Visualising China in Southern Africa: Biography, Circulation, Transgression
About this ebook
Visualising China in Southern Africa: Biography, Circulation, Transgression is a ground-breaking volume that addresses this deficit through engaging with the work of contemporary African and Chinese artists while analysing broader material production that prefigures the current relationship. The essays are wide-ranging in their analysis of ceramics, photography, painting, etching, sculpture, film, performance, postcards, stamps, installations, political posters, cartoons and architecture.
Visualising China in Southern Africa confines its focus to southern Africa, yet even within this region, the context is complex. Ethnicity and nationalism, the lingering influence of Cold War allegiances and colonial configurations all continue to play a role. The various visual cultures discussed in this volume emphasise the commonality of these categories, but also point towards other shared histories that transcend the nation-state category.
The collection includes scholarly chapters, photo essays, interviews, and artists’ personal accounts, organised around four themes: material flows, orientations and transgressions, spatial imaginaries, and biographies. The artists, photographers, filmmakers, curators and collectors in this volume include: Stary Mwaba, Hua Jiming, Anawana Haloba, Gerald Machona, Nobukho Nqaba, Marcus Neustetter, Brett Murray, Diane Victor, William Kentridge, Kristin NG-Yang, Kok Nam, Mark Lewis, the Chinese Camera Club of South Africa, Wu Jing, Henion Han and Shengkai Wu.
About the author
Juliette Leeb-du Toit is Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Centre, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Ruth Simbao is the National Research Foundation SARChI Chair in Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa, and Professor in Art History and Visual Culture at Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.
Ross Anthony is a research fellow at the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at Stellenbosch University. He is the co-editor, with Uta Rupert of Reconfiguring Transregionalisation in the Global South: African-Asian Encounter.
Rui Assubuji is a research associate to the Chair of Visual History & Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Ying Cheng is an assistant professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and Cultures, at Peking University, China and a research associate with the Arts of Africa and Global Souths research programme at Rhodes University, South Africa.
Malcolm Corrigall is a research associate at the National Research Foundation SARChI research programme in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Romain Dittgen is an assistant professor at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University, as well as a research associate at the School of Architecture & Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden.
Esther Esmyol is a curator at Iziko Museums of South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.
Philip Harrison is the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and a member of the National Planning Commission and other advisory structures to government.
Patricia Hayes is the National Research Foundation SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Binjun Hu received her MA in Heritage Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and is currently a PhD candidate in Art History at Rhodes University in Makhanda, South Africa.
T Tu Huynh is associate research professor at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China; and associated researcher at the Global South Studies Center at the University of Cologne, Germany.
Nicola Kritzinger is an art historian and curator based in Cape Town. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mark Lewis is an urban photographer who is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Khangelani Moyo is a South Africa-based independent researcher and visiting fellow at the University of Freiburg’s Africa Centre for Transregional Research (ACT).
Stary Mwaba is a visual artist based in Lusaka, who also has an art studio in Kitwe on the Copperbelt of Zambia. He obtained his Master of Fine Art degree from Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa.
Marcus Neustetter is an artist and cultural activist, and earned his Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Kristin NG-Yang is currently studying towards her PhD at the Centre for Visual Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. NG-Yang is also a professional visual artist who has created a number of solo exhibitions
Gemma Rodrigues is the Ames Director of Education and curator of the Global Arts of Africa at the Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in the USA.
Shuo Wang lectures in New Media Art and Design at Beihang University in China.
Yan Yang is the programme manager for East Asia relations in the Strategic Partnerships Office at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lifang Zhang received a Master’s degree from the Department of Asian and African Languages & Literatures at Peking University, China, as well as a Master’s degree in Art History from Rhodes University, South Africa. She is currently a PhD candidate in Art History at Rhodes University.
