Picturing Change
Curating Visual Culture at Post-Apartheid Universities
Published in
Johannesburg
Illustrations and maps
color illustrations
82 USD
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Since South Africa’s transition to democracy, many of the country’s universities have acquired new works of art that convey messages about the advantages of cultural diversity, and engage critically with histories of racial intolerance and conflict. In Picturing Change, Brenda Schmahmann explores the implications of deploying the visual domain in the service of transformative agendas and unpacks the complexities, contradictions, and slippages involved in this process. She shows that although most new commissions have been innovative, some universities have acquired works with potentially traditionalist—even backward-looking—implications. While the motives behind removing inherited imagery may be underpinned by a desire to unsettle white privilege, in some cases such actions can also serve to maintain the status quo. This book is unique in exploring the transformative ethos evident in the curation of visual culture at South African universities and will be invaluable to readers interested in public art, the politics of curating and collecting, as well as to those involved in transforming tertiary and other public institutions into spaces that welcome diversity.
