David Freedberg

The Kachinas of Oraibi: Ethnography, Photography and Iconoclash

Lecture given at the symposium "Image Wars and Image Floods"

David Freedberg

David Freedberg

netzspannung.org

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Abstract

Warburg's gross misunderstanding of the Hopi Kachinas and the Hopi Snake Dance exemplifies some of the less commonly acknowledged aspects of the iconoclash. I go on to speak of the following: Warburg's drive to understand the emotionality of Western images by appealing to the surviving primitive cultures of the American West. His failure. The museum as the true site of the iconoclash. How ethnography drains images of their powers, and thus destroys what makes them distinctive. The mask as true image. The loss of self control - entailed by laughter, or desire - as a factor in the wish to draim images of their power, or to destroy them. Warburg's Bilderatlas as the consequence and antithesis of the irrationality he feared in the response to images.

Artists / Authors

Date(s)

Organizer

Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (ZKM) and Graduiertenkolleg "Bild-Körper-Medium" at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG)

Location

ZKM, Lorenzstrasse 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany

URL

» http://on1.zkm.de/zk…ries/storyReader$2691

Comment

The symposium "Image Wars and Image Floods" focuses on themes from the "iconoclash" exhibition which presents image conflicts both in historical situations and in the contemporary world.

Submission

, Nov 4, 2003

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