Riveting. Galvanasing. Explosive. Not descriptions of the average late-morning academic seminar session. Yet this finely crafted presentation with its gripping visuals and powerful call to action had an immediate impact that provoked deep thought and lively discussion days later. Since perceptions of the presentation ignited some controversy among undergraduate students, I would like to point out that it presents a neutral observation and seeks explanations, in the spirit of the academic endeavour, and should be seen in that light.
Images of Readers
Prof. Lize Kriel, Pretoria University Department of Visual Arts
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| Image: Gustave Courbet (Public Domain) |
Images of readers - usually of the impressionistic, chocolate box variety - have been an established feature of Western art for centuries. While the general image seems overly familiar, this presentation investigated the cultural assumptions underlying these well-known images, and the gaping voids in the seeming over-abundance.
The Privileged Lady of Leisure
Through the presenter's lovingly curated collection of image after image of readers, a theme clearly began to emerge. The reader presented and idolised in historical Western art is more often than not a woman. Not just any woman: reading has, historically, been the domain of the privileged, not only because of literacy but also because reading for pleasure calls for free time. And so it is that the plethora of art work repeatedly portrays European ladies of leisure, often in luxurious or outdoor surroundings (and, for some apparently unrelated reason, in various stages of undress.) While the activity of reading can signify knowledge and power, however, these readers seem removed from the real world where action is taken, thanks to a male benefactor who bestows upon them the luxury of boudoirs and gardens and a deadening abundance of leisure time to live vicariously through books over which they languidly and elegantly and anonymously pore.
Where are the Other Readers?
Judging by historic art, and even more recent photography, leisure readers are women - privileged and pale. The central question raised by Prof Kriel is where the other readers are, beyond this mode and gender and race? While they certainly exist, they are not nearly as frequently documented.
The occasional men who are pictured with books, unlike the ladies of leisure, tend to have names - big, intellectual, influential names. These men read with reason and purpose tied to action, even when they happen to be reading for leisure.
Across the race barrier, the pickings are even more sparse, specifically in South African art and photography. Documented images portraying black Africans with books tend to have a colonial angle: these usually feature local missionaries who have completed rigorous training in the imported religion, or school children who have received books donated from abroad (presumably in a language they do not yet understand). Although books signify knowledge and power, these rare images of African readers cast their subjects in a submissive role. However, although sparsely documented in images, the book did indeed play its part in empowerment, as discussed elsewhere this seminar.
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| Image: Schoolgirls by Gerard Sekoto |
Tackling Stereotypes
Amid the dearth of images of female and black South African readers, there are welcome examples of reading for pleasure, power and subversion. Artist and musician Gerard Sekoto often portrayed books and readers as focal points in his paintings of everyday South African life. The painting alongside, entitled Schoolgirls, was cited as an example of enthusiastic, and judging by the extent of enthusiasm, most likely also subversive, reading. Audience response to the painting was remarkable, not only because it was so welcome and uplifting, but also because, as Prof. Kriel pointed out, one simply has to wonder what these girls are reading with such gusto.
The presentation ultimately poses the question whether the dearth of images of multi-gender, multiracial readers from South Africa is a reflection of circumstance or a reflection of social reality, and what the implications are. As a call to action, it is an open invitation to visual artists to fill the void and present us with local images of readers. And perhaps it is an invitation to all South Africans to make reading such a part of life that its visual representation becomes almost unavoidable.
Comments
There are many possible reasons for the scarcity of images of readers from South Africa. The country's history of conflict and inequality meant that leisure time for reading has rarely been abundant. Moreover, economic circumstances still mean, to this day, that access to books cannot be assumed. Moreover, although enough blame has been cast on the education system locally, one sadly has to wonder whether it has yet resulted in levels of literacy that make reading more pleasure than pain.
It is also true that among the many rich cultural production activities in the region, written text was not a traditional means of communication: this function was performed in other media like paintings, bead work, weaving, oral histories and music that were all encoded and decoded with very specific meaning. For this reason I would personally venture to say that if the definition of "reading" were expanded to include the traditional means of cultural production mentioned above, we may find a wealth of images.
Finally, as technology spreads, reading in the traditional sense increasingly involves a screen rather than a book. In Africa this has already reached the proportions of an informational earthquake. It will be very interesting to see if zealous reading for pleasure might not become a more prominent feature than ever before - in life as well as in art.
