Social Anthropology Seminar - Monday, 13th March 2017 - Dr Alanna Cant – University of Kent
| Dates: | 13 March 2017 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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| Speaker: | Dr Alanna Cant |
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Social Anthropology Seminar
Monday, 13th March 2017
Dr Alanna Cant – University of Kent
On The Object Itself: Oaxacan Woodcarvers
And The Allure Of Their Art
Current scholarship on aesthetic commodities suggests that we cannot accurately understand the political and economic lives of people who work within markets for art and craftwork without considering how art objects condition their experiences. Since the late 1990s, anthropologists have generally approached this issue either by looking at how ‘authenticity’ is produced in a given locale or, following Alfred Gell, by approaching artworks as ‘technologies of enchantment’ that have agency in their own right. In this paper, I argue that neither of these approaches is sufficient, and I suggest that Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘aura’ of works of art can be adapted in order to account for the powerful allure that art objects hold for their producers, viewers and consumers. Based on ethnographic research with woodcarvers in Oaxaca, Mexico, I demonstrate how artisans and their clients experience woodcarvings in a variety of material and affective ways that underpin their auratic power. This paper suggests that auratic power is both shaped by and drives art market ideologies of authorship and production, and therefore directly structures artisans’ experiences of work and the marketplace.
2.016/.017
Second Floor Boardroom, Arthur Lewis Building
4:15 – 6:00pm
(Tea and coffee available outside the room from 4:00pm)
ALL WELCOME!
Speaker
Dr Alanna Cant
Role: Speaker
Organisation: University of Kent
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
2.016 / 017 (Second Floor Boardroom)
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
