Review of "Figures and Fictions" exhibition at the V&A

Abstract

The exhibition 'Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography' showcases the recent work of 17 photographers living and working in South Africa, and their projects have been chosen on two grounds – because of the artists’ engagement with South Africa’s political and photographic past, and because they are photographs of people. The choice of works thus emphasises that the body in South Africa (its classification, its representation) has a particular history. But it also suggests that there are ways out of these traditions that have so long determined the way that South African bodies are lived and viewed.