Catching Ghosts and Consecrating the Forgotten: The Seen and Unseen in the Work of Diane Victor

Since pre-history, humankind has relied on archetypes and myths to describe the ineffable and has made use of fictional and mythological narratives to understand the meaning of life and death. Dying and death are topics reluctantly discussed in open society. Yet, the global COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the process of dying and death, and hence the survival of humankind. By embracing their finitude, humans attempt to create meaningful experiences in life and, therefore, attain “freedom towards death” (Heidegger, 1962: 311). This paper investigates how South African artist Diane Victor uses universally known myths and symbols of Christian iconography within a South African context to create meaning, as well as how she uses medium and exhibition sites to evoke intense emotions within viewers urging them to consider their finitude. By recognising how fragile and vulnerable life is, the artist captures the ephemeral in a poignant way. In this paper, I argue that Victor embraces the challenge of consecrating the forgotten or lost. Through incorporating religious icons, signs, and symbols in her work, Victor ‘catches ghosts’ of the ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ in, about, of and from South Africa. Her works are understood through a contemporary reading of religious (Christian) iconography and interpreted in the symbolic and fragile mediums of smoke, stain, ash, charcoal, light and shadow, emphasising the ephemerality and impermanence of the human condition.

Korea's First Museum and the Categorization of “Buddhist Statues”

The establishment of a museum in the precinct of Ch'anggyŏnggung Palace in 1909 marked an important moment in the historiography of Korean art. Although recent studies have examined the founding, organization, and financing of the first Korean museum, the formation of its Buddhist art collection and its historical implications remain unexamined. Given that not a single Buddhist temple was allowed to exist within the capital city, the entry of these objects into the palace demonstrates a radical paradigm shift in the royal court's relation to Buddhist icons. The museum's Buddhist art collection reveals what was available in the art market of the time and what was considered worthy of being collected in a royal museum. Through close examination of Korea's first museum and its collection, this study traces the recontextualization of religious icons into art objects and the historical implications behind the category of “Buddhist statues.”

Sailing to Byzantium - Icons, Apparatuses and The Mind-Body Problem

Although our culture has apparently become increasingly immaterial in the last few decades, Victor Buchli argues that “the immaterial is always produced materially”, and that “This apparent paradox, (…) is its generative power and what girds the productive dualisms of social life and sustains the metaphysics that secure our given ontologies” (Buchli, 2016, p. vii-viii). Likewise, Vilém Flusser argues that societies are shaped by the medium that dominates the organization of their cultures - the idea of History, for instance, would be derived from the linear structure of texts. Thus, a culture organized with and through electronic apparatuses – and the apparently immaterial images they produce – would then replicate their inner structure. However, since most of us do not understand how these apparatuses work, we usually settle with a simplified description: apparatuses are a combination of software and hardware, a new dualism that actualizes the ages-old mind/body dichotomy and plays an essential role in contemporary ontologies. Drawing from Buchli and Flusser, the paper argues that it is possible to trace enlightening parallels between the digital apparatuses that shape contemporary culture and the role of religious icons in late Antiquity, focusing on the ontological structures anchored in these apparently widely different media.Keywords: apparatuses; technical images; icons; immateriality.

The Presence of Religious Symbols in Romanian Public Schools

The presence of religious icons in Romanian public schools is a topic that has been and continues to be intensely discussed and even disputed in the country. The number of people who are against the presence of icons in classrooms is increasing. This paradigm could also be seen in other European countries. This chapter will present the situation of religious icons in public schools in Romania, past and present tendencies, as well as what the future holds for religious symbols as the legislative cover seems to diminish. The situation in Romania will be analyzed as compared to the status of religious icons in other European countries, the purpose being to understand the position of other Christian states on this issue as well.

Icons of contention: The iconography of martyrdom and the construction of Coptic identity in post-revolutionary Egypt

This article explores the changing iconography of martyrdom in Coptic religious icons in recent decades, with particular emphasis on the years that followed the 2011 Tahrir revolution and its role in articulating a more contentious version of Coptic identity vis-à-vis the Muslim majority in Egypt. The authors analyse the iconographical and iconological symbolism of the work of leading artists belonging to the so-called neo-Coptic school, focusing specifically on Victor Fakhoury’s icon of The Martyrs of Maspero and the interaction between Christian and Pharaonic imagery in his ‘New Martyrs’ series. The article argues that the presence of Pharaonic imagery in icons that portray episodes of collective martyrdom is designed to make the martyrs appear as true Egyptians. This portrayal, in turn, reinforces the so-called ‘sons of Egypt’ narrative – the suggestion that Copts are the direct descendants of ancient Egyptians and that they have a strong claim to Egyptian-ness. As such, these icons reflect an increasingly explicit attempt by the Coptic community to frame its identity in opposition to the Muslim majority and, in the process, to contest the content and meaning of Egyptian nationalism during a (failed) democratization process.

The Kinetic Icon in the Work of Mourning

Among Dziga Vertov's films, Three Songs of Lenin is unique in its immediate and enduring approval within the Soviet Union. The film was commissioned for the tenth anniversary of Lenin's death and made extensive use of archival material documenting Lenin's political trajectory and his funeral. Annette Michelson offers a reading of the film's political function within the historical situation of the USSR in the 1930s, claiming that the register and scale of Three Songs of Lenin make the film a “kinetic icon” for the deceased leader. Michelson discusses similarities between religious icons and films, particularly the way in which death haunts both, and she examines the way in which the film's emphasis on the role of the female mourner enables it to transform document into monument.