Imagining possibilities: feminist cultural production, non-violent identities, and embracing the Other in post-colonial South Africa

Abstract

This article considers specific cultural productions by South Africa-based artists Nandipha Mntambo and Shelley Barry, and discusses how their representations subvert hegemonic identity constructions, providing an alternative language about personhood and identity. Using a feminist intersectional analysis that connects gender, race, ability, sexuality and species, the article discusses moments of cultural production that imagine non-violent possibilities for reconstructing personhood. Through textual analysis, I engage the artists' work by unpacking what constitutes desirable personhood, acceptable bodies and the human subject in a post-colonial context, arguing that these alternatives allow for possibilities of becoming and being subjects that move outside of violent identity norms.