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OverviewWhy were depictions of animals a crucial trigger for the birth of art? And why did animals dominate that art for so long? In order to answer these questions, Renaud Ego examined some of the world’s finest rock art, that of the San of southern Africa. For thousands of years, these nomadic hunter-gatherers assigned a fundamental role to the visualization of the animals who shared their lives. Some, such as the Cape eland, the largest of antelopes, were the object of a fascinated gaze, as though the graceful markings and shapes of their bodies were the key to secret knowledge safeguarded by the animals’ unsettling silence. The artists sought to steal the animals’ secret through an act of rendering visible a vitality that remained hidden beneath appearances. In this process, the San themselves became the visionary animal who, possessing the gift of making pictures, would acquire far-seeing powers. Thanks to the singular effectiveness of their visual art, they could make intellectual contact with the world in order better to think and, ultimately, to act. They gained access to the full dimension of their human condition through painting scenes that functioned like visual contracts with spiritual and ancestral powers.Their art is an act that seeks to preserve the wholeness of existence through a respect for the relationships linking all beings, both real and imaginary, who partake of it. The fundamentally ecological dimension of this message confers on San art its universality and contemporary relevance. Visionary Animal is a translation of L’Animal voyant, published in France in 2015. This rich collection of essays is beautifully illustrated with the author’s photographs of rock art from across southern Africa. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Renaud Ego , Deke DusinberrePublisher: Wits University Press Imprint: Wits University Press Weight: 0.500kg ISBN: 9781776142262ISBN 10: 1776142268 Pages: 288 Publication Date: 01 January 2019 Audience: College/higher education , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Table of ContentsThe Stranger at the Summit Prologue: Observing Silence Chapter 1 Images that Transcend Myth and Ritual Chapter 2 A Nomadic Mentality Chapter 3 Spirits of the Place, Spiritual Places Chapter 4 A Fluid Tangle Chapter 5 Animals as Prism (Symbolism and Aesthetics) Chapter 6 Investing in Appearances Chapter 7 Galvanic Bodies Chapter 8 The Shimmer of Wholeness Epilogue: Believing Your Eyes Lack of Ending Notes Captions for portfolio Location of Main Areas of Paintings and Engravings The Continuum of Pictorial Vitality Index AcknowledgmentsReviewsThis is a magnificent book, at once both a poetic and a scholarly reclamation of the authority and integrity of the art in San painting [Ego] reanimates the paintings for us, reminding us that the pervasive forms of academic iconographical analysis have & decomposed them... It is a deeply moving publication. --Pippa Skotnes, author of Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of Bushmen This is a magnificent book, at once both a poetic and a scholarly reclamation of the authority and integrity of the art in San painting... [Ego] reanimates the paintings for us, reminding us that the pervasive forms of academic iconographical analysis have 'decomposed' them... It is a deeply moving publication. -Pippa Skotnes, author of Miscast: Negotiating the Presence of Bushmen Author InformationPoet, novelist and essayist Renaud Ego is a French specialist in southern African rock art, which he has studied for the past twenty years. The inventiveness of the eye and the elaboration of imagery play a central role in his writings, which include poetry, La Réalité n’a rien à voir (2007), a volume of collected essays, Une légende des yeux (2010), and a study of palaeolithic art, Le Geste du regard (2017). Deke Dusinberre is an American writer and literary translator who works in Paris. He studied film and art history in New York and over the past twenty years has translated books and catalogues on art history and other cultural subjects. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |