Perspectives from Material Religion and Visual Culture Studies on South African roadside memorials

Abstract

It is a relatively recent phenomenon to see memorials as indictors of remembering the dead along South African roadsides. These memorials are expressions of places where death occurred. These expressions are arranged with visual and material elements, substantiated with some symbolic, often religious, meaning. This research wants to make the connection between Material Religion and Visual Culture Studies by investigating the way in which roadside memorials are compositionally arranged. Ten examples of roadside memorials were selected and discussed in order to come to some understanding of the connection between religious convictions and visual expressions thereof.