Abstract

In Extra Candice Breitz blurs the distinction between active producer and passive consumer. Her decision to insert herself, playfully and awkwardly, into the plotted action of a popular South African soap opera literalizes Breitz’s long-standing interest in occupying or invading the spectacle generated by the mass entertainment industry. Furthermore, the video prompts us to think in terms of racial difference: Breitz is the sole white presence in a cast of nonwhite actors, and she stands, literally, apart from them. But the metaleptic aspects of Extra ultimately remind us that the video is the product of volitional collaboration and negotiation between Breitz and the cast of Generations. Consequently, the piece avoids some of the critical shortcomings occasionally associated with her earlier work and embodies, in a provocative and parallel sense, Frantz Fanon’s emphasis on the need for mutual recognition.

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