The Backpack and Africa Travel Centre

SUBTLE THRESHOLDS
The representational taxonomies of disease
25 July 2009 - March 2010

This exhibition by artist, Fritha Langerman, aims to draw attention to some of the contemporary debates surrounding biomedical visual and material culture. Drawing on the collections of the Iziko South African Museum, the University of Cape Town, the Wits Adler Museum, and including new works by the artist, the exhibition is primarily concerned with the visual representation of disease. Situated in the gallery between the social history and natural history displays, the exhibition aims to create a conceptual bridge between the two areas within the museum by presenting a complex visual network of the inter-relationships between zoological, human and microbial worlds. In doing so, Subtle Thresholds seeks to expose some of the cultural and historical mythologies that have contributed to the perception of disease as a state of otherness and separation.