Embodiment

Exhibition

Exhibition Overview

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Embodiment
Stephen Goddard, curator
North Balcony, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Recent discussions about the body and how it can convey our social and cultural identity make use of the concept of "embodiment." Embodiment expresses the idea that the body and mind form a unity, in contrast to the notion that has prevailed in Europe and America ever since the writings of the seventeenth-century philosopher, René Descartes, that the body and mind form a duality. Works of art from different cultures that concern the body and its adornment offer valuable opportunities for discussing the evolving ideas of embodiment. The wide-ranging selection of objects in Embodiment was specifically chosen to provoke reflection about these ideas without necessarily suggesting conclusions.

Embodiment is presented in conjunction with a History of Art seminar, "Body Art and Embodiment," offered by Gitti Salami, assistant professor of art history. The students in this class are studying body arts of different cultures, paying special attention to the concept of embodiment as a tool for interrogating culture. The exhibition draws from the Spencer's holdings of photographs, prints and Asian art; the Wilcox Classical Collection; and the KU Anthropological Research and Cultural Collection's holdings of Native American, Mesoamerican, African, and New Guinean works.

Spencer Curator of Prints and Drawings Steve Goddard says the exhibition offers a small laboratory for thinking about the concept of embodiment, much as Professor Salami's goal for the seminar is to "wrap itself around the idea that attitudes towards the body and beingness are culturally determined, and that people's sense of who they are in a body is vastly different from one culture to another."

Embodiment was organized by Steve Goddard, Gitti Salami, Kate Meyer and curatorial interns Madeleine Rislow, Brett Knapp, and Allison Miller.

Exhibition images

Works of art

1700s, Edo period (1600–1868)
Edo period (1600–1868)
late 1800s–early 1900s
Eric Avery
1997
Claude Cahun
circa 1927
Willie Cole
1999
Willie Cole
1999
Willie Cole
1999
Nick Bubash
2000
Don Ed Hardy
2002
Liu Hung
1992
Bill Jacobson
1992
Lucas Kilian, Johann Remmelin, Stephan Michelspacher
1613
Nikki S. Lee
2001
Robert Lostutter
1988
Ana Mendieta
1978
Chester J. Michalik
1968
Duane Michals
circa 1969
Andrew Raftery, RISD Print Editions
2002
Jenny Schmid
2003
Alberto Vargas
circa 1948
月岡芳年 Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 和田彫勇 Wada Hori Yu, 綱島亀吉 Tsunashima Kamekichi
1888, Meiji period (1868–1912)
unrecorded Ute artist
early 1900s
unrecorded Chokwe artist
late 1800s–1908
unrecorded Urarina artist
late 1800s–2002
unrecorded Ayoreo artist
late 1800s–1976
late 1900s–1977

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 52 Dec-2005, Stephen Goddard and Gitti Salami I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. Recent discussions about the body, and how the body can convey social and cultural identity, make use of the concept of "embodiment." Embodiment expresses the idea that the body and mind form a unity. This is in contrast to the notion that the body and mind form a duality - an idea that has prevailed in Europe and America ever since the writings of the seventeenth-century philosopher, René Descartes. Embodiment is an exhibition on view at the Spencer through February 19th that groups together a wide-ranging selection of objects, culled not only from the Spencer’s diverse collection, but also from KU’s Wilcox Classical Collection and the KU Anthropological Research and Cultural Collection. From the latter collection come Native American, Mesoamerican, African, and New Guinean objects. Are attitudes towards the body and identity culturally determined? Does a person’s sense of who he or she is in a body vastly differ from one culture to another? Embodiment provokes reflection about these questions, without necessarily suggesting conclusions. With thanks to Steve Goddard and Gitti Salami for their text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.

Documents