Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.

Accepted Paper:

Exhibiting craftspeople, their crafts and practices  
Anna Portisch (SOAS)

Paper short abstract:

This paper considers how different media furnish ways of expressing different aspects of anthropological research; and how different emphases, e.g. on craft practices, might resonate with audiences’ own experiences. It is based on experience of curating an exhibition based on my doctoral research.

Paper long abstract:

This paper considers how different media or disciplines might furnish ways of expressing different aspects of anthropological research; and how different emphases, for instance on craft practices, might be made to resonate with audiences' own experiences. I draw on experience of curating an exhibition on Kazakh craftswomen and their textiles, based on my doctoral research and fieldwork in western Mongolia. Whilst my doctoral thesis inquired into theoretical questions relating to the nature of the processes involved in learning to make such textiles, curating the exhibition provided an opportunity to show another side of the research, displaying its material and technical aspects, as well as the living space which these textiles furnish, that is a yurt. The aim of the exhibition, then, was to introduce, not only the textiles from this region, but the women who make them and the techniques, tools and materials with which they work. The exhibition also provided an opportunity to collaborate with a composer and put on a series of concerts within the exhibition space, which again brought out different aspects of the research. Curating the exhibition and working with different perspectives brought up questions of the scope (and limitations) of ethnographic exhibitions and other disciplines and media. It also brought up questions of what audiences might gain from such exhibitions and events.

Panel P02
Exhibiting anthropology
  Session 1