Public and Private Lines
The Lifeworlds of South Africa’s Contemporary Art Scenes
As a cultural worker who grew up and still lives in South Africa, I draw my definitions of art practice, infrastructure and criticism from this region’s long history and archive of politicised aesthetics. Many of the perspectives in this essay stem from historical observations, lived experiences and the privilege of being part of organic intellectual cultural environments in Johannesburg.
Art and Politics: Co-optation and Resistance
The contemporary fine art scene in South Africa is a beneficiary of the country’s 1994 transitional failures and one of the clearest examples of the cultural translations of neoliberalism. For the most part, the early-twentieth-century art scene in South Africa is white, narrow-minded, deeply conservative and frequently hellbent on reducing Black artistic production to ‘craft’. White people make art and Blacks, they do craft. And it is a (…)
