‘Deconstructing Dogma’: Transgressive religious iconography in South African art

AbstractIn this article I present a brief theoretical overview of the history of religious imagery and iconoclasm as a background for the works that are displayed in the exhibition ‘Deconstructing Dogma’, held at the University of Johannesburg's Art Gallery from 6–28 May 2014. I explain the strength of feeling ascribed to images that are considered sacred, with the result that they comprise a perfect vehicle for parodic quotation in post-modern terms, leading to a disruption of complacent viewing. The long history of values, idealistic role models and didactic instruction inherent in Christian imagery is thus exposed in such a way as to encourage questioning of how those values may still be informing contemporary social behaviour. A close iconographic analysis of selected examples from the ‘Deconstructing Dogma’ exhibition illustrates the way the chosen artists respond to a broad range of contemporary social ills in South Africa, using art-historic Christian imagery directly or alluding to characters and ...