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OverviewMany universities in South Africa have acquired new works of art for key spaces on their campuses. These works convey messages about the advantages of cultural diversity, but recently acquired sculptures, paintings and tapestries also critically engage with histories of racial intolerance and conflict. A current concern among tertiary South African institutions is the influence of British imperialism or Afrikaner nationalism on aspects of their inherited visual culture. Discussions from within the art world around the curatorship of art, memorials, insignia and regalia has shed light on these outmoded colonial value systems which universities now wish to distance themselves from. In Picturing Change, Brenda Schmahmann explores the implications of deploying the visual domain in the service of transformative agendas. In other words, how do universities reflect, through the visual objects on their campuses, on their revisionist aims and endorsements of cultural diversity? While most new commissions are innovative, there have been instances in which universities in South Africa have acquired works of art with potentially traditionalist – even backward-looking – implications. And while imperatives to remove inherited imagery may be underpinned by a wish to unsettle white privilege, there have in fact been occasions in which such actions have served to maintain the status quo. Further, while many expected that a post-apartheid era would have freed artists from censorship, some images produced or shown under the auspices of universities have in fact been susceptible to proscription for supposedly articulating hate speech. Schmahmann identifies and analyses a range of approaches taken by universities and commissioned artists towards these ‘troublesome’ visual objects . This study is the first to consider imagery at a range of tertiary institutions in the country, and it is unique in its exploration of a transformative ethos in the visual domain at universities. It will be invaluable to readers interested in public art and the politics of curating and collecting, and also to those concerned with the challenges involved in transforming contemporary universities into spaces welcoming of diversity in South Africa. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Brenda SchmahmannPublisher: Wits University Press Imprint: Wits University Press Dimensions: Width: 19.80cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 25.00cm Weight: 0.875kg ISBN: 9781868145805ISBN 10: 1868145808 Pages: 292 Publication Date: 01 April 2013 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviews""It was an extremely clever decision to focus on universities to investigate visual culture as part of social and political change in South Africa. . . . In exploring decisions and controversies ranging across monuments, memorials, and independent artworks, as well as university crests and regalia, this study provides a fascinating microcosm of the production of visual culture in post-apartheid South Africa, engaging with thorny issues that provide insights for the wider practice and reception of art."" --Elizabeth Rankin, professor of art history, University of Auckland It was an extremely clever decision to focus on universities to investigate visual culture as part of social and political change in South Africa. . . . In exploring decisions and controversies ranging across monuments, memorials, and independent artworks, as well as university crests and regalia, this study provides a fascinating microcosm of the production of visual culture in post-apartheid South Africa, engaging with thorny issues that provide insights for the wider practice and reception of art. --Elizabeth Rankin, professor of art history, University of Auckland Author InformationBrenda Schmahmann is Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She was the editor and primary contributor on Material Matters (2000) and also the author of Through the Looking Glass: Representations of Self by South African Women Artists (2004), for which she won the Rhodes University Vice Chancellor’s Book Award. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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