drawings of the cow head.

Ndongeni, S. (2018) CAD/CAM Cow head

The reason for making the cow the focal point is that it is my way of expressing the idea of it being the most important features within the negotiations.