About this item
Highlights
- African Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of 'art' objects.
- About the Author: Anitra Nettleton is a professor at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- 487 Pages
- Architecture, General
Description
Book Synopsis
African Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of 'art' objects. Styles in African headrests are usually defined in terms of western art and archaeological discourses, but this book interrogates these definitions of style and demonstrates the shortcomings of defining a single formal style model as exclusive to a single ethnic group.
Among the artefacts made by southern African peoples, headrests were the best known. Anitra Nettleton's study of the uses and forms of headrests opened up a number of art-historical methodologies in the attempt to gain an understanding of form, style and content in African art objects. Her drawings of each and every headrest encountered become a major part of the project.
About the Author
Anitra Nettleton is a professor at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.