Race and the anxieties of cultural obscurity: Meditations on blackness in South African performance and video art

Abstract

The focus on politically circumscribed identities in South African visual arts during the first decade of the post-Apartheid era (1994–2004) illuminated key tensions in the process of transformation. The arts practice, in general, seemed to respond directly to social imbalances that were established through Apartheid and roused significant discussions around issues of power with regard to racial and gender identity constructions. Arguably, the ‘second wave’ after the first decade propagates a Post-Race sentiment. This article seeks to discuss issues around terms such as Post-Race and Post-Black. I use performance and video art (or new media) as indicative of a change in general perceptions about race, art and transformation in South African cultural practices. Although the term ‘Post-Black’ has not been used to define a specific South African movement or aesthetic, here I juxtapose it with the term ‘Post-Race’ to map out similarities in thought about Blackness in general.