1st Edition

Between Art and Anthropology Contemporary Ethnographic Practice

Edited By Arnd Schneider, Christopher Wright Copyright 2010

    Between Art and Anthropology provides new and challenging arguments for considering contemporary art and anthropology in terms of fieldwork practice. Artists and anthropologists share a set of common practices that raise similar ethical issues, which the authors explore in depth for the first time. The book presents a strong argument for encouraging artists and anthropologists to learn directly from each other's practices 'in the field'. It goes beyond the so-called 'ethnographic turn' of much contemporary art and the 'crisis of representation' in anthropology, in productively exploring the implications of the new anthropology of the senses, and ethical issues, for future art-anthropology collaborations. The contributors to this exciting volume consider the work of artists such as Joseph Beuys, Suzanne Lacy, Marcus Coates, Cameron Jamie, and Mohini Chandra. With cutting-edge essays from a range of key thinkers such as acclaimed art critic Lucy R. Lippard, and distinguished anthropologists George E. Marcus and Steve Feld, Between Art and Anthropology will be essential reading for students, artists and scholars across a number of fields.

    List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments1 Between Art and AnthropologyArnd Schneider (University of Oslo) & Chris Wright (Goldsmiths College)2 Farther AfieldLucy R. Lippard (independent scholar)3 The Artist as Shaman: the work of Joseph Beuys and Marcus CoatesVictoria Walters (University of Ulster)4 Hearing Faces, Seeing Voices: Sound Art, Experimentalism and the Ethnographic GazeJohn Wynne (University of the Arts/London College of Communication)5 In the Thick of It: Notes on Observation and ContextChristopher Wright (Goldsmiths College)6 Fieldwork Tatsuo Inagaki (independent artist)7 Affinities: Fieldwork in Anthropology Today and the Ethnographic in Artwork George E. Marcus (University of California, Irvine)8 Show and Tell: Weaving a Basket of KnowledgeAmiria Salmond (University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) and Rosanna Raymond (artist) 9 Tracing HistoriesMohini Chandra (artist) & Rebecca Empson (Cambridge University)10 Collaborative Migrations: Contemporary Art in/as Anthropology Steven Feld, in conversation with Virginia Ryan11 Making Art Ethnography: Painting, War and Ethnographic PracticeSusan Ossman (Goldsmiths College, University of London)12 Cultural Knowledge on Display: Chinese and Haudenosaunee FieldnotesMorgan Perkins (SUNY Potsdam)13 Making Do: the Materials of Art and AnthropologyAnna Grimshaw (Emory University), Elspeth Owen, Amanda Ravetz (Manchester Metropolitan University) Notes

    Biography

    Arnd Schneider is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Christopher Wright is Lecturer in Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

    Between Art and Anthropology provides new and challenging arguments for considering contemporary art and anthropology in terms of fieldwork practice. Between Art and Anthropology will be essential reading for students, artists and scholars across a number of fields. - visualanthropology.net