Annie E.

Coombes 1992

Inventingthe'Postcolonial':
Donald Preziosi (επιμ.), The Art of Art History: A
Hybridity and Critical Anthology (Οξφόρδη: Oxford University
Press, 1998)
Constituencyin
ContemporaryClurating
[A] wi]]ingness to descend into that a]ien territory . . . may revea] that the the-
oretical recognition of the split-space of enunciation may open the way to
conceptualizing an international culture, basednot on the exoticism or multi-
culturalism of the diversity of cultures, but on the inscription and articulation
ofculture'shybridity.'
hybridity, impurity, intermingling, the transformation that
comes of new and unexpected combinations of human beings,
cultures, ideas, politics, movies, songs.'

The past few years have seenthe flowering of a new phenomenonin

cultural institutions at the heart of the western metropolitan centre:a
seriesof exhibitions which claimed to disrupt radically the boundaries
of that dyed the 'West ' and its 'Other ', the relationship of centreto
periphery.; in fact, each went even further and declared itself the
harbinger, if not the representativeof a new 'post-colonial' conscious-
ness.'in curatorial terms, a sharedfeature of all these exhibitions
the prioritizing of transculturated objects, both as the ultimate sign ofa
productive culture contact between the western centres and th(
groups on the so-called periphery, and as the visible referent of the sc
determination of those nations once subjugatedunder colonial dor
ination.
More specifically,the cultural object was to be the primary si! nificr
of a cultural, national and ethnic identity which proclaimed and deb-
rated its integrity and 'difference' from the centresofwestern ca.)ical
ulture
ism. But it was also to be the sign of a mutually productive
contact--an exchange.To accomplishthis the curatorsdelib:rarely
Brent
selectedcultural productionwhich straddleda numberof
;ins of
taxonomies,objects designatedat various moments asthe dot
ethnography, science,popular culture and fine art.

d
This article exploressome of the difHculties arising from
this particular curatorial strategy and the extent to which it

486 THE OTHER: ART HISTORY AND'hS MUSEOLOGY

l$=h=q.hHl:Hl;
ANNIE E. C00MBIS 487
policy, the museum hasbecomeboth.avital component in the reclaim-
inganddefiningof aconcept of collective. memory. . on the local
.... level,
and, on the national level, an opportune site for the reconstituting of
certain cultural icons aspart of a common 'heritage'--a 'heritage' often
produced as a spectacleof essentialistnational identity with the
museum frequency servingas the site of the nostalgic manufactureofa
consensualpast in the lived reality of a deeply divided present.9
Simultaneously, as the central argument against the restitution of
cultural property, western museumsproclaim the internationalism of
museum culture asirrefutable 'proof ' of their neutrality and objectivity
and asjustification for their self-appointed role as cultural custodians.
Finally, multicultural educationalinitiatives from within the western
metropolitan centres have heralded a new and possibly more self-
refiexive conception for the ethnographic museum,.despite debateon
the relative merits of an initiative which may well be multicultural
without necessarilybeing anti-racist.:' Resultant questions about
constituency have been taken on by some anthropologists and eth-
nographers.These have revived a concern with the political implica-
tions of anthropological practice and the way anthropological
knowledge is used that hasbeen dormant sinceKathleen Gough sand
others' searing critiques of their own discipline at the height of
American intervention in Vietnam .':
Any cultural object is, of course,recuperableto some degree.But, in
particular, such ambiguity has always been intrinsic to westerncon-
sumption of material culture from erstwhile .colonies. Paradoxicdy,
however, this same material culture is simultaneously awardedthe
status of visible referent--the ultimate sign--of cultural and social
value, replete with immanent meaning. Further complications follow
once such objects are assigned an aesthetic value appall'ntly commen-
surate with western standards, while at the same time they are de
as embodying an other and different, but equally valid, criterion
determ nangcultural value. An ambitious prqectl Most.recently the
complexities have been neatly resolvedby the liberal white curato
establishment in terms of a recognition, celebration and reassertio
'difference ' through an apparendy magnanimous acceptance of PI
ityandculturaldiversity . .. . . . . . ,.
One' of the difhculties with any exhibition which. foregrou 11

hybridity is that while it may recognizeand celebratethe poly

nature of the objects on display, it often disavows the comploji7
ways in which this is articulated across a series of relations at

HIH:ii11=2==n.::!
:'=::£;
::.=::i:i"==m;":.=h,"='=::£'SI
'diversity ' as analytical devices for the dissipation of grand

488 THE 0TH ER: ART HISTORY ANI)hS MUSEOLOGY

ANNIE Z. C00MBES 489
ical celebration in museum culture of a hybridity which threatens to frequency
collapse the heterogeneousexperience of racism into a scopic feast preserving the material
where the goodson displayare laid out for easyconsumpt:on:n ever what wastaken to be the
more enticing configurations,none of which actually challengesor selves. ] 8 Paradoxically,
exposesthe waysin which suchdifferenceis constitutedand operates nation as an academic
asa mechanismof oppression. necessitated its aiding and
At various moments in the history ofwestern imperialism, different as an active agent in co]onia]
colonial powers haveused the 'visibility ' of the museum to set up initi- inevitability of such
atives which were as dependent then on the rhetoric of equal access multiple values
that we hear so much about now. In Britain in the l85os, and again in enhancing the
the Edwardian era, for example, this was invoked in no uncertain eously
terms. The museum was heralded as '.. . the most democratic and lower end
socialistic possession of the people. AJI have equal accessto them, peer What we
and peasantreceivethe sameprivileges and treatment.':' Museums alive and well
occupied a territory apparently 'neutral ' enough to provide what was below- in the
seenas a 'common' meeting ground for children from 'different class asthen, any
backgrounds'--the basis in fact of an objective education.Again in adoption for
the ethnographic museums'potential asa 'scientific' and therefore andLeft, with
objective ' educational tool which cut across ethnic and national tandem and often
boundaries as we]] as those of class,was afHrmed through an initiative In the words of one critic
which aimed to bring children in different parts of the Empire in con- so much to popularize the
tact with one another and 'get them acquainted' with eachother's appearing World has for a
lifestyles. Today, of course, in England and elsewhere,multiculturalism ended) demands . . . difference
has other implications contingent on the different experiencesof di- maintaining that distance.'19
verse social groups living in a white patriarchy lwould argue, however, premised on the
that it is precisely under the banner of a form of multiculturalism that contact with western
those exhibitions, uncritically celebrating cultural 'diversity' through making itself), it is
the primary strategy of displaying culturally hybrid objects from once implied by such
colonized nations, can claim immunity from addressingthe specificity of the script permitted to the
of this experience.They ultimately invoke as misleading a rhetoric of
equality as those earlier manifestations, laying claim.to an impossibler world ' syndrome
relativism that declaresobjectivity at the expenseof a recognitiono through such representation.
the multiple political interestsat stakein such an initiative: to mind is the
Evidently the preoccupationwith originary unity and the empha. 'H.idden
on racial purity, which characterized much of the aestheticdisco the use
around material culture from the colonies in the early part of this fcl Substitute for the Amazon
tury, have been challenged by the current celebration of hybridtW.:' tacle which
suggesta tidy continuum betweenthe ideologiesthat markedthe basin as
mahon of anthropology as a discipline in the early twentieth cern paedic knowledge of the
and the present 'post-colonial ' context, would be overdeterminea. meta-narrative of the
what sort of shifts in significanceare possible for cultural.objects simply
such a legacy once visual displays do acknowledge transculturatto diverse strata
Again, certain aspectsof the professionalizationof anthrop( is made explicit in the
rticularly in Franceand Britain, warrant elaboration.As a rnl threats to the very
validating the expansionof ethnographic collections,the rhetoric continues, ']n the light of this,

49oTnE OTHER: ART HISTORY ANiyAS MUSEOLOGY

ANNIE E. C00MBZS 49i
 campaigns against the decimation of the Amazonian rain forests and
two photographs supposed to demonstrate a flourishing hybrid cul-
ture--a ceremonial house made out of recycled cans and a Panare
quefaut-il du present? Indian in 'traditional' clothing riding a yellow Yamahabike on a
clearedhighway The statement made by Evaristo Nugkuag, one of the
leadersof an Indian rights organization, neatly sumsup the problem:
'It was as though we could have the white's machine without losing our
land and our way of life .'::
Four yearslater, the Calgary exhibition 'The Spirit Sings:Artistic
Traditions of Canada's First Peoples' put on to coincide with the
Winter Olympics in January ig88, became the centre of another con
troversy.The Lubicon Lake Cree organized a demonstration and boy-
cott of the OlympicGamesin orderto drawattentionto their
forty-year-old land claim. The exhibition itself graduallybecamethe
focusof the boycott sinceits very existencewas only assuredas the
resultof a substantial
grantfrom ShellOil CanadaLtd--who also
happened to be drilling in precisely the area of the land claim. In the
words of BernardOminayak, Chief of the Lubicon: 'The irony of
using a displayof North American Indian artefactsto attract people to
the Winter Olympics being organizedby interestswho arestill actively
seeking to destroy Indian people, seems obvious.':s The curator's
71 Indian park set up in Brazil in i959, mu st be seen as the most acceptable responsewasto play the old 'objectivity ' card--'Museums, like univer-
Exhibitsfrom 'TempsPerdu, of alternativesfor the protection of Indian interestsin the welterof sities, are expected by their constitutions, to remain non-partisan.':' in
Temps Retrouv6', at the answerto the Lubicon's retort that Glenbow Museum had already
Museed'Ethnographie, modern economic development.':: The tone of resignation and in-
Neuchitel,1985/86. evitability here is continuing proof of the way in which those dis- made a political stand by accepting Shell sponsorship, the astounding
'What's worth preserving of the courses used to justin ' ethnographic practice during its historical responsewas that there was no 'evidencethat the public confuses
present?'
formation as an 'ofhcially ' accredited 'profession' are continually corporate support for corporate policy'.:s
invokedtoday[71]. Clearly, those who apparently 'cannot represent themselves' are
However, on 8 August ig85, the Museum was picketed by repre' morethan able to do just that. In both the Tukano and the Lubicon
sentatives from Survival International and two Indian representatives Cree cases, their intervention exposed not only the hidden agendas of
from different Indian rights organizations.What interestsme hereare corporate sponsorship and 'objective ' museum scholarship, but also the
the particular terms of their critique of the exhibition and the way it inextricability of discoursesof cultural continuity and/or cultural
highlights someof the difHcultiesof addressingthe issueof culture transformation as a result of contact with western capitalism, with
contact through the display of culturaHy'hybrid ' objects.The demon- other more problematic discoursesaround the conceptof 'tradition'.
stration concerned not the absenceof the evidenceof culture contact, The 'disappearing world ' syndrome--the West's search for the
assimilation and adaptation in the display,but rather the absenceof an authentic encounter with originary unity, that is both constantly
acknowledgement of the dialectical and dynamic relationship of di . threatened and passively awaited by those whose visibility rests on the
verse Amerindian population s to such contact--not simply at the level magnanimity of 'objective' scho]arship--was we]] and truly rumbled.:'
of the hybridization of material culture, but at a much more funda, Most importantly, both Amazon and Lubicon Indian rights groups
mental social level. It concerned, in fact, the absenceof any evidenceof have made it clear that there are complex interests at stake in the
the ongoing struggle between the Indians and the Brazilian govern- representationof culture contact in western museums.The 'context'
ment; the absenceof any signs of selectiveand strategic resistance;in which needs to be made explicit in such displays is no longer solely the
short, the absenceof any self-determination by those Indians repro' old functionalist caUfor 'mythic ' and 'ritual ' significance, or a reassess-
sensedin the exhibition. The Museum'sconcessionto the contempol ment of the validity of such practicesfor the canonsof the western art
rory situation was to put up a story-board advertising western aid establishment, but the ways in which such cultural activities are often

49z THE OTHER; ART HISTORYANI)AS MiJSEOLOGY ANNIE E. C00MBES 493

 ern viewer with the basis for acknowledging other, more complex,
structural afhnities and exchanges?29

I II

feJMag;f;enj deZaZe7're ' at the Beaubourgin Pariswasone of the more

notorious exhibitions to foreground hybridity as a condition of 'post-
coloniality'. It highlighted some of the problemsin the kinds of
binaries which are often reinforced despite the disavowalof any com-
parisons on the grounds of a spurious, but supposedly self-evident
'similarity ' between exhibitors from the western ' metropolitan centres
and those from nation-states with a more recent history of colonial
subjugation. The irony here was, of course, that the one thing that
most critics of the show picked up on was the major structuring device
of racial and cultural 'difference'--a 'difference' which is transformed
here into a 'cultural diversity't a contented global village. A highly
selective'difference' which includes African, Australian and Chilean
artists, but has no room for the huge North African diaspora, the resid-
entsof the Beaubourg'sneighbouring arrondissements.'
This is where it might be valuable to consider the historical forma.
72 framed within a specific engagement with global politics, and certainly tian of the public.museum as the transformation from private courtly
Exhibitsfrom'TempsPerdu. with local demands. The meanings attributed and attributable to collection to public collection, a moment representedin its starkest
Temps Retrouv6', at the
Mus6ed'Ethnographie, such practices are, in fact, politically contingent, unstable and often form by the foundation of the Louvre after the Revolution.30The sub-
Neuchgtel,1985/86 strategic. sequent inwtation to participate in a supposedly shared culture--the
Ethnographicobjectsas The historical conditions for culture appropriation by the West, address to the citizen--underwrites aHpublic museums. In such spaces
souvenirsincluding a mask
from Gabon and a South and the critique ofwestern modernism asposing some form ofimposs- the viewer is necessarilyinterpolated as both citizen and indiMdual.
Americanponchowhich ible universalinternationalism, makesit untenableto speakof shifting and the relationship betweenpublic and subjectiveidentities, and the
belongedrespectivelyto Dr
the binary oppositions, for so long the structural principle in so much valuesand exclusionsimplicit in both, is crucial. In the context of '.[e.f
Albert SchweitzerandJ ean-
JacquesdeTschudi. western appraisalof non-European culture, by simply including in the /Magic ezzs',for example, the confusion invoked by such an address, and
display objects showing signs of culture contact. Even if this doesgo the contradictions between this and the actual addressand conditions
somewaytowards disrupting the continuity of the searchfor authenti- of accessto cu]tura]capital,might accountfor why the huge North
city it doeslittle to disintegratethe problemsimplicit in the continued African diaspora in Paris is a regular user of the videotech and library
suggestionof the inevitability of the cycleof corruption,changeand at the Beaubourg, but rarely, if ever, uses the exhibition space down-
modernity After a discussion of the multiple meanings produced by stairs.;:And this despitethe fact that the Beaubourgis predicatedon
the evidence of such contact in the visual narratives of western ethno-
an almost monstrous visibility which declares through its 'transparent '
graphic museumsand art galleries,not to mention other media,this functionalismarchitectural idiom a condition of permanent and open
suggestion either has the rin.,; of a native voluntarism about it or takes accessibility.'2
on a more pernicious aspect[72]." IC as Paul Gilroy has suggested, 'diaspora ' enables a way out of a
binary constituted across 'essentialism ' versus 'difference ', we need to
appearing world ' phenomenon and the question of culture contactis recognizethe significanceof the fact that 'hybridity ' and 'difference
today inflected with other knowledgesand a recognition in some in most of theseexhibitions are articulatedas a symptomof what
instancesof a 'post-colonial' context. The axeswhich operatenow may is identified as 'post'colonial' (itself a rather dubious category)as
be more productive: 'traditional ' versus tourist or airport art; popular opposed to 'diasporic' formations.:' it is a coincidencewhich effect-
versushigh culture; local versusglobal.:; But is there, in fact, any ewa' ively marginalized diaspora 'Other ' within--a concept which is
.nce of other types of display policy that would shift the implicit value far more politicaHy disquieting to western bourgeois hegemonic
judgements of even these'binaries, that would indeed provide the west' culture. Perhapsthis also accountsfor the disruptive and transgressive

494 THE OTHER: ART HISTORYANnAS MUSEOLOGY ANNIE E. C00MBES 495

power (for all their failings) of exhibitions like Rasheed Araeen's 'The
Other Story ' at the Hayward Gallery and the earlier exhibition 'From
Other \Worlds' in London's Whitechapel Gallery." in both theseexhi-
bitions, the primary constituencywas preciselythese'new commun-
ities' (the result of migration, dispersal,and settlement) that have
transformed for good the faceof British society.Attentiveness to audi-
ence and constituency is all: who is doing the looking, or more pre-
cisely, who is being addressed, is a central issue. And, perhaps for this
very reason,those exhibitions in the westernmetropolis which have
turned an ironic and self-critical eye on the viewing subject and on the
museological process of 'othering ' have been most successful in point-
ing a way forward. In this respectthe Museum of Ethnography at
Neuchitel under the direction ofjacques Hainard hasbeen one of the
most innovative precursors."
In exhibitions such as 'Z,esMagic;e7zsde Za Terre' the comparisons
which serveto reinstate the binary divide are not between the signsof
cultural assimilationor appropriation--the signifiersof 'difference'--
in and between the work of Nancy Spero, Alfredo Jaar or Rasheed
Araeen. The problematic and most striking comparison is between
these self-consciously modernist and postmodernist artists and those
like Cheri Sambaor SundayJackAkpan, whosework grewout of a
concern with, and certainly use ofl the visual language associatedwith
existing cultural practiceswhich initially they transformed to createa
new relevance, often for a popular local audience.
One of the questions this raises is whether or not the postmodern
strategy of 'bricolage'(the organizing principle for 'Z,ei .7Mag;ffePzi
')
does in fact constitute a kind of counterpra.ctice." Maybe one of the
distinctions between modernist collage and postmodernist 'bricolage'
lies precisely in the ability of the former to articulate the dialectical ten-
sionswhich the latter tends to reproduceas a free-flowing confusion
and flux, what becomes,in fact, in-differentiation. Paradoxically,
it
may be the ethnographic museum (traditionally the site of 'visibility ' of
colonial appropriation and territorial expansion)where this dialectical
relation is most likely, precisely because its 'visibility ' was never the
neutral in-difference of modernist universality--the claim to subject
art
ive individualism that is historically the project of the modern
museum.
ies
In the sameway that bricolage superficially reproduces the qualil
of collage but smoothes over the fracture that collage retains: 'd
]er
ence' as an analytical tool can simply revert to the pitfalls of the.' res
cultural relativist model, concealingthe distancesbetweencul :he
while afbrming that all areequal.The chasmis too greatbetweennt:
actual experience of economic, social and political disempow'rr ux
and the philosophical relativism ofpostmodernism's celebration A6
and indeterminacy asthe product of the mobility of global capi

496 THE OTHER: ART HISTORY ANnAs MUSEOLOGY

ANNIE Z. C00MSES 497