Whistleblowing and Precarious power

Abstract

The artworks Whistleblowing and Precarious power form a body of research work that explores the broader social paradox of ethics in contemporary societies globally, employing the understanding and visual language of soccer. The research is prompted by the pervasive unethical conduct reported in South African public and private institutions of various kinds. I use the paradigm and tools of sport as metaphor to explore the ethical concept of whistleblowing in my work to illuminate in visual form as an extended language of critical discourse, the broader social concern of ethics. The South African government explains whistleblowing as “a term that is used by law enforcement agencies when a person passes on relevant and reliable information concerning wrongdoing, such as fraud and corruption to a person / organisation they trust.” (www.gov.za/anti-corruption/whistle-blowing#). This research is thus concerned with the ostensible jeopardy of trivialization for “whistleblowing” as an expression and a concept, in social discourses. It follows on the daily and common use of this expression to the extent that I suspect that its significance will be rendered meaningless. Peter Jubb states that whistleblowing is a term used regularly by journalists in a sensational manner, often in headlines for the uncovered misdeeds (Jubb 1999: 77).The above arouses a question of how the imperativeness of whistleblowing, or greater ethics can be illuminated for contemporary society to grasp its significance and the endeavour to uphold its value. My approach has thus explored the everyday, relatable materials and language to bring this concept to the fore. I used a much-related object, the whistle, which is a symbol of power that administers ethical conduct in most sports. Furthermore, the original use of a whistle was to raise alarm, to the extent that police officers were fashioned with whistles to achieve this. In both artworks, the whistle is created to large scale to symbolize the power embedded in the object, as would be the ethical conduct. In Whistleblowing, the object is made of galvanized steel to suggest its power, and possible power of ethical conduct. The work evolved in Precarious power, advancing in the medium of glass, to allude to and evoke the complexities of the whistleblowing concept. These are ideas such as transparency and vulnerability. All aspects engendered in the greater ethics concept as observed daily in South Africa and globally. These aspects were reinforced by the engaged debates which emanated from the interest of artworks in Gallery public walkabouts, and the round table debates by fellow artists and experts. My work resides in discourses where sport is used as medium to think through contemporary dilemmas, as can be found in the work of Maurizio Cattellan (Spector 2011)and Anthea Moys (Zumoya 2013). My unique contribution is particularly due to the specific application of media in relation to the topic, generating criticality in relation to whistle blowing. Furthermore, being exhibited in the Unisa Art Gallery, its proximity to large institutional order and disorder, conjured up conversations with the public about ethics and tertiary education, its power relationship to the people it is supposed to serve and the types of societies it co-creates with its norms (or lack thereof. During the exhibitions, many visitors engaged with the works as signifiers to open a forum for discussion. The installations developed from my Masters research, but are different in form and focus from the work done for the study.