Conversation VI: Unbinding the Fetish

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

Conversation VI: Unbinding the Fetish
Conversation VI: Unbinding the Fetish
Ellen Raimond, curator
20/21 Gallery, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

What is a fetish? How has the meaning of the term changed in our contemporary world? How do our perceptions of fetishes influence our interactions with the material world, other people, and even ourselves? Drawing on works from the Spencer’s permanent collection, Conversation VI: Unbinding the Fetish examines evolving perspectives on the fetish by exploring the relationship between the body and the object.
detail: Handlung (Action) by Max Klinger

The first section focuses on Max Klinger’s nineteenth-century graphic narrative, The Glove. Casting himself as the protagonist of this etched series of vivid dreamscapes, Klinger illuminates dual aspects of the fetish: body and object. As the narrative progresses, a man grows obsessed with a woman’s lost glove, which operates both as the fetishized “object” and the desired “body” of the glove’s absent owner. His obsession with the glove moves the viewer beyond the public realities of a nineteenth-century skating rink into the private fantasies of a tortured young man’s psyche.
detail: Seascape by Tom Wesselmann

The second section complicates the issues presented in The Glove. Our current understanding of the fetish relies heavily on the psycho-sexual research of Richard von Krafft Ebing (1840-1902), who observed that fetishism is “the association of lust with the idea of certain portions of the female person, or with certain articles of female attire.” But is fetishism limited to a shoe, or a glove for that matter? Or is it about the foot? Perhaps fetishism is about something else entirely?

In her book, Cultures of Fetishism (2006), Louise J. Kaplan offers an alternative that transcends psychological notions of the fetish. For Kaplan, fetishism is a “strategy” for creating control and meaning. As part of this strategy, individuals or segments of society render the immaterial or “Other” into something material and tangible, effectively transforming ambiguity and uncertainty into something knowable and stable.

Through the inclusion of multiple voices-comprising material objects and relevant texts-Unbinding the Fetish seeks to inspire viewers to form for themselves additional interpretations and understandings of the fetish that will extend the discussion beyond the scope of the Spencer’s current Conversation.

Exhibition images

Works of art

Tom Wesselmann
1967
André Kertész
1933
Brassaï
1934–1935
Jacques Lipchitz
1933
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
1932–1933
Gervasio Gallardo
circa 1966
Hans Bellmer
circa 1935
Louis Faurer
1949
Richard Olson
circa 1980
James Abbe
circa 1920s
Hans Bellmer
1955
Barbara Hawkins
1983
Nicole Voysey
1997
Yinka Shonibare
2002
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley
circa 1907
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Max Klinger
1881
Tony Fitzpatrick, Landfall Press
1992
Eduardo Paolozzi
1970
Salvador Dalí
1970
David Mohallatee
2004
Hong Chun Zhang
2005
Gordon Parks
1952
unrecorded A:shiwi (Zuñi) artist
1900s

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 198 Sep-2009, Ellen Raimond I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. A current installation of works from the Spencer collection, Conversation VI: Unbinding the Fetish examines evolving perspectives on the concept of the fetish. The exploration begins through a series of prints by the late nineteenth-century German artist Max Klinger, entitled The Glove. Casting himself as the protagonist of this etched series of vivid dreamscapes, Klinger illuminates dual aspects of the fetish: body and object. The prints illustrate a man’s growing obsession with a woman’s lost glove, which functions both as the fetishized “object” and the desired “body” of its absent owner. His obsession with the glove moves the viewer beyond the public realities of a skating rink into the private fantasies of a tortured young man’s psyche. But perhaps fetishism is about something else entirely. Through the inclusion of multiple voices-comprising material objects and relevant texts-Unbinding the Fetish seeks to inspire viewers to form their own further interpretations and understandings. With thanks to Ellen Raimond for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.