modern ways of seeing

HST230s
'Modern ways of seeing’: Studies in the role and development of C19 museums

RESEARCH ESSAY
By:
Stephen Conor Thabiso Ralphs


31 October 2001




























In a recent holiday trip to the Drakensburg with my extended family (in celebration of my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary), with this essay at the back of my mind and my inherited sporting inclinations being enticed constantly, I was fortunate to be presented with a few symbolic 'visuals'. These visuals filter through at this stage of final execution of this essay, which is a response to the closure of the 'bushman' (hunter-gatherer) diorama. The first was a wooden sculpture of two Khoisan hunters in poised positions situated in the lobby of the posh resort we stayed at. Their stance and static nature echoing their modelled and cast, clothed and positioned, life-size counterparts in glass surrounded displays at the recently closed 'bushman' diorama in the South Afr...