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(iii) Thirdly, the University — with good reason — often cites plagiarism as the most cardinal academic sin but I believe denialism and escapism have even more disastrous effects. 33 Any attempt to stifle debate — even between students and lecturers — should be rejected. Interpreting art to ‘challenge conventional wisdoms’, to critically think about the world around us and to produce new and radically different understandings of and solutions to, inter alia, the issues that Diane Victor captures in her drawings is one of the many ways in which we can achieve the transformation needed to advance the academic project and more importantly dislodge those very evils that Diane Victor depicts. Ergo, the University must place itself or at least see itself to be in a position to deliver social transformation but if it cannot do that, it must become a breeding ground for social transformers. This is suggestive for the day-to-day politics, which in turn informs the culture and core value-system that prevail in the Faculty and ultimately, the kind of lawyers it produces. If the question of the University as open space does not receive the attention it deserves, then it will be true — as Prof Jonathan Jansen has said — that ‘... Tukkies can’t produce intellectuals’. 34 5 Conclusion Art is no stranger to controversy. I would even go as far as to suggest that some art would not be so called if it did not shock us out of our complacency, forcing us to confront issues and themes that we are only too happy to gloss over. 35 Art, like field journalism, music, poetry & literature and protest theatre have had an immense impact on society and have been invaluable in uncovering and understanding the constraints, challenges and dangers that prevail in post-apartheid South Africa, post-colonial Africa and the post-war world. For 33 Prof van Marle puts forward an interesting proposition. Her argument suggests that since students are not being taught and encouraged to develop their own ideas, they end up plagiarising other people’s work. The emphasis here is on the fact that universities are supposed to be intellectual and creative environments. The events in the faculty and final decision to hide the etchings in the Public Law HOD’s office are in diametric opposition to what the University should strive to be. This may require further research and exploration but it is a notion that I support wholeheartedly. 34 J Jansen ‘Why Tukkies cannot develop intellectuals’ (2001) Innovation Lecture Series University of Pretoria. 35 P Matjila ‘Dissecting Nelson Mandela’ The Times 13 July 2010 9. 17
18 this reason the arts remain essential to democratic life in the ‘new’ South Africa. The Dianne Victor etchings are gripping. The question is: how do we — in an open democratic space — create the possibility of her etchings to articulate her intended message about the horrors and violent reality of living in modern-day South Africa? Receiving the message will of course not be easy because she paints a grim picture (literally) of what the ‘new’ South Africa has become. Cruel. Impoverished. Barbaric. Immoral. Unsafe. Corrupt. And in all cases, the law often watches and does nothing. This is why the Faculty of Law may have wasted a unique opportunity for meaningful reflection on what Van Marle calls ‘the impotence of rights to address many wrongs within society’ 36 and on ‘law’s time, particularity and slowness’. 37 I will now turn to the etchings as critique on law. In teasing out a link between the crimes (against humanity) depicted in the etchings and (the) law, Johan Thom, specifically referring to the ‘Disasters of Peace’ series remarks that: The existence of law may account for the existence of crime as it calls into being a set of actions, behavioural patterns and certain kinds of relations between entities/objects as ‘crimes’ or ‘criminal behaviour’. Thus without law, there is no crime (though the opposite does not necessarily hold true) — violent acts won’t disappear but the ways in which we understand them and the reasons why such acts are perpetrated within society, would have to be reconsidered. As long as we continue to believe that ‘Justice is blind’ we sustain the illusion that the law protects citizens through a mandate that is somehow above the petty practices of (our) commerce, politics and sociocultural interactions. Barbarism and civilization go hand in hand and we are all implicated. 38 36 Van Marle (n 3 above) 24. See also C Douzinas The end of human rights (2000); K van Marle ‘Laughter, refusal and friendship: Thoughts on a “jurisprudence of generosity”’ (2007) 18(1) Stellenbosch Law Review 194 198; T Madlingozi ‘Legal academics and progressive politics in South Africa: Moving beyond the ivory tower’ PULP Fictions (2006) 17. 37 K van Marle ‘Law’s time, particularity and slowness’ (2003) 19 South African Journal on Human Rights 239 255. 38 Thom ‘The sleeping monster produces reasons’ http://johanthom.com/ writtenbiocv/authored/the-sleeping-monster-produces-reasons-diane-victor/ (accessed 26 April 2010).
Page 1 and 2: DISASTERS OF PEACE: PART 2 2011
Page 3 and 4: ‘Made to measure’ by Diane Vict
Page 6 and 7: The politics of horror art, freedom
Page 8 and 9: art on their behalf’ 6 while Van
Page 10 and 11: 2.2 How do we categorise art? The d
Page 12 and 13: this kind of innocence, of superfic
Page 14 and 15: we want to advocate in the Law Facu
Page 16 and 17: Following my support for Van Marle
Page 20 and 21: Returning to my earlier point about
Page 22: ... Open and transparent — ironic
Page 25 and 26: 24 Shying away from the images is s
Page 27 and 28: 26 inclined to. 6 Simply put, sex s
Page 29 and 30: 28 exhibit the violent nature of su
Page 31 and 32: 30 I have already pointed out the a
Page 33 and 34: 32 The Damaso artwork demonstrates
Page 35 and 36: 34 basis’. 27 Public response tha
Page 38 and 39: Untitled Christof Heyns Faculty of
Page 40 and 41: At the main exhibition hall a publi

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