Psychic Lives of Statues - Reckoning With the Rubble of Empire

From Cape Town to Bristol and Richmond, statues have become sites of resistance and contestation of our imperial past and postcolonial present. The Psychic Lives of Statues by Rahul Rao offers an insightful exploration of these global controversies, demonstrating that beneath their surface lie deeper struggles over race, caste, and the politics of decolonisation.Rao takes readers on a journey through South Africa, England, the US, Ghana, India, Australia, and Scotland, revealing how statue controversies have dramatically rearranged the canon of anticolonial political thought. By examining these debates through a personal and literary lens, Rao addresses the multifaceted issues of justice, cultural memory, and belonging.The Psychic Lives of Statues examines both the toppling of colonial statues and the raising of postcolonial ones, demonstrating that the statue form as a medium of representation and a bid for immortality is by no means obsolete. Engaging with artists, scholars, and activists, Rao provides fresh perspectives on how societies grapple with and reinterpret the past and present through iconography.

Product details

• Authors: Rahul Rao
• Publisher: Pluto
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.03.2025
• EAN: 9780745350769
• ISBN: 978-0-7453-5076-9
• No. of pages: 208
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 225 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; History of Ideas, European History, Conservation, restoration & care of artworks, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, ART / Conservation & Preservation, ART / Museum Studies, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Museum Administration & Museology, Colonialism & imperialism, Social discrimination & inequality, Colonialism and imperialism, African History, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Museology & heritage studies, Museology and heritage studies, Conservation, restoration and care of artworks, Racism and racial discrimination / Anti-racism, Decolonisation of knowledge / Decoloniality