"Knowing With": New Rhodes Board Navigates Collaboration, Intimacy, and Solidarity
- Authors: Baasch, Rachel M , Fọlárànmí, Stephen , Koide, Emi , Kakande, Angelo , Simbao, Ruth K
- Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147514 , vital:38645 , https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00523
- Description: Rhodes University (or UCKAR), based in Makhanda, South Africa, joined the African Arts editorial consortium in 2016 and its first journal issue—vol. 50, no. 2—was published in 2017. Initially the board was run by Ruth Simbao, with the aim of developing collaborations with other scholars, particularly those based on the African continent and within the global south (Simbao 2017: 1). For the second Rhodes issue (Summer 2018), Simbao worked with Guest Board Member Amanda Tumusiime from Makerere University, and for the third Rhodes issue (Summer 2019) she collaborated with Stephen Folárànmí from Obáfémi Awólówò University, Ilé-Ifè, Nigeria, who at the time was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rhodes.
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- Date Issued: 2020
Bodies, buildings, and borders: navigating the divided nation through contemporary South African and Palestinian art practice
- Authors: Baasch, Rachel M
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/145897 , vital:38476 , https://0-doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1162/afar_a_00401
- Description: This paper navigates the phenomenon of the divided nation through the work of contemporary South African artists Th¬ando Mama, Sikhumbuzo Makandula, and Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi. I position the work of these artists practicing in a post-apartheid nation-state alongside the work of contemporary Palestinian artists Larissa Sansour and Khaled Jarrar, who respond to the ongoing struggle of the stateless Palestinian nation divided by colonialism and Israeli apartheid. Each of these artists critiques the construction of the modern nation-state using symbols such as the national flag, the national anthem, the passport and postage stamp, and physical walls and buildings.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Between a cushion and a risky conversation: ARTS LOUNGE reviewed
- Authors: Baasch, Rachel M
- Date: 2017
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147703 , vital:38662 , https://doi.org/10.1080/00043389.2011.11877155
- Description: On the fringe of the National Arts Festival, at a point of transition between Rhodes University campus and the commercial side of Grahamstown, the walls of a former home and former horse-stable, now a research house, reverberate with the strain of cross-disciplinary, site-specific collaboration. The ARTS LOUNGE made its first official appearance at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival (ViPPA Research Center, Rhodes University) from 30 June to 9 July 2011. The ten-day event was organised by the Visual and Performing Arts of Africa Research (ViPPA) team in collaboration with musicians, artists, writers, performers and members of the public.
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- Date Issued: 2017
Guarded visions: walls, watchtowers and warped perspectives in the Israeli occupied West Bank Palestinian territory
- Authors: Baasch, Rachel M
- Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147281 , vital:38611 , https://0-hdl.handle.net.wam.seals.ac.za/10520/EJC176318
- Description: This paper examines the relationship between Israel's fortification of physical space and narratives of division in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank Territory. I argue that the fortification and separation of physical space deepens segregation, and increases fear, hostility and disconnection between people living in this context. Furthermore, I suggest that this relationship between narratives of division and insecurity and structural mechanisms of control within the West Bank influences and impacts on individuals such that personal perspectives become guarded and defensive. The mediation of subjects through a defensive lens can prevent individuals from forming connections that acknowledge the permeability of seemingly impenetrable distinctions between inside and outside, or self and an-other. The looking, recording and representation of people in a place that is guarded and framed from a position of insecurity reduces the capacity of individuals to locate openings that traverse restrictive boundaries. In order to contextualise my discussion, I have included personal documentation of defensive structures photographed in the West Bank between 2013 and 2014. I position my observations and analyses in relation to discussions about the Oush Grab Military Base presented by the Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) in their recent publication Architecture after revolution (2013).
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- Date Issued: 2015