Reports from Researchers Working in the Field, in Archives, and on the Ground
by Mya Rose Bailey I first heard the ringing of the Great Clock at Monticello in the dead of summer. The deep, steady resonance of the gong felt as though it could wipe the sweat from my back. I stared as its hammer, now muffled but still deafening in its strike, emanated three low reverberations. […]
by Elaigha Vilaysane In his 2009 journal article entitled “Enlivening the Soul in Chinese Tombs,” Chinese art historian Wu Hung contends that most European and American museums do not display Chinese funerary objects in their ritual and architectural context.1 As a result, the decontextualized display of these artifacts limits an understanding of their original function.2 Museums […]
by Danielle Wirsansky The Secrets We Keep is a new musical that immerses audiences in the mystical realm of rusalki, using folklore to explore sensitive historical themes and reveal hidden truths. The story follows Luba, a Jewish Polish woman tragically transformed into a rusalka— an undead, enchanting water spirit both alluring and eerie—during the […]
by Liz Neill Provenance: literally, where something comes from. Once considered secondary to the aesthetic value of an artwork or a secret to be hidden in restricted files, object histories have become more widely discussed by archaeologists and art historians in recent decades. Major US museums, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and […]
by Michaela Peine While the self-portrait occupies a unique liminal space on the spectrum of affectation and reality, the “hidden” or “obscured” self-portrait pushes farther, using the selfhood of the artist as a medium to be objectified, concealed, or symbolically transformed. However, as is demonstrated in the work of Jo Spence and Mary Sibande, this use […]
by Levi Sherman When artists in the 1960s began challenging systemic authority, it seemed any cultural heritage institution—library, archive, or museum—could be a target of what would become known as Institutional Critique.1 The same period heard the first rumblings of today’s “digital convergence,”2 or the collapse of libraries, archives, and museums into repositories of information, […]
by Colleen Foran “That area looks ancient,” a cabdriver responded to my stated destination in Ga Mashie. While the neighborhood is not actually ancient, I understood the sentiment. Ga Mashie constitutes “Old Accra” and contains the Ghanaian capital’s oldest standing buildings.1 Constructed by European companies as defensive forts for trade goods, these structures date from […]
by Jin Wang A few years ago, I stepped onto a train in Brussels and accidentally ended up in Ostend, where I first encountered works by the Belgian painter and graphic artist Léon Spilliaert. Wandering in the city’s museum, the Mu.ZEE, I was immediately intrigued by Spilliaert’s Vertigo (fig. 1, 1908). Similarly enthralled, a group […]
by Heather Burich United States art museums located in geographically hazardous zones should be well-informed about the considerable risks posed to their collections at any given time. As the impact of climate change intensifies, public institutions need to review their collection management policies in response to the growing frequency of natural disasters. After the devastation […]
by Stephen Rosser “Only the Great Fire of London and the Blitz had brought swifter and more comprehensive change to the City’s appearance than Big Bang.”1 That assertion, in a history of 1980s Britain, encapsulates the twin themes at the center of the research project on which I am currently working. The first theme is […]