Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum
When it comes to the study of artworks as material culture, there are few more familiar idioms than that of the “life-history” of the object. From Arjun Appadurai’s formulation of “the social life of things” (1986) to Bruno Latour’s business-school model of “actor-networks” (1993), over the past gen...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Yale University
2021-02-01
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| Series: | British Art Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-19/death-writing-in-the-colonial-museums |
| _version_ | 1818329848193482752 |
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| author | Dan Hicks Priya Basil Haidy Geismar Marlene Kadar Emeka Ogboh Fernando Domínguez Rubio Clémentine Deliss Nicholas Mirzoeff Bonita Bennett Ciraj Rassool Ana Lucia Araujo |
| author_facet | Dan Hicks Priya Basil Haidy Geismar Marlene Kadar Emeka Ogboh Fernando Domínguez Rubio Clémentine Deliss Nicholas Mirzoeff Bonita Bennett Ciraj Rassool Ana Lucia Araujo |
| author_sort | Dan Hicks |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When it comes to the study of artworks as material culture, there are few more familiar idioms than that of the “life-history” of the object. From Arjun Appadurai’s formulation of “the social life of things” (1986) to Bruno Latour’s business-school model of “actor-networks” (1993), over the past generation a particular variety of materialist anthropology has taken root in those parts of historical studies that deal with things. “If humans have biographies, so should things”, some historians of science have proposed. In the history of art meanwhile, the reception of Alfred Gell’s influential text Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory recast artworks as “indexes”, distributing the agency of artists, as part of the “relational texture of social life”, where biography is expanded from human into the non-human realms. As if anthropocentrism were in the top ten problems with art theory (a field that is perhaps more accurately not human enough). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T12:54:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-de22734bee734f1e96149f30e8d98178 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2058-5462 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T12:54:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Yale University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | British Art Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-de22734bee734f1e96149f30e8d981782022-12-21T23:45:13ZengYale UniversityBritish Art Studies2058-54622021-02-011910.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-19/conversationNecrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial MuseumDan Hicks0Priya BasilHaidy Geismar1Marlene Kadar2Emeka OgbohFernando Domínguez RubioClémentine Deliss3Nicholas Mirzoeff4Bonita Bennett5Ciraj Rassool6Ana Lucia Araujo7University of OxfordUniversity College LondonYork UniversityKW Institute for Contemporary ArtNew York UniversityDistrict Six MuseumUniversity of the Western CapeHoward UniversityWhen it comes to the study of artworks as material culture, there are few more familiar idioms than that of the “life-history” of the object. From Arjun Appadurai’s formulation of “the social life of things” (1986) to Bruno Latour’s business-school model of “actor-networks” (1993), over the past generation a particular variety of materialist anthropology has taken root in those parts of historical studies that deal with things. “If humans have biographies, so should things”, some historians of science have proposed. In the history of art meanwhile, the reception of Alfred Gell’s influential text Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory recast artworks as “indexes”, distributing the agency of artists, as part of the “relational texture of social life”, where biography is expanded from human into the non-human realms. As if anthropocentrism were in the top ten problems with art theory (a field that is perhaps more accurately not human enough).http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-19/death-writing-in-the-colonial-museumselgin marblescultural biographymuseologynecrographyanti-colonialismbritish museum |
| spellingShingle | Dan Hicks Priya Basil Haidy Geismar Marlene Kadar Emeka Ogboh Fernando Domínguez Rubio Clémentine Deliss Nicholas Mirzoeff Bonita Bennett Ciraj Rassool Ana Lucia Araujo Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum British Art Studies elgin marbles cultural biography museology necrography anti-colonialism british museum |
| title | Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum |
| title_full | Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum |
| title_fullStr | Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum |
| title_full_unstemmed | Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum |
| title_short | Necrography: Death-Writing in the Colonial Museum |
| title_sort | necrography death writing in the colonial museum |
| topic | elgin marbles cultural biography museology necrography anti-colonialism british museum |
| url | http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-19/death-writing-in-the-colonial-museums |
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