chr 500-0bCHR Dark Textchr 500-0bchr 500-0b
  • About
    • Centre for Humanities Research
    • DSI-NRF Flagship
    • Partnerships
    • Funders
    • Reports
    • Staff
  • Iyatsiba Lab
    • LoKO
    • Sound Working Group
    • Documentary film
  • New Archival Visions
  • Research Platforms
    • Aesthetics and Politics
      • Factory of the Arts
        • About the Factory of the Arts
        • Convening the Factory of the Arts
        • Artists in Residence
      • Research Projects
    • Becoming Technical of the Human
      • Laboratory of Kinetic Objects
      • Research Projects
    • Migrating Violence
      • Research Projects
        • Political Theory and Philosophy
        • Trans-formative Consitutionalism
  • Research Chairs
    • NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory
      • Postgraduate bursaries and postdoctoral fellowships in Visual History & Theory
      • Postgraduate Module In Visual History, 2023 (HIS 735/835)
    • Charlotte Maxeke-Mary Robinson Research Chair
    • UK-SA Bilateral Digital humanities chair in culture and technics
  • Fellowship Programme
    • Fellows
    • Winter School
    • Visiting Scholars
    • Seminar Programme
  • Publications & Archive
    • Publications & Creative Outputs
    • Galleries
    • Video
    • Film
    • Podcast
  • News
    • Workshops
    • Conferences
    • Lectures
    • Special Meetings
    • Colloquia
    • Seminars
    • Arts Events
  • Contact
✕ When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.
            No results See all results

            Flipside: The inadvertent Archive, by Kim Gurney

            Architectural plans of a former house inspire the narrative structure of a new book by Kim Gurney, called Flipside: The inadvertent Archive, which takes the reader on a thematic journey from room to room as it follows the trail of specific archival artefacts lodged in the building’s attic.

            Richter Huis, with a story of its own, is the long-term home of the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) and its predecessor body, since 1971. Its uncatalogued archival collection holds a vast array of documents, spanning more than five decades, which comprise the author’s source material – from exhibition information and correspondence to meeting minutes and financial records. In Flipside, Gurney follows the trail of very specific artefacts and where they might lead to assemble a multi-dimensional perspective on the invisible labour of curatorial work as well as the collective art of institution-building. The AVA Archive, dating roughly 25 years to either side of South Africa’s 1994 democratic transition, also offers a compelling lens on the politics and poetics of larger societal transformations, and the inevitable entanglements between (public) space, imagination and city futures.

            A few years in the making, Flipside is independently researched through the CHR and written with the support of various institutional partners. It is published by iwalewabooks (Johannesburg, Lagos & Frankfurt), edited by Karen Press and iwalewabooks, and beautifully designed as an artefact to reflect its subject matter and research method. The non-linear storytelling is brimming with visual and textual quotations from the stacks to interrupt the author’s voice and offer a polyvocal bricolage.

            Huda Tayob, a lecturer at University of Manchester, says: “In Gurney’s situating of these closely read selections and fugitive tangents, carefully reproduced to elicit an embodied and visual archival encounter, the reader is witness to the multi-dimensional dark-rooms of history in all its complexity and plurality.”

            The physical book, in a limited edition, is available from both AVA and iwalewabooks; the publisher also offers an e-book version.

             

            For more information about the author:

            Kim Gurney

            Senior Researcher,

            UK-RSA Bilateral Research Chair: Digital humanities chair in culture and technics

            VIEW PROFILE

            Flipside Free epub:

            DOWNLOAD FREE EPUB

            Audio file from book launch held on 9 March 2024 at AVA Gallery,

            author in conversation with Premesh Lalu

            For video of the author discussing Flipside:

            Share
            1

            Related posts

            May 20, 2025

            Publication: Instituting Worlds


            Read more
            May 16, 2025

            Tectonic: TOMBWA – A solo performance by Victor Gama


            Read more
            May 7, 2025

            African Studies Annual Lecture 2025: ‘The Becoming Technical of the Human: Race After Apartheid’, Premesh Lalu


            Read more
            April 30, 2025

            ‘Slave Heritage & Cape Music’, with Valmont Layne.


            Read more

            Search

            ✕ When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

            Sign Up to our newsletter


            Stay up to date with the latest news and developments from the Centre for Humanities Research.




            Recent Media

            • The Herds
              April 9, 2025
            • Minister De Lille joins Net Vir Pret and the CHR at Barrydale’s annual Reconciliation Day Festival.
              January 10, 2025
            • Pro-Vocation: Roots and Wings 20-24 November 2024
              December 3, 2024
            Centre for Humanities Research

            3 weeks ago

            Centre for Humanities Research
            ‘Slave Heritage & Cape Music’ with Valmont Layne.As part of National Archives Week, Valmont Layne will be speaking (online) with the Western Cape Archives on “Slave Heritage & Cape Music,” 5 May 2025, 1-2 PM. ... See MoreSee Less

            Photo

            View on Facebook
            · Share

            Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

            Centre for Humanities Research

            4 weeks ago

            Centre for Humanities Research
            Please join us for 'Africa, Philosophy and the Image' with Cyrille Koné, a conversation in the Humanities in Session seminar series.Date: Friday 25 April 2025Time: 11:00am – 1:00pmVenue: The CHR’s Iyatsiba Lab,66 Greatmore Street, Woodstock(enter via Regents Road)For more info www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/africa-philosophy-and-the-image/ ... See MoreSee Less

            Photo

            View on Facebook
            · Share

            Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

            Centre for Humanities Research

            1 month ago

            Centre for Humanities Research
            On April 10th and 11th, 2025, the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes will host the research workshop led by former fellows Florence Ninitte and Patricia Hayes. This workshop will explore the question of gesture through its photographic, performative, political, social, psychological, and philosophical manifestations. It will focus on the gesture as an end in itself, rather than merely a means of action, and its role in shaping visions of the future between consensus and disintegration. For more info: ... See MoreSee Less

            Gesture and Affect | IEA Nantes

            www.iea-nantes.fr

            Date From 10 to 11 April 2025 Category Workshop/Colloquium GESTURE AND AFFECT On April 10th and 11th, 2025, the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes will host the research workshop led by former fel...
            View on Facebook
            · Share

            Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

            Centre for Humanities Research

            2 months ago

            Centre for Humanities Research
            Please join us for: 'Waterlogged Hauntings of the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and beyond.' Thursday 10 April at the The CHR’s Iyatsiba Lab (2:00pm - 4:00pm)Speakers: Hugo ka Canham (CoE Black Planetary Studies, UNISA) and Edwige Tamalet (Tulane University, USA). For more info: www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/waterlogged-hauntings-of-the-mediterranean-indian-ocean-and-beyond/ ... See MoreSee Less

            Photo

            View on Facebook
            · Share

            Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

            Centre for Humanities Research

            2 months ago

            Centre for Humanities Research
            REMINDER: ACIP DeadlineApplications for the 2026 African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) workshop and Doctoral Research awards end on Thursday 1 May 2025. For more info: www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/acip-call-for-workshop-proposals-and-for-ivan-karp-doctoral-research-aw... ... See MoreSee Less

            Photo

            View on Facebook
            · Share

            Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email

            Research Platforms

            • NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory
            • Andrew W. Mellon Chair of Aesthetic Theory and Material Performance
            • Factory of the Arts
            • Laboratory of Kinetic Objects
            • Seminar Programme
            • Publications

            Recently Added

            • Publication: Instituting Worlds
              May 20, 2025
            • Tectonic: TOMBWA – A solo performance by Victor Gama
              May 16, 2025
            • African Studies Annual Lecture 2025: ‘The Becoming Technical of the Human: Race After Apartheid’, Premesh Lalu
              May 7, 2025
            ✕ When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

            SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER


            Stay up to date with the latest news and developments from the Centre for Humanities Research.



            © 2025 UWC | The Centre for Humanities Research. All Rights Reserved. Designed By Spotkolours Design
                        No results See all results