Colin Richards, 20 December 2010
my people, tell me:
what does, what breaks the chains?
(Mongane Wally Serote ‘Time Has Run Out’)
…with no other law but torture
and the lashing hunger of the people
(Pablo Neruda ‘The Satraps’)
by Mario Pissarra
This was prepared for a panel discussion with the same title, held at the Centre for the Book, Cape Town, on 19 August 2010. The panel formed part of the “Beyond the Racial Lens” conference, which was itself part of the “Bonani 2010 Festival of Documentary Photography” convened by SAHO. Thembinkosi Goniwe and Khwezi Gule were also part of the panel, which was chaired by Farzanah Badsha.
Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie, 23 June 2010
Prologue
I presented this essay recently at the University of California Santa Cruz, at a conference titled The Task of the Curator. The general audience reception to my presentation showed me that the issue discussed here is being very much debated in the field of African art history. However, few people have written about it. I think formal critical analysis of our work and positions are very important for a field to grow. I am posting it here in the hope that it allows us to start discussing the important issues it touches on.
by Mario Pissarra
[Note: This was presented at the annual conference of the South African Visual Arts Historians at the University of Stellenbosch, 2008.]
This is not a tightly argued paper, but more of a loose mapping of ideas that have preoccupied me for several years, ideas triggered by the implications of the concept of decolonisation, specifically as it has relevance for the visual arts, within but not limited to the contemporary South African context. [1]
by Mario Pissarra
[Note: An edited version of this essay appeared in Farafina #11]
For more than 40 years Malangatana has been one of Mozambique’s best known cultural figures, and indisputably her best known visual artist. Since his first appearance in a group exhibition in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) in 1959, Malangatana’s works have been shown in numerous countries across the globe. His trademark style – dense compositions contained within shallow pictorial space, consisting of simplified shapes, mostly figurative, often with pronounced eyes and teeth, and typically rendered with a bright palette and bold outlines – is instantly recognisable.
Jesus Macarena-Avila, 15 August 2006
[This essay was written for an exhibition featuring Giselle A. Mercier, Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa, and Edra Soto, at Gallery Visio, University of Missouri – St. Louis, USA, curated by Jesus Macarena-Avila, 7-18 November 2006]INTRODUCTION: RECYCLIA AS TRANSFORMATION
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