New publication: Uncertain Curature

Posted by mdever on October 28, 2014 in archive, Publication, research

Uncertain Curature: In and Out of the Archive is a new collection edited by Pippa Skotnes and  Carolyn Hamilton from the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town, SA.

“Uncertain Curature explores the archive – the past, our material inheritance –  in the context of postcolonial world of South Africa. These engagements with the past – what the authors have called ‘curature’ – can be seen as the nation’s way of rescripting its own history, which is both a trauma to be dealt with and a resource for the future. The idea of curation is explored in a series of chapters, whose subjects include a controversial Bushman diorama, a cache of negatives found in a disused mining hostel, fieldwork photographs of the exhumation of children’s bodies from an archaeological dig, artefacts and images of ‘the Zulu’ in Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, artists’ depictions of Steve Biko’s corpse, the colonial inheritance of Victoriana and the queen herself, and anti-apartheid black-centred films.”

“In trawling between curatorial activities of the past, and curatorial activities in the present, Uncertain Curature offers perspectives on the role of archives in emerging practices in post-colonial and post-apartheid life.”

The collection is published by Jacana Media.