Anthropology

This article presents a case study of the Solentiname archipelago in Nicaragua theorised as a site for the construction of utopia, an idealised environment where an alternative community was formed during the 1960s and 1970s, in opposition to the Somoza dictatorship (1936–79). The leadership of Ernesto Cardenal led to the creation of an enduring cultural legacy, which was essential to the development of the Sandinista revolutionary movement as well as to sustaining the Sandinista government following the victory in July 1979, particularly during the Contra War (1981–90). Applying art historical analysis, the article investigates how photography contributes to the formation of revolutionary identities, by fulfilling both descriptive and ideological purposes. Despite the scarcity of the surviving visual record from the islands, I argue that photographs of the site were fundamental in establishing the role of the community as a strategic ally for the rising opposition against the Somoza dictatorship. Not only did photography help envision utopia, it equally contributed to situating these hopes in the context of daily realities, resisting the regime. Other forms of art and literature that developed in Solentiname in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1978–79 further shaped revolutionary identities, as grievances about poverty, inequality and political repression were expressed through egalitarian high–low aesthetics. The case of Solentiname thus serves to open a discussion concerning under-explored cultural alliances within Latin America and beyond, providing a close-up view of localised aesthetic practices seen in relation to transnational solidarity networks, framed by the context of the massive sociopolitical transformations underway during the Cold War.

By placing on view a large selection of objects recently acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition Incident Transgressions: Report on “Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America 1960–1980” (September 5, 2015 to January 3, 2016) sought to situate artistic practices from Latin America and Eastern Europe within a discursive model of cross-cultural and aesthetic transmission. However, the exhibition marginalized an account of the specific relations between these objects in favor of a more encompassing global curatorial narrative. While seeking to outline the parameters of the exhibition, and its implications in regard to contemporary trends in art history and museology, the text aims to highlight some of the instances of transmission and contact, both real and imagined, between the objects displayed.

"Measuring the World: Photography, Geography and Description" (Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Sep 16th – Dec 13th 2015) explores how the camera can function as a device for measuring the world, mediating relations between individuals and their surrounding environments. Drawn from the Museum’s extensive collection of historic to contemporary photography, the exhibition invites viewers to consider ideas about land and colonial expansion, mapping, the World Atlas, the question of scale, travel, tourism, and globalization.

Charlotte Brooks at LOOK, 1951-1971. Beverly Brannan, Vicki Goldberg, edited and with an essay by Ileana Selejan. Exhibition catalogue. Wellesley, MA: Davis Museum at Wellesley College, 2016.

Charlotte Brooks at LOOK, 1951­-1971 was the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the career of one of the most important American female photographers from the postwar era. Best known for her work at Look magazine between 1951 and 1971, Brooks’ output represents a significant contribution to the visual history of the United States at mid­-century. The exhibition received press coverage from TIME magazine, The Washington Post, and Allure. It was reviewed by The Boston Globe.

The 2018 anti-government protests in Nicaragua generated a vast amount of photographic imagery, video documentation, and visual graphics. On the street and via social media, everyday citizens engaged with this material, activating a multisensory environment. The production of visual content was nonetheless accompanied by iconoclastic gestures; vandalism became a means of reclaiming Nicaragua’s revolutionary past and its symbols, while deploying them towards the making of a yet to be imagined political future. Drawing on examples from Chile and Mexico, the article argues that acts of vandalism may be understood as symbolically reparative. The materiality of the protests, manifested through image, trace, gesture, and sound (slogans, chants, noise) becomes a means towards analysing, ethnographically, revolutionary imaginaries caught within the flux of an unsettled present.

The 2018 anti-government protests in Nicaragua generated a vast amount of photographic imagery, video documentation, and visual graphics. On the street and via social media, everyday citizens engaged with this material, activating a multisensory environment. The production of visual content was nonetheless accompanied by iconoclastic gestures; vandalism became a means of reclaiming Nicaragua’s revolutionary past and its symbols, while deploying them towards the making of a yet to be imagined political future. Drawing on examples from Chile and Mexico, the article argues that acts of vandalism may be understood as symbolically reparative. The materiality of the protests, manifested through image, trace, gesture, and sound (slogans, chants, noise) becomes a means towards analysing, ethnographically, revolutionary imaginaries caught within the flux of an unsettled present.

This paper explores miscarriage in a variety of Qatari contexts to
reveal the multiple realities of the unborn. During 18 months of
ethnographic research, a range of settings in which fetuses
emerged were explored. The unborn are represented and imagined
differently, particularly in relation to the ways they are located, with
multiple beings emerging according to the context and position of
the stakeholder. This paper considers fetuses produced within these
contexts and considers how they can be different beings
simultaneously. The paper reveals how categories meant to define
these beings are in flux and are constantly negotiated; it reflects
moments of ambiguity. The paper serves as an illustration of the
way in which value-afforded pregnancy materials affects the
contexts in which they emerge; this then loops back as context
dictates the significance of the material, hence multiple realities of
these beings.