Anthropology and Art Practice

"A major virtue of the book is the way it is possible, given the accessible writing styles and each chapter’s length ... to simply browse through as one might do when reading a set of short stories to seek out one’s own favourite chapter(s), although I found too many favourites to mention them all. - Qualitative Research - Karen Henwood, Cardiff University, UK

This little collection of essays by artists employing a variety of media is magical! It captivates the reader by its reach, but also by its depth, and the reflectiveness of the short essays of which it is comprised. So regardless of whether the objet d’art is a film, a photography series, or a multimedia installation, the thoughtfulness of analysis that the artists reveal in their words is challenging and enthralling ... The third volume in a remarkable series. - Visual Anthropology Review

This volume is an exciting contribution to a burgeoning literature on the ways that artists and anthropologists operate in shared spaces ... and is therefore relevant reading for visual artists and cultural anthropologists alike ... Scholars in the art world, contemporary artists, and visual anthropologists would all benefit from reading this text. - Museum Anthropology Review - Elizabeth Derderian, Northwestern University, US

The approaches offered in this volume afford relief from a critical orthodoxy that has insisted on imposing on emergent phenomena theoretical formulations elaborated in response to very different historical conditions and applied with an oppositional certitude that seriously constrains one’s ability to productively navigate the circumstances one wishes to understand. For this reason, above all, this volume makes a very welcome contribution. - Museum Anthropology - Pamela G. Smart, Binghampton University, US

Those familiar with the two previous outstanding collections edited by Schneider and Wright, examining the relationships between art and anthropology, will find this addition, making a trilogy, equally indispensable. The distinctive value of this collection is indeed its close examination of 'practice' amid the growing importance of thinking and experiment that blurs the boundaries between anthropological research and artistic intervention. No other work better shows, rather than tells, what 'keywords' like performance, collaboration, participation, installation, and curatorial/ ethnographic method mean in this lively realm of the senses, imagination, and contemporary curating. - George E. Marcus, Director, Center for Ethnography, University of California, Irvine

One of the most promising directions for new research into contemporary art practice can be found in the rapprochement between art history and anthropology, as artists increasingly find themselves working in complex social contexts beyond the confines of galleries and museums. Schneider and Wright's collection provides an invaluable compendium of current research at this important disciplinary intersection. - Grant Kester is Professor of Art History at UCSD, USA and author of 'The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context'"