This edited volume by Kim Miller and Brenda Schmahmann is a welcome and crucial addition to the corpus of scholarly books about visual culture in South Africa. Even though it does not purport to be definitive concerning the appearance, role, and context of public art in South Africa, it offers a rich snapshot of the topic between the years 1999 and 2015. In this regard, it supplements the few extant sources and lays the foundation for further exploration and deliberation. The book consists of an introduction and thirteen chapters centered on four broad thematic areas by a variety of South African and international authors. Rather than attempting to do justice to each discrete chapter, I shall mainly give an overview of the central issues that emerge throughout the book.
The main thrusts of the book are delineated in the Introduction by Miller and Schmahmann, entitled “Engaging with Public Art in...