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Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the (African) human subject using examples of visual art & museum artefacts to explore the shadow or negative form of the human body in South African museum & art histories, while also looking to broader notions of African subjectivities & futurities through the negative.

Paper long abstract:

If Africa, “the so-called dark continent[,] has its own histories of light” what would it mean to explore instances of the dark or negative in their relation to these histories? The proposed presentation seeks to investigate the (African) human subject as it is defined in the negative – specifically through bodily impressions including the shadow and the footprint. There are numerous South African history museums which contain footprint impressions of early humans in the area, some boasting artefacts along the lines of the “world’s oldest archaic human fossil footprints” – the footprint a metonym for human life - while the shadow, particularly in the form of the silhouette, has been used to define personal identity or character while also flattening and minimising individual features. Shadows show both more and less of the thing they are cast from. They are metaphorically full, the shadow of the face said to be the “soul’s true reflection”, while also empty of corporeal or graspable form. The shadow is the “other” of the body – the self’s powerful doppelganger or double, often cast in a malevolent or mysterious role. This paper will use examples of visual art and museum artefacts to explore the shadow or negative form of the human body in South African museum and art histories, while also looking to broader notions of African subjectivities and futurities through the negative.