Overview

Restless Infections is a collection of critical essays exploring artistic interventions in urban spaces, focusing on place-making and the politics of space in South Africa. The writers examine seminal artworks by South African artists, addressing diverse forms of expression such as site-specific performances, immersive installations, film, photography, and online performances. The book is divided into three sections: The Restless City, Public Art for Multiple Publics, and Land, Home, Belonging. It introduces new perspectives on public sphere performance, such as Khanyisile Mbongwa's re-imagining of township alleyways for public encounters and Mbongeni Mtshali's study of everyday performances that challenge colonial and neo-colonial spatial organization. The title, Restless Infections, is derived from the popular Infecting the City public art festival, symbolizing the persistent state of restlessness in a city still grappling with the legacies of colonialism, inequality, and racial segregation. This restlessness is tied to a desire for economic and political stability, expressed through transient art forms like Santu Mofokeng's billboard photography. The book shifts the focus of public art discourse in South Africa from static forms like monuments and statues to dynamic, temporary interventions that question the concept of publicness. These interventions engage with protest, public intimacy, audience interaction, and the disrupted topography of apartheid cities. As the first scholarly volume to read public spheres through a multi- and interdisciplinary lens, Restless Infections argues that the diverse artistic modes explored are essential to understanding the complexities of publicness in South Africa.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jay Pather ,  Leila Anderson ,  nora chipaumire ,  Sinazo Chiya
Publisher:   Wits University Press
Imprint:   Wits University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781776149452

ISBN 10:   1776149459
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   25 May 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction – Jay Pather  Part 1: The Restless City Chapter 1 On Art, Contagion and Immunity – Sarah Nuttall Chapter 2 Recalcitrant Aesthetics, Memory and Modernity in the Post-Colonial/Post-Apartheid City – Mbongeni Mtshali Chapter 3 Habashwe! On Black Death, Precarity and Survival in the Public Sphere – Amogelang Maledu Part 2: Public Art for Multiple Publics Chapter 4 Becoming Answerable: Face-to-Face Encounters during Infecting the City Festival – Leila Anderson Chapter 5 Unpredictable Publics and Anxious Audiences: From Anomie to Agonism in Provocative Public Art – Rike Sitas Chapter 6 iRhanga as Public Space: Transposed and as Source for Public Encounter – Khanyisile Mbongwa  Part 3: Land, Home, Belonging Chapter 7 Haroon Gunn-Salie’s Submerged Disruption – Nicole Sarmiento Chapter 8 The Rusting Diamond: A Multimedia Lament for Migrant Dreams in Cape Town – Meghna Singh Chapter 9 Seeing the Strange Place: African Street Photography as Place-Making – Sinazo Chiya Epilogue – Jay Pather (with nora chipaumire, Thania Petersen and Mandla Mbothwe) Contributors Index

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Author Information

Jay Pather is a choreographer, curator and academic. He is Director of the Institute for Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and Associate Professor in UCT's Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies.

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