Opening Reception: January 23, 2009, 5 PM
“Kuna” will investigate the Denison Museum’s extensive collection of the art and artifacts of this Central American island culture, from molas (textile designs) and nuchus (wooden votives) to jewelry and musical instruments, through the interpretive curatorial lens of the groundbreaking text Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses, by Michael Taussig, Professor of Performance Studies at NYU. In his study Taussig sets forth a dynamic reinterpretation of the human practice of “imitation” (mimesis) and the increasingly complex nature of “difference” (alterity) in today’s world through his anthropological and historical work on the Kuna Indians and their visual culture. Taussig discusses these broadly applicable theories through a sophisticated analysis of such modern theorists as Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Visually enthralling and intellectually stimulating, this exhibition will showcase approximately 200 objects understood through in-depth text panels, maps, gallery guides and other materials.
