The Jugaad Project

Aug 12

Aug 12 The Artivism of Incantations in Isan

Artivism is not necessarily a harmonious intersection between art and activism—it may also result from a head-on collision. This article explores the art of Patiwat “Molam Bank” Saraiyaem, a Thai folk poet-singer and former student activist who has shied away from the label “activist.” How does one soldier on doing activism with a wounded soul? My answer: through the power of ritual poetry and performance in restoring wholeness as well as acknowledging brokenness. This argument is constructed through description, comparison, and analysis of the words, the emoting, and the reception in two incantatory poems by Patiwat. Isan, the term meaning the Northeast as well as the hybrid Lao vernacular of the region, unlocks an understanding of how Patiwat’s art both serves Thai pro-democracy activism and resists its dominant language and emotional regimen, sparking new activist possibilities in and beyond Isan.

Aug 1

Aug 1 Just Images

Rajgopal Saikumar

Articles

In 2010 a High Court in India found Shabnam and Saleem guilty of conspiring and murdering seven of Shabnam’s family members. They are both currently in death row. If executed, Shabnam will be the first woman to be so killed in independent India. In the decade she’s spent in prison, Shabnam learnt to knit, stitch, and embroider textiles as clothing and bags. Her lawyers documented and presented images of these objects as evidence of reform and a promise of rehabilitation. I am interested in taking the materiality of these objects seriously, and treat them as aesthetic objects. What happens when these photographs enter a legal plea, as evidence of reformation, and a prayer for the commutation of sentence?

Apr 5

Apr 5 Bamboo Crafts Development Projects in Indonesia: Who to Develop? What is to be Developed?

Amira Rahardiani

Articles

The crafts development project model has played a crucial role in developing Indonesian socio-economic situations at the communal, regional and national levels. The top-down development project model adopted by the government has caused an overlap of development systems among agencies trying to reach the grassroots levels for the past three decades. Yet, the attempt to “develop” craft industries inevitably conflicts with preserving producers’ work and customs. This article unveils subject-object relations in a traditional bamboo cottage industry in Cikiray Hamlets, West Java, where the ecological factors around the hamlets shape the daily and seasonal routines of the craftspeople involved in commodifying their crafts.

Apr 5

Apr 5 Likhai: A journey through the craft of wood carving

Lalita Waldia

Articles

The article unfolds the journey of Likhai, a craft of wood carving in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand from a glorified past to a disappearing craft. Likhai, which was once an integral part of communities, is an amalgamation of diverse cultural influences and represents the land and its people. The article makes the case that it is vital to understand the whole system that revolves around the practice, providing details of the origin of the craft and how it represents the importance of Likhai for the communities. A narrative is thus created that connects the changes in the region with changes that have impacted the craft and the craftspeople. Likhai is no longer part of modern Kumaoni houses but despite this still manages to be in the hearts of people.

Apr 5

Apr 5 Sustaining Spaces of idol-crafting and communities of practice: Seasonality, adaptability, and cultural identities in Kumartuli, Kolkata

Debapriya Chakrabarti

Articles

Kolkata’s Kumartuli neighbourhood remains the centre of idol-crafting for Durga Puja, a Hindu festival that has been nominated for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status. Iconic clay idols are prepared in Kumartuli for over six months, where festival preparations reach their peak in the monsoon and early autumn. While clay idol-making has been studied extensively as religious art/craft less attention has been paid within material religion to the creation and use of religious space as festival-making, and the type of spatial practices required. Constant negotiations and adaptations are required within cramped spaces to accommodate a large seasonal informal workforce and the multi-layered exchanges despite the failing infrastructure of the unorganized neighbourhood/slum of Kumartuli. To carry out this operation during the festive period within this densely inhabited area the existing physical infrastructure must be appropriated and adapted to insufficient services, place branding and varying degrees of policing. Based on ethnographic fieldnotes, mapping and visual documentation, this paper explores the operations and logistics of idol-making through the narrow lanes. It argues that what makes this an interesting “community of practice” is the dynamic between facilities being stretched to breaking point (and peoples’ grievances) as well as the continuing faith-led consumer demand for clay crafts. That is, scholarly understanding of Durga Puja as a religious practice or Kumartuli as a craft neighbourhood must be located against the complex backdrop of the growing commodification of a cultural craft, as well as how associated caste and other networks have evolved over time to facilitate these practices despite congested and competitive spatial and relational configurations.

Apr 5

Apr 5 Gringsing Fabric as Spatial Cosmology and Relation-making

Lira Anindita Utami

Articles

This article is based on an extensive study of the textile-making culture of Tenganan Pagringsingan, a village located in the region of Karangasem in the southeastern part of Bali island in Indonesia. In this village, a type of double-ikat woven textile called Gringsing has been produced for generations by the Bali Aga (the indigenous Balinese). It is believed to be a sacred healer and is highly sanctified by both the producing community and the rest of the Balinese Hindu community.

Oct 28

Oct 28 A Theory of Relational Affliction and Healing: Evil Eye in Iran and Greece

Rose Wellman and Dionisios Kavadias

Peer Reviewed, Articles

Rose Wellman and Dionisios Kavadias offer a comparative ethnographic study of the evil eye in contemporary Iran and Greece. With rich ethnographic detail, the authors explore the ongoing significance of evil eye affliction as well as the diagnostic approaches and remedies used for removal of this curse. Their analysis shifts focus from previous paradigms of social cohesion to local cultural logics, ways of knowing, and realities that foreground bodily integrity and experiences of energy. They present evil eye as a case study in relationality and embodied affliction/healing.

Oct 27

Oct 27 Body, Goddess and Healing: The Tattoos of a Goddess

Maheshvari Naidu

Articles

The author explores the affective and physical ‘territorialisation’ of the body during measles, and how vernacular Tamil beliefs consider this a visit from the Goddess called Mariammen. She traces the interruption (and disruption) into the devotee’s life through the material presence of measles as the immaterial, yet tangible existential presence of her anger splayed ferociously out across the body. The healing instance of measles, invokes and provokes a bodyscape of heat and cooling to match the temperament of the goddess. The essay deconstructs the poly-semiotics of healing as a kind of purging and takes an under-the-skin look at the materiality of both body and goddess in this context.

Oct 27

Oct 27 Curing with Our Mother Corn

Cyndy Margarita Garcia-Weyandt

Articles

In this article, the author discusses the myriad of ways agricultural practices are interconnected with healing modalities. Using environmental justice and healing justice frameworks, the author examines how Our Mother Corn (“Native Corn”), as a Wixárika relative, prescribes and assures the health of Wixárika families. Drawing from ethnographic research, the author examines Wixárika communities’ views on health. To be healthy, Wixárika families maintain a harmonious relationship with their ancestors—including Our Mother Corn—to receive wellness from them. In the article, the author questions current healing frameworks and problematizes the current traditional practices.

Jun 3

Jun 3 Wounded Landscapes: Debris of War, Residual Vulnerability, and (Toxic) Intimacy in Post-Cold War Southeast Asia

Chairat Polmuk

Articles, Peer Reviewed

This paper investigates transnational ecologies of the vestiges of war in Southeast Asia, where a shared experience of vulnerability has become the very condition of everyday reality and aesthetic expression. Focusing on the legacies of the U.S. bombardment campaigns in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand during the Second Indochina War, the author looks at how artists and filmmakers such as Allan Sekula (USA), Tada Hengsapkul (Thailand) Vandy Rattana (Cambodia), and Xaisongkham Induangchanthy (Laos), document the lingering effects—and affects—of Cold War atrocities through topographic aesthetics as a locus of “residual vulnerability”.

Jun 1

Jun 1 Archaeology’s Destructive Legacy: Burning it All Down to Better Support Scholars of Color

Nadhira Hill

Articles

This essay examines the ways in which (Classical) archaeology’s inherently destructive nature is deeply intertwined with and informed by its destructive foundations. Despite the traditional prevalence of white scholars in our syllabi, in our conference panels, and in our institutions, archaeologists of color have made it exceedingly clear in the last several months that this is our discipline, too. By juxtaposing the destructive natures of both archaeological method and the discipline at large, the author suggests how professors can apply principles of archaeological fieldwork to their mentorship of students of color.

May 31

May 31 Handling Textiles: Rebuilding Object Lives in Museums

Emily A. Levick

Articles

Textiles are imbued with the multifaceted and complex values, beliefs, and ideals of the cultures in which they were produced and consumed. They have been used as clothing, shelter, and ornament, and are often remade and repurposed throughout their ‘lives’, constantly acquiring new layers of meaning along the way. As such, they are ideal media for museums attempting to widen their audience reach and more effectively represent world history and culture. How can museums rebuild the stories and lives of textiles in exhibits? This essay explores the possibility of building connections between visitors and textiles through multisensory engagement and, in doing so, suggests the remaking of the museum experience.

Mar 12

Mar 12 Breaking Down Colston: Destruction and Transformation in London and Bristol

Lindsay P. Crisp

Articles, Peer Reviewed

This article investigates articulations of material and cultural affects in the deplinthing of the Bristol memorial to Edward Colston in June 2020, and Michael Landy’s destruction of his belongings in the art event Break Down in February 2001. In Break Down, as in the deplinthing of the Colston memorial, destruction changes and expands the plane upon which objects are intelligible by bringing to our attention their material composition. The protesters’ action in Bristol and Landy’s project of systematic dismantling and granulation differ profoundly in epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic terms. However, both events confront us with the fact that matter is never entirely ‘gone.’

Mar 4

Mar 4 Seeing the Lost Mural: How Damage and Restoration Inform Close Looking

Eliza West

Articles

The 110-year-old Lost Mural, damaged by almost 30 years behind a false wall, is a patchwork of tones – some areas carefully cleaned by art conservators, other still dirty and showing chipped and missing paint. In this state, it exists simultaneously as an example of damage and restoration, and as both a significant cultural artifact and a work of religious art. This article shows how the conservation process and the practice of close looking allow us to better understand each of these aspects of the Lost Mural.

Feb 24

Feb 24 Colorism, Castism, and Gentrification in Bollywood

Rebecca Peters

Articles, Peer Reviewed

Colorism, prejudicial attitudes towards people with darker skin tones, like all -isms, creates a toxic environment for anyone who does not fall into the ideal category. When major media sources, like Bollywood in India, reinforce the oppressive attitude of discrimination based on skin color, it adds to the normalization of colorism and resulting social hierarchies and stigma. I argue that Bollywood’s desires for respectability among upper class Indian and diasporic audiences emboldens its attitudes about class, caste, and color, contributing significantly to the power and reach of colorism.