The spectres of biography: archive as artwork

[摘要] In an attempt to understand the multiple lives of an object - specifically a deathinquest register from the year 1976 - this dissertation examines five moments in theobjects life (referred to as the Ledger) that invest it with 'capital’. They are;• The Cillié Commission of Inquiry.• Sam Nzima’s photograph of Hector Pieterson.• The destruction of apartheid documents in the early 1990’s.• Kendell Geers’ appropriation of the Ledger.• Museum Africa’s purchase of the Ledger.By applying a biographical methodology to this object, this dissertation examines howthe shifts in the multiple lives of the Ledger address the different roles that the archiveplays in the construction of memory in South Africa.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand