African Dream Machines: Style, Identity and Meaning of African Headrests

African Dream Machines: Style, Identity and Meaning of African Headrests
ISBN-10
186814612X
ISBN-13
9781868146123
Category
Social Science
Pages
488
Language
English
Published
2007-10-01
Publisher
NYU Press
Author
Anitra Nettleton

Description

African Dream Machines takes African headrests out of the category of functional objects and into the more rarefied category of ‘art’ objects. Styles in African headrests are usually defined in terms of western art and archaeological discourses, but this book interrogates these definitions of style and demonstrates the shortcomings of defining a single formal style model as exclusive to a single ethnic group. Among the artefacts made by southern African peoples, headrests were the best known. Anitra Nettleton’s study of the uses and forms of headrests opened up a number of art-historical methodologies in the attempt to gain an understanding of form, style and content in African art objects. Her drawings of each and every headrest encountered become a major part of the project.

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