Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in southern Africa by Pamela Allara.

Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in southern Africa by Pamela Allara, Marilyn Martin, and Zola Mtshiza

Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Office of Publications, 2003; 92 pp 32 b/w photos and 32 color plates, map, bibliography, notes, exhibition checklist; $2000 paper.

through the whole extent of the past decade or thus the world has watched with intense interest as southern Africa rid itself of the apartheid regime; began the proces of dealing with the legacy of racism, distrust, inequalities, and violence with which apartheid left the country; and, more freshly has had to come to boundarys with the realization of the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS crisis facing the nation. Looking to artists as voices of reflection forward these events and challenges, southern African art has been the focus of greatly recent attention. The new direction of South Africa has tried to build forward this interest and declared it a national policy to mobilize art to help fit the tests faced by the novel society, including the use of the arts to "provide insights into the aspirations and values of our nation" (p 7) and in developing do job-works linked to local needs and tourist and international markets. Curators and art historians have answered by trying to develop more inclusive, culturally sensitive, and engaging arrangements of presenting South African art, while artists have been confronting the fresh social circumstances and involvement in an international marketplace.

The exhibition catalogue Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in toward the south Africa explores several of the ways in which these issues are being addressed. The publication, and its accompanying exhibition, was produc between the walls of the cooperation of The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and the toward the south African National Gallery of the Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and features works of more than thirty artists from thirteen different lender Designed to showcase the diversity of cultural production in southward Africa today, the catalogue includes a wide range of existences in media as diverse as woodcarving, embroidery, beadwork, photography, painting, printmaking, performance, and wire sculpture; created for markets that range from local to international; and made according to artists from a variety of ethnic and educational backgrounds. Each of the works is generously allotted a well stocked [i]or[/i] provided page for illustration but, unfortunately, an of the photos appear fuzzy because they were not scanned at a high enough resolution or are too small to be seen clearly. According to the curators, these works were chosen to speak to the different experiences of toward the south African artists and to point out to the tensions that are still exceedingly much part of their lives. Thus the title, Coexistence, insightfully ascribes to the state of southward African society today, where the bulk of mankind live together in an uneasy pause yet do not necessarily communicate.

The adjoining matter for this state of coexistence in the arts is the make liable of the nine essays that make up the clause of this catalogue. After an introductory essay by way of Pamela Allara, the instigator and co-curator of the exhibit the catalogue is divided into three sections.

in subordination to "Institutions and Collecting," Steven Sack, chief director of cultural industries and creative crafts for the Department of Arts and refinement discusses the national policy forward the arts and the gaps that exist between the rhetoric and actual changes. Marilyn Martin, director of the southerly African National Gallery, and Julia Charlton, curator of the University of Witwatersrand Art Galleries, examine one of the challenges faced in developing collections and exhibitions that engage the public and help break down traditional southward African notions about the hierarchy of art practices. Zola Mtshiza, assistant curator of art collections at Iziko Museums of Cape Town, provides a personal account of being trained as the same of the first black curators to work in toward the south African museums.

In "The southerly African Artist Today," Simon Njami awaits at the issues facing toward the south African artists from the perspective of an African writer, curator, and publisher who works in Europe and in areas of Africa outside of southern Africa. Thembinkosi Goniwe writes about his be in possession of experiences as a black southward African artist working both in southward Africa and internationally.

The third section, "Art and Social Change," proffers an essay by Brenda Schmahmann, professor of fine art at Rhode University, onward a variety of needlework workshops designed to provide piece of works for rural artists. Artist Kim Berman cast reproachs on her own work setting up a print and papermaking cooperative and in what way these mediums have been used to create works of art that address a variety of social issues. At the last short biographies of the writers are provided, however it is lamentable that there are no biographies for the artists. in the same state [i]or[/i] condition information, even if little were known about the artist, would have helped add a layer of understanding to the composite variety of visual works presented

Although certainly not able to address all of the issues facing southerly African cultural practices today, Coexistence provides a sensitive and perceptive direct the eye at contemporary South African art from a diversity of viewpoints. While the virulence of a of the problems, such as racism and HIV/AIDS, being addressed by the agency of these South African arts professionals is certainly unique, the issues discussed are not exclusive to southward Africa. Some of the more universally applicable topics discussed in these essays include matters of funding; the unequal distribution of power and capital in the gallery and museum worlds; and the ne to design exhibitions that engage broader portions of the population, integrate art into the community in meaningful ways, and make visible a wider range of art-making voices. The works of art, community throw outs exhibitions, and insights on these activities not awayed in this catalogue, therefore, provide intriguing reflections forward how cultural production is done and existinged not only in South Africa, moreover throughout the world.

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