Public Art in South Africa

Miller, Kim, and Brenda Schmahmann. Public Art in South Africa: Bronze Warriors and Plastic Presidents. Indiana University Press, 2017.

Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies and History of Art Kim Miller and Brenda Schmahmann co-edited the book Public Art in South Africa: Bronze Warriors and Plastic Presidents which was published this past year.

The text examines questions such as “how does South Africa deal with public art from its years of colonialism and apartheid?” and “how do new monuments address fraught histories and commemorate heroes of the struggle?”

Miller, Schmahmann, and a group of international contributors explore how works in the public domain in South Africa serve as a forum for important debates about race, gender, identity, and nationhood.

As they examine a variety of mediums, formats, and temporal modes of communication, the authors consider the implications of exposure as well as erasure from the public domain.