Restless Infections - by Jay Pather (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Space and place - so central to all public art - take on tremendous potency in South Africa, as Restless Infections beautifully conveys. Inserting performing and visual art into the pulse of the city, artists navigate streets and alleys in multiple and unpredictable ways, redeploy plinths and fountains in countercommemorative acts and dive bravely into subterranean zones on the periphery that demand not only to be seen, but also experienced and acknowledged. This book is revelatory."-- "Catherine M. Cole, Professor of English and Dance, University of Washington"

"The contributions to Restless Infections delicately excavate the aesthetic grammars offered by public artists to make sense of the post-apartheid city, its spatial sedimentations and entangled temporalities across many scales. The insights they yield emphasise the capaciousness of public art to redefine the complexity of the public, the problem of history and what it might mean to inhabit the city in common."-- "Heidi Grunebaum, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape"

"With in-depth analyses of some of the most compelling live art in South Africa, Restless Infections bears testimony to Jay Pather's curatorial prowess and the brilliance of artists, scholars and activists who fearlessly offer crucial perspectives on urban public spaces."-- "Nomusa Makhubu, Professor of Art History, University of Cape Town"

About the Author

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.