The photographs they send are studio portraits taken by incarcerated photographers whose job in prison is to take pictures. Allen poses in these photographs sometimes with props, always in uniform. The backdrops are designed and painted by incarcerated people. They break up the uniformity and repetition of the prison attire and staged poses. There are also photographs from our visits to see Allen. In most of these, he stands in the center and we huddle around, hugging him as tightly as we can.
Is assuming responsibility for audiences’ emotions a legitimate role of the museum, artist, and curator? Does this responsibility change—increase or lessen—when the museum is within a university setting? Edelman explores these questions, as well as others about the relationship between academic discourse and artistic interpretation, through a discussion of Mlangeni's 2023 exhibit.
Look through the brochure for artist Sabelo Mlangeni's Cantor Arts exhibit Imvuselelo: The Revival, which ran from September 27, 2023 to January 21, 2024. A full reproduction of the text within the brochure follows the images.
Read Sabelo Mlangeni in conversation with Joel Cabrita's class, "Curating the Image: Photography and the Politics of Exhibitions in South Africa." The class took place at the Cantor Arts Center on October 4, 2023 and includes responses with Charlotte Linden, Director of Academic and Public Programs at the Cantor.
Read through a lecture given by professor Neelika Jayawardane (SUNY-Oswego) and a Response by Sabelo Mlangeni, which was part of the "Producing Knowledge In and Of Africa" research workshop series at Stanford Humanities Center. This conversation originally took place on October 4, 2023.
Gandhi reflects on “Southern constellations,” her method for bringing together three southern spaces—South Korea, South Vietnam, and the US South—and examining how the “South” operates as a political concept vis-à-vis an imagined “North.”
This article explores the following question: at the end of the nineteenth century, how did the scientific community, among others, come to be increasingly preoccupied with underwater photography, and how could this world, and its attributes, be made visible?
Read through a conversation between Joel Cabrita the South African artist and curator Gabi Ngcobo, Sabelo Mlangeni, and students from Professor Cabrita's class, held at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center on November 15, 2023.
In a series of edited conversations conducted over the span of 13 months, Joel Cabrita interviews Sabelo Mlangeni about religion, place-making, family, photography, and the aesthetics and temporality of waiting.
Stanford Humanities Center
