Jane Alexander
Infirmary, Erf 81 (Cape of Good Hope)
Jane Alexander's Infirmary, Erf 81 (Cape of Good Hope), made possible by the Claire and Edoardo Villa Will Trust's 'Extraordinary Award for Sculpture in South Africa', records Alexander's site-specific installation of the same title through photographs and essays commissioned by the artist. The authors were invited to respond to the artwork or themes associated with it – 'in particular, aspects of Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope … a site of displacement, settlement, defence, discrimination and refuge'. Alexander in her introduction contextualises this work and others in her oeuvre in relation to the texts; the writers, approaching their subject from diverse angles, include Simon Njami on what he terms the 'quest' underlying her recent work, Premesh Lalu on the 'apocalyptic sublime' in relation to colonialism and apartheid, Svea Josephy on the photographer as interlocutor, Fabian Saptouw on memory and site-specificity, and John Nankin on historical accounts, government policy, occupation and contestations of the site itself.
Published by Stevenson | 2024
Softcover with dust jacket, 174 pages | ISBN 978-0-7961-5918-2 | Price: R700
