Abstract
This chapter primarily delves into the broader question of whether there can be a feminist ethnography that considers art by women in South Asia as the primary ethnographic material. The chapter argues in the affirmative. In spite of the concerns, scepticisms and questions surrounding feminist ethnography in general and in the context of South Asia in particular, art by women in the region can serve as a powerful material for ethnographic inquiry. Feminist ethnography and art practices by South Asian women share a common base of fighting, resisting and dissenting against all forms of patriarchal domination, from the domains of the family to that of the state.
An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the South Asia Conference: Cultural Productions from a Gendered Perspective, Colombo, Sri Lanka, November 2017. I am extremely indebted to Prof. Sasanka Perera for being a constant source of inspiration and providing his invaluable guidance throughout every stage of this chapter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
For more details on Feminist standpoint theory and its criticisms, please refer to Heckman, S. (1997). ‘Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited’ Signs Vol. 22 (2): 341–365.
- 2.
Further, Parul Dave Mukherji in her conversation with Sasanka Perera while aptly recognizing the disciplines of sociology and art history as ‘natural allies’ elicits examples such as feminist art historian Griselda Pollock and her reflections on the canons of her discipline to Susie Tharu’s essay on N. Pushpamala’s photo essays, which serve as a reminder about the interdisciplinarity of these disciplines that can come together to enrich each other (Pathak 2016: 37–45).
- 3.
Pollock, G. 1987. ‘Feminist Interventions in Art’s Histories,’ pp. 4–14 in Vision and Difference: Feminism, Femininity and Histories of Art. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/kb/article/viewFile/10930/4793 [last accessed on 25 September 2018].
- 4.
Hashmi, S. 2015. Guerrilla Girls: Feminist Art, Then and Now: http://www.artnowpakistan.com/guerrilla-girls-feminist-art-then-and-now/ [last accessed on 25 September 2018].
- 5.
http://anoliperera.blogspot.in/ [last accessed on 9 July 2018].
- 6.
These details about her work have been taken from her interview available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1pS5j_6EiQ [last accessed on 9 July 2018] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzgjM8KeoIc [last accessed on 9 July 2018]. More details can be found at https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/tayeba-begum-lipi [last accessed on 9 July 2018].
- 7.
For more details about her work, please refer to http://www.piartworks.com/english/sanatcilar_det1.php?recordID=Tayeba%20Begum%20LIPI [last accessed on 24 September 2018].
- 8.
For more details about her work, please refer to http://naturemorte.com/artists/pushpamalan/ [last accessed on 9 July 2018] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z1Hos6dU_g [last accessed on 9 July 2018] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNvAqktHl_I [last accessed on 9 July 2018].
References
Abu-Lughod, L. 1990. Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 5 (1): 7–27.
Brewer, J.D. 2000. Ethnography. Buckingham/Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Chatterji, R. 2012. Speaking with Pictures: Folk Art and the Narrative Tradition in India. Delhi: Routledge.
Clifford, J., and George E. Marcus. 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dadi, I. 2010. Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Desai, D. 2002. The Ethnographic Move in Contemporary Art: What Does It Mean for Art Education? Studies in Art Education 43 (4): 307–323.
Fine, G.A. 1993. Ten Lies of Ethnography Moral Dilemmas of Field Research. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22 (3): 267–294.
Foster, H. 1999. The Return of the Real. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
———. 1988. Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hashmi, S. 2003. Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan. Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publications.
———. 2005. Tracing the Image: Contemporary Art in Pakistan. In Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific, ed. Caroline Turner, 164–179. Canberra: Pandamus Books.
———. 2015. Guerrilla Girls: Feminist Art, Then and Now. http://www.artnowpakistan.com/guerrilla-girls-feminist-art-then-and-now/. Last Accessed on 25 Sept 2018.
Heckman, S. 1997. Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited. Signs 22 (2): 341–365.
Jayawardena, K. 1986. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. London: Zed Books.
Ługowska, A. 2014. The Art and Craft Divide – On the Exigency of Margins. Art Inquiry. Recherches sur les arts XVI: 285–296.
Mohanty, C.T. 1984. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Boundary 2 12 (3): 333–358.
Murthy, L. 2018. Silences and Solidarities: Sexual Violence and Impunity in South Asia. In Another South Asia, ed. Dev Nath Pathak, 125–139. Delhi: Primus Books.
Parker, R. 2010. The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. New York: I.B. Tauris and Co Ltd.
Pathak, D.N. 2016. Intersections in Sociology, Art and Art History: A Conversation with Parul Dave Mukherji. Conversations on/for South Asia Series. Delhi: Department of Sociology, South Asian University and Aakar Books.
———. 2018. Introduction: On ‘Another’ of ‘South Asia. In Another South Asia, ed. Dev Nath Pathak, 1–25. Delhi: Primus Books.
Pathak, Dev Nath, and Sasanka Perera. 2018. Culture and Politics in South Asia: Performative Politics. Delhi/London: Routledge.
Perera, A. 2008. Women Artists in Sri Lanka: Are They Carriers of a Women’s Burden. South Asia Journal for Culture 2: 56–86.
Perera, S. 2012. Introduction. In Artist Remember; Artist Narrate: Memory and Representation in Contemporary Sri Lankan Visual Arts, ed. Sasanka Perera, 11–16. Colombo: Colombo Institute for the Advanced Study of Society and Culture and Theertha International Artists’ Collective.
Peshkin, A. 1988. In Search of Subjectivity—One’s Own. Educational Researcher 17 (7): 17–21.
Pink, S. 2010. Interdisciplinary Agendas in Visual Research: Resituating Visual Anthropology. Visual Studies 18 (2): 179–192.
Pollock, G. 1987. Feminist Interventions in Art’s Histories. In Vision and Difference: Feminism, Femininity and Histories of Art, 4–14. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/kb/article/viewFile/10930/4793. Last Accessed on 25 Sept 2018.
Qureshi, I., and N. Khan. 2011. Women Artists and Male Artisans in South Asia. South Asian Popular Culture 9 (1): 81–88.
Schneider, A. 2008. Three Modes of Experimentation with Art and Ethnography. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14: 171–194.
Schrock, R.D. 2013. The Methodological Imperatives of Feminist Ethnography. Journal of Feminist Scholarship 5 (1): 48–60.
Sinha, G. 2016. Making a Subject Space. Art India: The Art News Magazine of India, Quarter 2016, XX (1): 28–37.
Stacey, J. 1988. Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? Women’s Studies International Forum 11 (1): 21–27.
Turner, C. 2005. Art and Social Change: Contemporary Art in Asia and the Pacific. Canberra: Pandamus Books.
Visweswaran, K. 1997. Histories of Feminist Ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 591–621.
Weerasinghe, J. 2008. Comfort Zones: Art of Anoli Perera. http://anoliperera.blogspot.in/. Last Accessed on 9 July 2018.
Wolbert, B. 2000. The Anthropologist as Photographer: The Visual Construction of Ethnographic Authority. Visual Anthropology: Published in Cooperation with the Commission on Visual Anthropology 13 (4): 321–343.
Zemel, C. 1990. Reviewed Work(s): Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art by Griselda Pollock. The Art Bulletin 72 (2): 336–341.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kalita, P. (2019). ‘Art’ of Ethnography: Feminist Ethnography and Women Artists in South Asia. In: Perera, S., Pathak, D.N. (eds) Intersections of Contemporary Art, Anthropology and Art History in South Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05852-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05852-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05851-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05852-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)