An unrecoverable strangeness: some reflections on selfhood and otherness in South African art

作者：Sarah Nuttall, Penny Siopis · 发表于：Critical Arts · 年份：2010 · DOI：10.1080/02560046.2010.511881 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：South African History and Culture

In conversation with Penny Siopis SN: Penny, I think you will agree that we have had a long struggle in this country over the ethics of representing, speaking for and speaking to 'the Other'. One consequence of such debates seemed to be that, at least by the 1980s and 1990s, South African artists came increasingly to feel only comfortable imagining and speaking for themselves, and with turning to their own bodies as their subject. I wanted to ask you what you think the impact of this has been. PS: The phenomenon of artists turning to their own bodies as a way of speaking for themselves in the context we are discussing was more a feature of the 1990s. In the 1980s progressive artists, both black and white, made work that went beyond 'the self' as part of the collective struggle against apartheid. This political position became synonymous with art as a critical practice. With liberation came both crises and opportunities for renewal of selfhood. For many white artists this prompted an inward turn. And many black artists went public. The body figured in both tendencies and was generally manifest through photography. The opening up of the country to the larger 'global' world complicated matters further for artists around questions of representation. It was at this juncture that many turned to their bodies as subject. But, I am not sure that this was because they felt uncomfortable representing 'others'. That would have been very defensive and would have made us somewhat exception...