Mellon Research Initiative
Materiality in Japan: Making, Breaking and Conserving Works of Art and
Architecture
Organized by Anton Schweizer, 2012-2014 IFA/Andrew W. Mellon
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Japan is widely regarded as an exemplar in terms of the preservation of
material integrity, the perpetuation of historical production techniques
and the responsible preservation of works of architecture and artifacts
in museum contexts. The Japanese certification system for Cultural
Property – which also includes the category of Living National Treasures
for specialist craftsmen who embody manufacturing techniques as
Intangible Cultural Property – has earned far-reaching acclaim. It is
frequently overlooked, however, that there is actually a wide range of
divergent approaches towards originality and authenticity even in
contemporary Japan. While some of these inconsistencies find their
counterparts in the West, others are related to pre-modern cultural
practices, e.g. concurrent concepts of artifacts in divergent contexts
of reception and evaluation.
This conference attempts to shed light on this issue with a series of
case studies as a means to deconstruct overly simplistic explanatory
models.
The conference schedule will follow three thematic sections:
I "Object practices"
will address practices of production, maintenance, repair and renewal in
pre-modern Japan. Of particular interest will be distinctive concepts of
temporality and permanence, substitution, preservation and
functionality.
II "Ensemble cultures"
will address relevant practices which employed artifacts in larger
contexts of spatial organization, object groups or decorative ensembles.
A particular focus will be laid on processes of re-interpretation,
re-evaluation, categorization and historiographical engagement of
artifacts, and the corresponding practices of display.
III "Approaches to curating and conserving"
will examine dichotomies among the contemporary approaches to
authenticity and material integrity in Japan, Europe and North America.
In particular, a focus will be laid on a discussion of the
often-postulated continuities between pre-modern and contemporary
practices in Japan, and of challenges to established paradigms of
material integrity in the West.
To submit a reservation please use the automatized RSVP function on the
following website:
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/fineart/research/mellon/mellon-materiality-japan.htm
AGENDA
9:00am Registration
9:30am
Opening Remarks: Anton Schweizer, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow,
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
9:45am
Session I: Object Practices
Murielle Hladik, Architect and curator, Paris and Associate Professor,
Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'architecture de Clermont-Ferrand ENSACF:
Architecture and Temporality:
Cyclical Rebuilding, Displacement and Transfer
Andrew Watsky, Professor of Japanese Art History, Department of Art and
Archaeology, Princeton University: Tea Utensil/Sacred Thing:
Objects In and Out of Sixteenth-century Chanoyu
Jennifer Perry, Conservator for Japanese paintings in the Department of
Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Japanese Scroll Mountings: Tools of Presentation and Preservation
Moderator:
Dipti Khera, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and the
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
Discussion
12:00pm Break
1:00pm
Session II: Approaches to Curating and Conserving
Christoph Henrichsen, Architectural conservator and independent scholar,
Cologne:
Traditional Repair and Contemporary Restoration in the Conservation of
Historic Wooden Architecture in Japan
Monika Bincsik, Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow, Department of Asian
Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Preserving Japanese Lacquer Techniques: Replicas, Copies, and Fakes
George Wheeler, Director of Conservation Research, Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University; Research
Scientist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Where is the Real Isamu? Culture and Context in the Conservation of
Noguchi's Sculptures at Mure and Long Island City
Moderator:
Ivan Gaskell, Professor; Curator and Head of the Focus Gallery Project,
Bard Graduate Center
Discussion
3:10pm Coffee break
3:40pm
Session III: Ensemble Cultures
Yukio Lippit, Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of History of Art and
Architecture, Harvard University:
The Ashikaga Object
Nicole Coolodge Rousmaniere, Handa IFAC Curator for Japanese Arts,
British Museum and Research Director, Sainsbury Institute for the Study
of Japanese Arts and Cultures:
Broken Pots: Re-positioning the Early Modern Archaeological Heritage of
Japan to Reveal Taste in Dining among the Elite
Rosina Buckland, Senior Curator of Japanese Collections, National
Museums Scotland, Edinburg:
Divergent Discourses of Aesthetic Appreciation in Bakumatsu Japan
Moderator:
Deborah L. Krohn, Associate Professor, Bard Graduate Center
Discussion
5:50pm Reception (Loeb room)
7:00pm Dinner for speakers, moderators and selected institute faculty
Quellennachweis:
CONF: Materiality in Japan (New York, 11 Apr 14). In: ArtHist.net, 15.03.2014. Letzter Zugriff 29.03.2024. <https://arthist.net/archive/7225>.