My research is located at the heart of the struggle by marginalized black South African women who employ art as a means of dealing with the aftermath of political violence and trauma in post-apartheid South Africa. Focusing on three women's rural art-making projects which have emerged in South Africa since the early 1990s, my thesis examines the 'voices of women' through visual narrative in dealing with issues of trauma, memory of violence, and HIV/AIDS, as well as the potential offered by visual culture for empowerment of these women within the context of the relationship of marginalization, poverty, and representation. Through their engagement with visual storytelling in dealing with historicized harm, these artists are enabling narrative expansion to the restrictive testimonial practices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) which has been widely acknowledged as a failure for women through its narrow focus on individual physical forms of harm.
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