Ethnographic Terminalia New Orleans was an exhibition of over 20 local, national and international artists and anthropologists who work at the intersection of art and anthropology. From November 11 – December 3, 2010, Ethnographic Terminalia was on exhibit at the Du Mois Gallery in Uptown New Orleans in the Freret commercial corridor with an extension space Barrister’s Gallery in the St. Claude Arts District.
Nicola Levell and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
The exhibition was scheduled to coincide with the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). With support from the AAA as well as the Society for Visual Anthropology, Ethnographic Terminalia brings anthropologists and artists together into exhibition spaces to investigate practical and disciplinary boundaries. This is an initiative to draw contemporary art practices in closer proximity to forms of anthropological inquiry and expression.
The terminus is the end, the boundary, and the border; of course the terminus is also a beginning as well as its own place, its own site of experience and encounter.
In 2009, eleven artists made up Ethnographic Terminalia 2009: Philadelphia which was installed at Crane Arts and the Icebox Project Space. In 2010 we selected over twenty artists to make up Ethnographic Terminalia: New Orleans 2010 including Susan Hiller, Fiamma Montezemolo, Robert Willim & Anders Weberg, Ahmad Hosni, Anthony Callaway, Candy Chang, Dada Docot, Patricia Tusa & Don Fels, Dona Schwartz, Ian Kirkpatrick, Jan Lemitz, Jenn Karson, Juan Orrantia, Kate Hennessy and Richard Wilson, Lorrie Fredette, Nicola Levell and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Roderick Coover, Travis Shaffer, Simon Rattigan, Stephanie Spray, Stephanie Keats, Tom Miller, Trish Scott, and Trudi Lynn Smith.
Further to the main exhibition at Du Mois Gallery, a number of other sites around New Orleans hosted events sponsored by Ethnographic Terminalia.
- Barrister’s Gallery presents Ryan Burns’ Profane Relics: An ossuary of the Congo mineral wars and Lina Dib’s Recantoreum.
- Roundtable discussion at the American Anthropology Association Meetings: Ethnographic termini: moving and agitating within the borderlands of contemporary art and ethnography. This panel will be held at the AAA conference on Saturday, November 20 from 10:00am to 12:00pm.
- Sponsorship of Art Spill: Disaster, Art, Activism, and Recovery in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Art Spill consists of an exhibition, which will run from November 13-20 in the St. Claude Arts District; an AAA-sponsored, off-site panel consisting of scholars and artists whose work is relevant to social and ecological issues in the Gulf Coast region, to be held at 6pm on November 20; and a juried art show and NOLA-style party after the panel on November 20, the proceeds of which will be donated to the non-profit watchdog groups Defenders of the Coast and NOLA Emergency Response. Art Spill is also working in collaboration with Multispecies Salon 3: SWARM, whose events include activities in the St. Claude Arts District from November 13-20 and an AAA panel from 1-5:30pm on November 20.
Curatorial Collective:
Maria Brodine, Columbia University (New York, USA)
Craig Campbell, University of Texas at Austin (Austin, USA)
Kate Hennessy, School of Interactive Arts + Technology (SIAT), SFU (Vancouver, Canada)
Fiona McDonald, University College London (London, England)
Trudi Lynn Smith, York University (Toronto, Canada)
Stephanie Takaragawa, Chapman University (Orange, USA)
Supported by: The American Anthropology Association, The Society for Visual Anthropology, The Center for Cultural Studies (University of Texas at Austin), The School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, Stella Artois, The Du Mois Gallery, Barrister’s Gallery.
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