Who is responsible for making a work of art? In each episode of this collaborative podcast series, one anthropologist, specialising in a particular cultural context, has a conversation with an artist of their choosing, exploring issues of authorship and responsibility in art. Ranging across geographical locations and creative practices, discussions address and unpack the conceptualisation of the artistic person, authorship as centred upon an individual or bounded group, and the development of responsibility for artworks during and after their making. Each episode brings a fresh perspective on where ideas come from, what agency an artist feels in the creation of their work, and how, and in which contexts, ownership and responsibility for the artwork are claimed. Ultimately, as a collection, the series encourages listeners to think about ‘the artist’ and ‘the artwork’ as dynamic processes in a relationship of authoring.

Episode 2 features Mzuzile Mduduzi Xakaza with Jeannine-Madeleine Fischer

Mzuzile Mduduzi Xakaza works as Director of the Durban Art Gallery and also paints and draws on a part-time basis. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in South Africa and abroad since the early 1990s. His art is inspired mainly by the love and appreciation of his social and physical environment (landscape) as well as social issues that are subtly evoked by such a theme. However, there is always something enigmatic about some of the creative ideas that flow into his mind whilst creating - something that seems to defy definition of any sort.

https://asai.co.za/artist/mduduzi-xakaza/

Jeannine-Madeleine Fischer is a cultural anthropologist at the University of Konstanz and is currently researching aesthetic activism in South Africa. She is part of the interdisciplinary research group "Traveling Forms".

https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/research/research-institutions/nomis-research-project-traveling-forms/research-fields/activism-as-a-mobile-aesthetic-form/

Artery is a podcast organised by Iza Kavedžija (University of Cambridge) and Robert Simpkins (SOAS, London) and supported by the AHRC.
Music: Footsteps, by Robert Simpkins.