'Material girls' : lingering in the presence of the material sublime

Abstract

By exploring selected, recent works produced by amongst others Zanele Muholi, Nandipha Mntambo, Tracey Rose and Leora Farber it is the aim of this essay to trace a possible resurgence of the real through the depiction of the corporeal in their work. The artists have been selected because their work provide a fecundity of ‘corporeal realness’ or corpo(real)ity. The exploration is further layered by inquiring how the resurgence of the real corresponds to the aesthetic category of the material sublime. The material sublime dates from the nineteenth century as has been regarded as a sub-theory within the broader classical sublime. It is argued that the material sublime together with contemporary feminist theorists e.g. Bonnie Mann, Karen Barad, Elizabeth Wilson and Vicky Kirby, provide a useful lens for re-thinking the engagement between matter and discourse. It is in particular through the resilient flesh represented in Muholi’s, Mntambo’s and Farber’s work, that they and their subjects are turned into what can be playfully termed ‘Material Girls’.