Unmaking Things
Objects in Translation
The Book as Object as Hybrid
As a historian of material culture one may also be confronted with the design of books and their content, and the question whether a printed or written medium can be considered as an object. As part of my research for my dissertation I have been looking at books a lot, printed natural history encyclopedia from sixteenth century Europe, many of which are considered to be the first much more comprehensive compilations, representing ‘the entire animal kingdom’.[1]
Konrad Gessner, 'Von dem Dornschweyn' ('On the Porcupine'), Thierbuoch (Animal Book), Zentralbibliothek Zurich, www.e-rara.ch, © Nina Pongracz, 2012
Figuratively speaking, By Priya Khanchandani
Figuratively speaking: Capturing the Essence of Indian Jewellery, By Priya Khanchandani
Silver anklets, Gujarat, c. 1898-1905. Museum n°IM.287-1927. © Victoria and Albert Museum, 2012
The abundance of nineteenth century Indian jewellery in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum today has led to studies of how it would have been worn, by whom, where and in what form. Research on gold jewellery from India, in particular, has revealed a great deal about the cultural context of its use in the Mughal courts.1 The collection of silver jewellery, the jewellery that was worn by the majority of Indians, has been covered less extensively. Analysing the profusion of silver jewellery in nineteenth century India, tracing its various forms and types, would be one way of unravelling its history. However, as we will see, its essence is best captured by considering it beyond the literal.
Travelling Beauty: Wilde, Aestheticism and the French.
Beauté, Morale et Volupté dans l'Angleterre d'Oscar Wilde at the Musée d'Orsay. © Soersha Dyon, 2012
Starting on the 13th of September 2011 and running until the 15th of January 2012, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris showed Beauty, Morality and Voluptuousness in Oscar Wilde’s England, the second stop in the Victoria and Albert’s travelling exhibition dedicated to Aestheticism, before it moves on to San Francisco in March 2012.
Narratives Converge in a Renaissance Mermaid
Mermaid door knocker, 16. or 17. C., Venice, The Wallace Collection. © 2011, Nina Pongracz
The sixteenth or seventeenth century bronze door knocker in the shape of a mermaid (see illustration) is situated in the Sixteenth Century Gallery of The Wallace Collection in London. Although it could be seen as a symbol of the family’s virtues, of what further art the house contained, the mermaid certainly also indicates social trends and popular ideals of the time and place it originates from and acted as a primary point of contact and communication between the Italian Renaissance casa and the outside world. (more…)
The Wild West – Was Postmodernism a global phenomenon?
Postmodernism catalogue, edited by Glenn Adamson & Jane Pavitt. © Victoria and Albert Museum, 2011
// Priya Khanchandani is an MA Candidate in History of Design at the Royal College of Art specialising in Asia. In this article, she reflects on the question of Postmodernism beyond the ‘West’, further to a talk she delivered at a Friday Late as part of the V&A’s “Postmodernism Look” event. Priya is a graduate of Cambridge University, previously worked as a lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP and is a Trustee of the Chisenhale Gallery. //
Not even when I visited the Postmodernism exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum for the second time did it appear that anything was missing.1 Brightly lit neon signs guided me seamlessly from the fall of Modernism, symbolised by the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in America, all the way to the eventual commoditisation of Postmodernism, and thus ending appropriately with the exhibition gift shop.
The Lettuccio: hybridity and promiscuity
Lettuccio at the Museo Horne Museum, Florence. © Nina Pongracz 2011
Sex, marriage, lineage, prostitution, homosexuality and health are just some of the concepts that converge in the Renaissance lettuccio or daybed. The historiography of this object allows for an investigation of the symbolic as well as physical hybrid nature of this extinct piece of furniture, predominantly used in middle to upper-class Italian households.
What’s in a name? Europe and the Porringer.
Commemorative Porringer by John Waite, 1689, V&A. © 2011 Victoria and Albert Museum
The focus of some of my research last year was on a seventeenth-century porringer, see illustration. I initially thought that this was a ‘typical’ British object, so I was surprised to find it had a European use and history. In the context of this column, it is perhaps good to consider that a ‘global’ object doesn’t need to blatantly cry out its cross-cultural status, but that instead such a status can be carefully and subtly cultivated. In a way, the idea and use of an object can migrate from country to country, taking different forms.
The Global Object and the problem of Hybridity
Chintz Cape, c.1775, Coromandel Coast. Photo ©Victoria and Albert Museum
The term hybridity is unavoidable when discussing design and objects within a global perspective as it appears in both historical studies and contemporary article. Yet the word hybrid is rarely discussed or justified, even when it’s use within a design history context could be seen as problematic, particularly concerning objects from a pre-colonial period. Indeed, this particular word has strong political, ethical and cultural associations, associations that fundamentally alter its meaning.
cheap viagra china
Table Carpet, 1550, Turkey. Photo © Victoria and Albert Museum
Material culture found at the cross-over of people, languages, countries, cultures and professions, offers the unique, eye-opening opportunity to study the design of hybrid artifacts. Objects that have come to exist through the interaction of different, often even contradicting parts, be this physically or intellectually, will be at the focus of this column, such as the ‘table carpet’ illustrated on the right.
V&AMarkgrey2
