Books by Catherine Cole

Embodied performance in South Africa has particular potency because apartheid was so centrally focused on the body. The majority of artists analysed here are people of colour. As the artists imagine new forms, they are helping audiences see the contemporary moment as it is: an important intervention in a country long predicated on denial.

The room rustled as the children looked around. They knew no one had been to the coast but they checked in case for liars, for the too-dumb to know the difference between the real world and the television, for the dreamers. A young boy yearns for a rabbit; a man battles for his father's love; a group of middle-class Australians find themselves in a newly renovated house; and an elderly refugee worries about his daughter's sea voyage. Seabirds Crying in the Harbour Dark is about seeking refuge, about how we define home and what makes us feel safe.