PUBLICATION: Restless Infections
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, addressing diverse forms of expression, such as performances, immersive installations, film, and online performances.
Table of contents for the book:
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
- Introduction – Jay Pather
Part 1: The Restless City
Chapter 1 On Art, Contagion and Immunity – Sarah Nuttall
Chapter 2 Recalcitrant Aesthetics, Memory and Modernity in the Post-Colonial/Post-Apartheid City – Mbongeni Mtshali
Chapter 3 Habashwe! On Black Death, Precarity and Survival in the Public Sphere – Amogelang Maledu
Part 2: Public Art for Multiple Publics
Chapter 4 Becoming Answerable: Face-to-Face Encounters during Infecting the City Festival – Leila Anderson
Chapter 5 Unpredictable Publics and Anxious Audiences: From Anomie to Agonism in Provocative Public Art – Rike Sitas
Chapter 6 iRhanga as Public Space: Transposed and as Source for Public Encounter – Khanyisile Mbongwa
Part 3: Land, Home, Belonging
Chapter 7 Haroon Gunn-Salie’s Submerged Disruption – Nicole Sarmiento
Chapter 8 The Rusting Diamond: A Multimedia Lament for Migrant Dreams in Cape Town – Meghna Singh
Chapter 9 Seeing the Strange Place: African Street Photography as Place-Making – Sinazo Chiya
Epilogue – Jay Pather (with nora chipaumire, Thania Petersen and Mandla Mbothwe)
Contributors Bios
Jay Pather is a choreographer, curator, teacher and writer. He is Professor at the University of Cape Town where he directs the interdisciplinary Institute for Creative Arts (ICA). He is the co-editor of Acts of Transgression.
Leila Anderson is a curator and performance maker working between Belgium and South Africa. She also works as a dramaturg, performer, artist and writer.
nora chipaumire is an award-winning artist, including the 2016 Trisha Mckenzie Memorial Award for her impact on dance in Zimbabwe, a Doris Duke Artist Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Sinazo Chiya is a director at the Stevenson gallery.
Amogelang Maledu is an interdisciplinary art practitioner and research assistant at Creative Knowledge Resources (CKR) based at the University of Cape Town.
Khanyisile Mbongwa is a Cape Town-based independent curator and sociologist based at her practice, Curing & Care. Mbongwa is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Creative Arts, University of Cape Town.
Mandla Mbothwe is a playwright, researcher, director, art teacher and theatre practitioner. He has won multiple awards, such as the Handspring Puppetry Award for Best Visual Theatre, and two Fleur du Cap Awards for Innovation in Theatre.
Mbongeni Mtshali is a performance maker, scholar, artist and teacher. He is a senior lecturer in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Sarah Nuttall is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Thania Petersen is a multidisciplinary artist who uses photography, performance and installation to address the complexities of her identity in contemporary South Africa.
Nicole Sarmiento is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based in Durban, South Africa.
Meghna Singh is an artist, researcher, Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Communication & Culture at Aarhus University Denmark and Fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab.
Rike Sitas is a senior researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town.
~ 25 August 2025 ~