Representing Women: from HBO's "Girls" to Thai Concubines

I came across two very interesting articles and commentaries about representation of women today. These articles also highlighted the loaded nature of racial and ethnic representation as well. The first explores why we should be upset that HBO's new hit series Girls features four main characters who are white girls, while placing all other characters as cardboard cutouts of their ethnic stereotype. Dodai Stewart asks, "Does Girls have the right to be all-white? Of course. But we, the public, have the right to critique the insular, homogenous world a young woman with the good fortune to have her own TV show has chosen to present. Because it's exclusionary, disappointing, unrealistic, and upsetting. And it perpetuates a sad trend." The second I came across was Dr Leslie Woodhouse's fascinating article about photographs of Siamese kingly consorts, taken by other consorts, at the turn of the century.

Woodhouse notes:"By examining the photographic activities of a particular royal consort, Erb Bunnag, I intend to demonstrate that palace womens’ photography was not a mere curiosity of nineteenth-century Siamese elite culture, but rather reflective of a significant moment in Thailand’s cultural and political history. During the same era in which royal concubinage was losing ground politically, it was rapidly morphing—via photographic imagery—into a powerful tool of crypto-colonial discourse. At the same time, as Siam grappled with the new ideologies of imperialism and racial inferiority espoused by European colonial nations, a Siamese ‘hierarchy of civilizations’ became necessary, and Erb’s photographs of the ethnically different Princess Dara Rasami illustrate one means of its construction. In this context, Erb’s photographs served to not only render palace women visible to the general viewing public of Siam for the first time, but also to showcase royal women as exemplars of “modern” (read: Western) femininity—and to locate certain consorts in a new siwilai (civilized) hierarchy. Via their adoption of Western cultural markers of dress, accessory objects, and leisure activities, palace women were re-made into crypto-colonial icons of eliteness for a growing Bangkok bourgeoisie." Here we see ethnographic photography being actively used by potential subjects of ethnographic photography, and photography and visibility used as markers of modernity. Read the full (excellent!) article here.

The images shown here are from the original article, where they are credited to the National Archive of Thailand.

Videos from Mathaf

Saudi Street Art Video

(in Arabic)

CCTV feature on Art Dubai

Check out this video about Art Dubai's rising art stars, featuring so many Arab and Middle Eastern artists.

The body in Arab art

Mouvement decompose, Mehdi-George Lahlou


An exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe is exploring the body in Arab art. Notes curator Hoda Makram-Ebeid, "We want this show to break down clichés concerning the Arab world, but we're not looking for controversy. The artists on show are of all ages, from all over the world. The immense variety and multiplicity of the work demonstrates that it is impossible to lump together 'Arabic artists' or Arab art. They're looking at a problematic – that of the body – which interests everyone today and their work is relevant to people of all different backgrounds." Learn more here.

Abu Dhabi Art 2011

See the video here!

Photographer Lily Bandak on art and disability in the Arab world

Lily Bandak, Beirut, 1982


Photographer Lily Bandak speaks about her career in photography and disability.

Arabic Oldies: Najat Essaghira

Parastou Forouhar wins Sophie von la Roche award

Kharavan Butterfly, above.
See the story and hear Forouhar discuss her work here on BBC.

Moving site-specific artworks

The film The Art of the Steal discusses the Barnes Foundation's controversial move from Merion, PA, to downtown Philly. You can also read my review of the film here, on my personal blog.

Should site-specific works be allowed to be moved? And who gets to determine this - and how long after the artist or owner of the work passes away do their wishes continue to be honored? For another case involving moving and dismantling of site-specific works that generated controversy, see Richard Serra's Tilted Arc.

The Sheikh and I

This film looks really interesting, as it explores a lot of the issues and controversy around recreating Western-style concepts of free speech, public spaces, art, and art delivery mechanisms in the Arab Gulf. I will have to find a way to track it down!

More of the backstory on Zahedi's film here.

James Cuno on the Encyclopedic Museum & Its Value

See his talk at Zocalo from this week here.

Elizabeth Taylor in Iran

Currently on view at LTMH Gallery, NYC.

Call for participation: women art enthusiasts

Your help is greatly appreciated! I want to hear from you!

Talk to me! Feedback from women in the Arab art scene

Please repost or tweet!

Call for participation: women art enthusiasts in the Arab world

I am conducting research on the phenomenon of women-only viewings at art fairs and museums in the Arab Gulf. If you attend or enjoy art events in the Gulf or the Arab world in general, I'd like to speak with you. We can communicate via email in Arabic French, or English, or via Skype or G-Chat in English or French - unfortunately I am not funded to travel to the Gulf to meet in person. I am happy to protect your privacy in any way you wish.

Below are the kinds of questions I'd like to get a variety of answers to:
What do you think about women-only viewings?
Are they helpful? Does it encourage or discourage you from attending exhibitions? Would you attend if women-only viewings were not scheduled? Do you attend the exhibitions during non-restricted hours?
How do you respond to the idea that women-only events are a “regional custom”? What is your interpretation of this phenomenon? Why do you think it is happening, what do you think is the cause?

I don't have an argument I want to make from your feedback or an agenda, but am generally interested in understanding how different people respond to this occurrence. Please find me at eaharrington at gmail or beth_slnanthro on Twitter; you're also welcome to leave a comment on this blog with a way to get in touch with you.

Film Review: The Forgotten Space, or On Modernity, Globalization & Space

Allan Sekula and Noel Burch have made a film essay entitled The Forgotten Space. The film screened at LACMA on Saturday night, sponsored by LACMA and Redcat.

Sekula and Burch write, "Our film is about globalization and the sea, the "forgotten space" of our modernity. First and foremost, globalization is the penetration of the multinational corporate economy into every nook and cranny of human life." They cite that 90% of the world's cargo moves by sea - even though most people don't imagine that to be so. It makes sense, though, if you think about it; all the cheap plastic stuff and clothing made in Bangladesh, Cambodia or the Philippines must come to the US and to Western Europe somehow. That's exactly Sekula and Burch's point - the sea, and this globalization of modernity, the flow of trade is invisible to most of us.

The film essay form isn't a documentary, though it kind of feels like it at first. You have to get yourself to see the art in it, rather than expect it to be a documentary. That is what Sekula and Burch are after - the Brechtian "distanciation" that comes from the discontinuities, the illusion of the documentary.

It reminded me of Professor Gilsenan talking about the feel of places in our graduate seminar on the anthropology of cities, the idea of places: ports as dirty places, liminal, places of passing through and moving on, transitional - and in that, scary because they are not stable places, they represent an unfixed lifestyle. Marseilles used to be considered so filthy, so immoral.

The film's message also addresses globalization, modernity and trade. In this vein, the film is very much about neoliberalism: it is all about flow, and speed of transaction. Modernity and globalization are measured in speed of flow: flow of goods, peoples, information (see: Christopher Parker, Ahmed Kanna). Speed is king. Cindi Katz also wrote about the way neoliberalism divides places, creates spaces of modernity and spaces of not modernity. The insidious effect, Katz argues, is that these divisions reify and deepen existing categorizations especially including class and power divides, while simultaneously hiding the divisive nature of these distinctions. It is not a honest distinguishing, then, but a hiding of facts, a covering of unmodern bodies and spaces - removing them from view. So that the flow can continue unobstructed.

And Sekula and Burch are here to show us images from these forgotten spaces, the Katzian hidden spaces left out of the flow of modernity and globalization and neoliberalism. They show us a Dutch village, Doel, that disappears because of the expansion of the port of Antwerp; the boxy containers that transport goods from China to the US and back around the world again - but containing what exactly; Korean and Indonesian workers aboard the ships that move that cargo but can't speak the same language; Aussies and Brits working in naval academies in Hong Kong; and jobless, formerly middle class Americans who are now homeless, living in a tent city in Ontario, CA. The film surveys these disparate people, left from the flow of modernization; they have been sidelined, and Sekula & Burch give them a voice.



The question that remains is, are we willing to hear these voices if it means higher prices on our goods manufactured in other places, transported here by cogs in the forgotten machine of sea trade? If it means less speed, less flow? Will we place the human above the flow?

Call for feedback! Women art enthusiasts in the Gulf

Please repost or tweet!

Call for participation: women art enthuasiasts in the Arab Gulf

I am starting research on the phenomenon of women-only viewings at art fairs and museums in the Arab Gulf. If you attend or enjoy art events in the Gulf, I'd like to speak with you. We can communicate via email in Arabic or English, or via Skype or G-Chat in English - unfortunately I am not funded to travel to the Gulf to meet in person. I am happy to protect your privacy in any way you wish.

Below are the kinds of questions I'd like to get a variety of answers to:
What do you think about women-only viewings?
Are they helpful? Does it encourage or discourage you from attending exhibitions? Would you attend if women-only viewings were not scheduled? Do you attend the exhibitions during non-restricted hours?
How do you respond to the idea that women-only events are a “regional custom”? What is your interpretation of this phenomenon? Why do you think it is happening, what do you think is the cause?

I don't have an argument I want to make from your feedback or an agenda, but am generally interested in understanding how different people respond to this occurrence. Please find me at eaharrington at gmail or beth_slnanthro on Twitter; you're also welcome to leave a comment on this blog with a way to get in touch with you.


Abstract:
Viewings for Women Only: The Creation of Homosocial Space through Art Exhibitions in the Arab Gulf

When the new Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi held an initial exhibition of Picasso in 2008, organizers elected to schedule regular viewings restricted to women. The press statement noted that this is a "regional custom to allow women to socialize - and that its inclusion in the retrospective's schedule was meant as a peace offering to the community."
My paper explores the creation of homosocial spaces and their intersection with art, museums, and global politics. I examine the ways in which certain works of art are perceived to be problematic or sexual when viewed in mixed gender settings, and what this solution says about constructions and elicitations of desire. Same-sex settings are seen as neutralizing potentially inflammatory works - does this mean that works are perceived as dangerous not for their inherent content but in their moment and space of their witnessing? Thus, I explore the varying and shifting legibilities of works when they are framed and viewed in different spaces and constructs.
I argue this event demonstrates an attempt by the exhibition organizers, who have links to the Emirati government, to embed museum-going and art viewing behaviors within what Bourdieu would consider the habitus, customs perceived to be established and comfortable for local women. Interviews with Gulf female art visitors and examining other women-only activities for socializing helps to more fully contextualize this practice. This research explores this instance of female homosocial space in relation to similar phenomena in other communities, such as the Aboriginal Australian community, that restrict and divide viewings of art works by gender, drawing on the work of Fred Myers; it also explores the ways that art has previously created homosocial spaces and opened the topic of same-sex desire in Qajar art.

Curator of Exhibits job @ Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum

Opening: Curator of Exhibits
The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum has an immediate opening for an experienced Curator of Exhibits. He/She will manage the museum’s Exhibits Division and oversee a staff of two people—an Exhibits Manager and an Exhibits Coordinator. General responsibilities include overseeing the planning, building and installing of exhibits relevant to the museum’s mission of interpreting and disseminating information on the Seminoles. Acting as a division head within the programming area, and reporting to the Programs Officer, he/she will be a vital and integral player on the museum staff. The Curator of Exhibits should be a team player and demonstrate a willingness to advocate for exhibition excellence, promoting esprit de corps, and promoting the museum’s unique mission.

Posted: August 4, 2011
Job Type: Full-Time
Job Duration: Indefinite
Min Education: Master's Degree
Min Experience: 5-7 Years
Required Travel: 10-25%
Job ID: 8432172
Position Title: Curator of Exhibits
Company Name: Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum
Job Function: Exhibitions
Entry Level: No
Location(s): Clewiston, Big Cypress Reservation, 33440, United States

More here.

Opportunities!

CFP: Great Exhibitions in the Margins, 1851-1938
Great Exhibitions in the Margins, 1851 - 1938 University of Wolverhampton,
26-27 April 2012 Research has for a long time focused on world fairs, great exhibitions or
expositions universelles in the capitals of Europe and in the large cities
of the USA. Their crucial role in communicating ideas about the identities
of the exhibiting nations (and their relation to other cultures) and in
showcasing contemporary art and design has been examined in detail.
However, in the heyday of these spectacular events - in the second half of
the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century - smaller
cities and regional centres, such as Liege, Poznan, Edinburgh or
Wolverhampton, staged their own 'great exhibitions' modelled on those held
in the national (or imperial) centres. Their goals, although executed on a
more modest scale, were often the same and involved the promotion and sale
of goods but also communication of ideas, ideologies and identities. These
smaller shows usually had large ambitions and tried to engage not only the
local population but also national and international audiences and
exhibitors.

This symposium turns attention to the exhibitions of arts and industries
in the regions outside the capitals and to the assumptions that lay behind
them. Its main focus will be placed on their ambitions, originality,
relationship to the ��greater�� exhibitions and, in particular,
their engagement with visual culture. The questions explored may include:

- what ambitions motivated the idea of staging an exhibition in the
particular location and what were its objectives

- what was the long-term impact of the show on the region, nationally
and internationally

- how were the arts displayed at the exhibition and what role they
played

- what specific influence did exhibitions like the Great Exhibition or
Expositions Universelles in Paris have on the exhibitions in the margins?


The symposium encourages an inter-disciplinary approach to the topic and
papers are therefore welcome from scholars in a wide range of disciplines,
including the history of art and design, history, politics, anthropology,
ethnography, cultural studies etc. A network of researchers interested in
the subject of exhibition cultures will be created through the symposium
as further academic activities on the theme are planned (a publication and
a research network). News about the symposium and the research network
will be posted at http://greatexhibitions.blogspot.com.

Please send your paper proposals of up to 250 words to Dr. Marta Filipova
at Marta.Filipova@wlv.ac.uk by 1 November 2011.
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Monday, August 15, 2011
LAST CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology

The Michael M. Ames Prize for Innovative Museum Anthropology is awarded annually to individuals for innovative work in museum anthropology, which is understood to entail outstanding single or multi-authored books, published catalogues, temporary and permanent exhibits, repatriation projects, collaborations with descendant communities, educational or outreach projects, multimedia works, and other endeavors. Individuals can be nominated by any member of CMA. A letter of nomination and any supporting material should accompany a copy of the evidence of the work under consideration. The CMA President will appoint a prize committee of three people at the CMA Board of Directors meeting held at the AAA Annual Meeting. The prize committee will review the works and the prize-winners will be notified in advance of the annual AAA meetings so that they can consider attending. The prize winner will be announced at the AAA Annual Meeting and presented with a certificate of the award.

Nomination:
• Deadline: SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
• The nominator must be a current CMA member in good standing
• Self-nominations are allowed
• Hard copies or electronic copies of nomination packets and materials must be sent by the nominator to each of the three prize committee members
• Nomination packets should include a cover letter and the work under consideration (or evidence of it), as well as any supporting materials, such as letters of support, media coverage, DVDs, etc.
• Nomination packets will not be returned

Evaluation Criteria:
• Creativity: Is the project a unique and creative exploration of museum anthropology’s central themes, tensions, and histories?
• Timeliness: Does the project say something important about museum anthropology’s current predicaments and unknown future?
• Depth: In what ways does the project penetrate into the complexity of material culture and the study of it through novel methods and theories?
• Impact: Does the project have the potential to make broad and lasting impacts in museum anthropology?

Process and Rules:
• A three-person prize committee of CMA members, headed by a committee chair, will be constituted by the current CMA President at the annual AAA Board of Directors meeting each year
• The committee will be formally announced by January 15 annually, with the addresses of each committee member publicized
• All nomination materials must be received by September 1, although incomplete nominations may still be considered based on the materials provided
• If no qualified nominations are made, the prize committee may elect to refrain from presenting the award for that year

Instructions:
For the 2011 competition, send one copy of the nomination packet to each committee member:

Jennifer Kramer
Curator of the Pacific Northwest
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
UBC Museum of Anthropology
6393 NW Marine Dr.
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada
Email: Jennifer.kramer@ubc.ca

Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh
Department of Anthropology
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2001 Colorado Boulevard
Denver, CO 80205
USA
Email: Chip.C-C@dmns.org

Kathleen Adams
Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
402 Coffey Hall
Loyola University Chicago
1032 W. Sheridan Road,
Chicago, IL 60660
USA
Email: kadams@luc.edu

Any questions should be directed to the prize committee chair at jennifer.kramer@ubc.ca.
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NYC-based photographers who are interested in volunteering to shoot for Open House NY should contact me! October 15-16.

OPEN CALL/CFP: FOLK ARTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE RESIDENCIES

reposted from the Philadelphia Folklore Project -
OPEN CALL: FOLK ARTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE RESIDENCIES
Show and share your work in our gallery

The Philadelphia Folklore Project announces new exhibition opportunities for people working in local communities and addressing social change. (For a pdf of this page, click here.)

If you are directly creating folk and traditional arts or doing documentary work about local grassroots community experiences and expressions, we invite you to apply. Propose a project that can have meaningful impact, both for you and more widely. Residencies offer stipends of $1,000 - $3,000 as well as an exhibition in our gallery between September 2011 and August 2012.

Who: We invite proposals from Philadelphia-area residents who work in community artistic traditions/folk arts or who conduct grassroots or ethnographic documentation. By folk arts, we mean community-based arts: traditions rooted in shared and evolving heritage or experiences. We see folk arts as collective traditions: arts that represent more than an individual vision.

What: Projects that can be done for $3,000 or less, and installed over 1-3 months at PFP are possible. In addition to the stipend and space*, we provide a public opening reception, publicity and interpretive materials, and technical assistance as needed. PFP staff will support exhibition planning and production, develop publicity and interpretive materials, and support community outreach and public programs. Artists chosen for residencies are asked to present at least one public event sharing or talking about their cultural or documentary work and the issues it addresses, and to participate in several meetings with PFP staff and other residents. We expect to support up to 5 different projects.

When: Application deadline, July 1, 2011. Residency projects will be on display for 1-3 months between September 2011 and August 2012. (Exhibition durations will vary depending on proposed projects).

Where: Exhibitions will be installed at PFP, 735 S. 50th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19143

Why this program? People working in folk and traditional arts create meaningful alternatives for their communities, but lack many kinds of resources to sustain their practice. We value folk arts: the spaces they claim, the relationships they embody, and the possibilities they offer. We invite you to bring your arts and concerns into our gallery, and to consider how our space and support can help you take next steps in work that matters.



Read more about the CFP here.