Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Exoticism in art'

Samuel Bourne (1834-1912), one of the most prestigious Victorian English commercial photographers to have worked in British India, is best known for his photographs of the Himalayas. Bourne's work features in general studies of photography of the period; his representations of the Indian landscape have been the object of studies and several exhibitions. Bourne was in India initially from 1863 to 1870 thereby establishing his career as a professional photographer. Soon after his arrival he started a business with the experienced photographer Charles Shepherd. Within a few years, the firm of Bourne & Shepherd became recognised as being a directing influence over British-Indian photography. The photographs were taken either in studio or on location, and included individual and group portraits of both the British and Indians, topographical images in which peoples were incidental, as well as a range of representations of Indian life, customs and types. These images were informed by, and in turn contributed to, an expanding body of photographic practice that mixed, to varying degrees, authenticity and aesthetic style. Whilst Bourne's work was significant and influential in the representation of Indian peoples, no substantial study has been undertaken until now. The aim of this thesis is to redress this imbalance. The central focus highlights the specific character of the images portraying Indian people. This specificity was determined by a combination of technical and 'authorial' factors, by the audience to which they were addressed — ranging from the general public in Britain to the family circle of wealthy Indians — by commercial considerations, and by current and evolving notions of authority, race and gender. The first two chapters seek to frame Bourne's work by first examining the political and cultural context of photography in India during the mid-nineteenth century, then by focusing on the context of the photographer's own production. The following three chapters are concerned with the study of the photographs themselves regarding what they depict and the questions they raise such as gender, racial identities and imperialism. The last chapter is an attempt to assess the significance of these photographs by comparing them with the work of Lala Deen Dayal, and highlighting different perspectives on Bourne's work regarding British India and Western societies. Placed in the context of the development of photography as a medium of record and representation, this thesis aims to show that Bourne's work is a significant historical source for understanding British cultural presence in post-Mutiny India.

This practice led research explores the possibility of cultural dislocation intrinsic to my glass art practice. The research on cultural dislocation is explored through both my practice and viewers’ interaction with the major works created during the investigation. The development of Korean glass art in the late 1980s provides an important example of the influence of a universalised culture in the course of adopting, adapting, and assimilating it, and why the artistic medium of glass is still perceived as ‘foreign’ by some artists and viewers in Korea. The artistic aim in creating a vase form, by combining porcelain and glass, is deeply inspired by the history of the materials in Western and Eastern cultures, including the history of European (or Western) imperialism and the influence of the colonial legacy on the development of glass art in Korea. By creating a formal visual vocabulary that informs the possibility of expressing the cultural ambiguity of the material, the resulting artworks were made to deliberately not fit into either Korean or British visual culture. Instead the works were created to fit into a pseudo Korean-British or British-Korean image intended to challenge the individual’s projected expectation of another culture (derived from cultural stereotypes). This research addresses the possibility of highlighting the individual’s cultural stereotypes, cultural relocation and bicultural identity in art. Applying the results related to these findings to the ‘aesthetics of the cultural uncanny’ present in my creative practice, the research was directed by the following research aims: - To extend the discourse about the uncanny to my artistic approaches by identifying what the exotic implies for individuals, both in Britain and Korea. - To develop the use of the experience of the uncanny as an expressive tool within my own creative practice through the medium of glass introducing an unexpected juxtaposition by combining English manufactured porcelain elements. - To develop an artistic language with respect to cultural stereotypes within contemporary glass art by analysing individuals’ engagement with my artwork.

L'art actuel est fait, pour partie, de mobilités et de formes si diverses, que d'après certains critiques et commissaires, tels que Jean-Hubert Martin ou Bao Dong, la sensation d'exotisme existe encore. On peut d'ailleurs s'étonner, qu'à l'heure de la globalisation, elle soit toujours aussi vivace. Elle l'est effectivement ; mais elle est aussi distincte de ce sentiment particulier qui offrait aux voyageurs occidentaux du XVIII et XIX èmes siècles, l'assurance de leur supériorité. Victor Segalen a, en effet, donné à l'exotisme une autre définition, chargée, celle-là, de valeurs esthétiques et éthiques. Par exotisme, il ne s'agissait donc plus de qualifier une chose, une région ou encore un être, mais d'envisager une expérience profonde de la différence perçue comme étant irréductible. Quant au monde de l'art, il s'est laissé pénétrer d'exotismes et a produit une multitude d'oeuvres, provoquant, à leur manière, des débordements de différentes natures. Il s'agira dans cette recherche d'en analyser les caractéristiques et les enjeux, en prenant pour prétexte l'étude des constituants plastiques d'un tableau peint. Le jeu des analogies entre les espaces – réels ou représentés – permettra ainsi de dégager, dans le détail, certains aspects d'une géo-esthétique, et de manière plus générale, de rendre manifeste le fait qu'il n'y a pas un, mais des mondes de l'art
Art today is partly made of mobilities and forms so diverse that according to art critics and curators such as J. H Martin or Bao Dang, the feeling of exoticism still exists. Besides one may be surprised that in the age of globalization that feeling is so vivid . Indeed it is,but it is also different from that particular feeling that gave the European travellers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the certainty that they were superior to the other people. Indeed V. Segalen gave exoticism another definition laden with aesthetic and ethical values.Through exoticism it was no longer a question of describing a thing, a region or even a human being but of considering a profound experience of the difference viewed as being resolutely different.As for the world of Art, it let itself be filled by exoticism and it has produced a vast number of masterpieces, creating in their own way diversions of all kinds. The purpose of my research will then be to analyze the characteristics and what is at stakes in exoticism, under the pretence of studying the plastic constituents of a painting.The game of analogies between the spaces- either realistic or as they are represented- will allow to single out in detail some aspects of a geo- aesthetics and more generally to make it obvious that there is not ONE world of Art but several

Cette thèse de doctorat en Histoire de l’Art, spécialité art contemporain, tend à repositionner l’Histoire de l’Art contemporain insulaire de la Polynésie Française et d’Aotearoa – Nouvelle Zélande au sein de son histoire locale tout autant qu’au niveau international. Par le biais d’une approche combinant Histoire de l’Art et Anthropologie, sont abordés les mondes de l’art respectifs à ces deux territoires afin de mettre en évidence les spécificités historiques et artistiques de localités trop souvent couplées du fait d’un passé commun. Faite de particularismes issus de la contraction des cultures au lendemain de la colonisation, la notion d’art international ne paraît jamais aussi ethnocentrée et occidentale que lorsqu’elle est transposée et apposée au Pacifique insulaire. Par l’étude des tentatives d’émancipation à l’égard du modèle occidental et des luttes de regards, ce travail de recherche confronte les postures des divers acteurs officiant dans l’affirmation et l’intégration de l’Océanie au sein du circuit international de l’art
This PhD thesis, in contemporary Art History, aims to resituate Pacific contemporary art of French Polynesia and Aotearoa – New Zealand as much into their own history as international history. Through an Art History and Anthropological approach, the purpose of this research is to highlight the historical and artistic specificities of these two territories often paired up due to a common past. When the concept of international art is transposed and applied to Pacific islands, it appears ethnocentric and Western. The aim of this study is to show that contemporary societies, and thus also art, are the result of cultural hybridization. With a thorough examination of the emancipation attempts towards the Western model and postcolonial gaze, this research compares the positions of actors involved in the affirmation and integration of Oceania within the international art field

Orientador: Renato José Pinto Ortiz
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
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Resumo: A valorização contemporânea da diversidade revela um mundo atento à diferença. De fato, se um dia lutávamos pelo direito de sermos iguais, hoje, paradoxalmente, também clamamos pelo reconhecimento de nossas diferenças. Nesse sentido, vozes que discursam sobre essas diferenças hoje precisam ser ouvidas e ressoam pelo mundo ao habitarem o espaço global. Contudo, de que diferenças estamos falando? A permanência de nosso olhar no seio das relações sociais muitas vezes impede que notemos que, na verdade, as diferenças são construídas social e historicamente. Não basta que as coisas se diferenciem, mas é preciso um contexto no qual seja possível a seleção de índices suficientes de diferenciação para que essas sejam classificadas e, por consequência, hierarquizadas. Dessa forma, duas coisas se diferenciam apenas quando índices específicos são legitimados e, então, discursados. Por isso, a diferença é necessariamente uma construção discursiva que se realiza pelas próprias práticas discursivas, mas que somente podem surgir em relação a determinadas realidades concretas. No século XIX a diferença fora construída a partir da organização do exótico. É em relação a ele, em um momento no qual o discurso universal e a nação criavam a separação entre internalidades e externalidades centradas no imperialismo europeu, que a diferença fora articulada. Na contemporaneidade, contudo, o mundo perde seu centro e as relações entre externo e interno não mais podem organizar um discurso, sendo esse percebido na diversidade. O discurso da diversidade, portanto, surge na contemporaneidade como forma de ordenar o diferente a partir de bases concretas na sociedade, mas também por interrelações entre enunciados específicos. Podemos notar a operação desse discurso ao voltarmos nossos olhos para um objeto específico: World Music. Nele, a música é valorizada pela própria diferença, sendo então necessário se compreender quais os índices tornados suficientes para a diferenciação. Propomos que neste objeto os índices privilegiados são o local e a etnia. Com essa mirada, então, mais importam as forças relacionadas à determinação dos índices do que a tentativa de se perceber um mundo mais ou menos homogêneo. É dessa forma que poderemos compreender as implicações sociais e o condicionamento das vozes presentes no discurso da diversidade
Abstract: The value given to diversity in our times shows just how attentive the world is to difference. In fact, where we once fought for equal rights we now look to establish our sense of difference. In this sense, voices who speak about these differences need to be heard today and resonate throughout the world. But what differences are we talking about? The permanence of our attention within social relations often prevents us from noticing that, in fact, we're talking about differences that are socially and historically constructed, and therefore of interest to sociology. It's not enough that things are distinct, but we need a context in which it is possible to select sufficient levels of differentiation for things to be classified and consequently put in hierarchies. Thus, two things are different when specific factors are legitimized and then discoursed. Therefore, the difference is necessarily a discursive construction that takes place by their own discursive practices, but that can only arise in relation to certain realities. In the nineteenth century, difference was built from the organization of the exotic. And it's in relation to this, at a time in which the universal discourse and the nation, centrered on European imperialism, created the separation between the internalist and the externalist view, that the difference was articulated. In contemporary times, however, the world loses its centre and the relationship between internal and external can no longer organise a discourse, this being perceived in the diversity. The discourse of diversity, therefore, arises in the contemporary world as a way to order the different from concrete foundations in society, but also by interrelationships between specific enounciation. We can note the operation of this discourse by examining a specific object: World Music. In it, the music is valued by the difference, so one needs to understand what are the factors that make the differentiation sufficient. We propose that with this object the privileged factors are location and ethnicity. With this look, then, it's of importance to understand the forces related to the determination of these factors rather than the attempt to realize a more or less homogeneous world. And so we can understand the social implications and the conditioning of the voices present in the discourse of diversity
Doutorado
Sociologia
Doutor em Sociologia

Depuis « l’ère de la mondialisation », le monde occidental s’est vivement engagé dans la découverte de nouvelles cultures du monde dans le domaine des arts visuels. En effet, il est devenu la norme de valoriser la diversité du monde et le relativisme culturel parce que les cultures perçues comme authentiques développeraient des valeurs esthétiques et économiques considérables grâce à leur aspect original, singulier et pittoresque. Même si l’on ne peut pas réellement saisir toutes les nuances de la culture d’un pays éloigné, nous pouvons malgré tout esquisser une image plaisante de ce pays dans notre imagination, notamment grâce aux médias qui dépeignent aujourd’hui les paysages du monde à travers des images « typiques ».Par conséquent, les artistes des pays « périphériques » essaient de valoriser les attentes du monde occidental dans leurs créations, en espérant ainsi pouvoir s’intégrer dans le réseau mondial dominé par quelques pays qui se sont désormais positionnés en « leaders ». Ces artistes conçoivent, en effet, des stratégies de communication afin de favoriser la diffusion de leurs œuvres sur la scène internationale : ils représentent leurs identités culturelles dans leurs propres créations artistiques d’une manière stéréotypée facilement identifiable pour les pays occidentaux. Le pluralisme « postmoderne » influence ainsi considérablement la création des œuvres des artistes issus des pays périphériques, en mettant en scène et en valeur tout ce qui est spécifiquement typique, c’est-à-dire local et original
Ever since the era of globalization began, the Western world has been strongly engaged in the discovery of new cultures of the world, in the field of the visual arts. Indeed, it has become the norm to value diversity and cultural relativism because cultures perceived as authentic can develop considerable aesthetic and economic value from their unique and picturesque features. Even if we cannot really understand all the cultural characteristics of a far-off country, we are still able to sketch a pleasant and attractive image of this place in our imagination thanks to the mass media, which repeatedly presents these landscapes through "typical" images.As a result, artists from "peripheral" countries are trying to meet the Western world’s expectations in their work, hoping in this way to break into a global system where some countries are positioned as "leaders". These artists devise communication strategies to promote their works on the international art scene; they represent their cultural identity in their artwork in a stereotypical and easily recognizable way to the West. Postmodern pluralism considerably influenced these artists’ work, whilst focusing attention on everything that is typically “local” and “original”

Denna uppsats undersöker ett typsnitt för romerska bokstäver avsett att associeras till ”Kina” som en exotisk och lockande miljö, utifrån svensk visuell kulturhistoria. Typsnittet undersöks genom analyser av svenska filmaffischer av Eric Rohman (1891-1949) ur Charlie Chan-serien mellan 1934-1940, med fokus på filmaffischen Charlie Chan i Kina (1935). Genom bildanalyser och diskussioner utifrån de teoretiska ingångarna postkoloniala studier, kritiska vithetsstudier och visuella kulturstudier kommer undersökningen fram till att typsnittet, genom att efterhärma kinesisk kalligrafi, associerar filmaffischens text och då affischen i sin helhet till ”Kina” som en exotisk, traditionell och främmande miljö. Jag har även undersökt hur ”Kina” och ”kinesen” har konstruerats i svensk visuell kulturhistoria, och hur typsnitt som det i filmaffischen Charlie Chan i Kina kan förstås utifrån den. En slutsats är att typsnittet agerar ut en lagom ”kinesiskhet”, på så sätt att det är ”kinesiskt” och associerar till ett föreställt ”Kina”, samtidigt som det fortfarande är tillgängligt och läsbart för en vit svensk publik.
This essay examines a typeface used for Roman letters meant to connote ”China” as an exotic and foreign place, within Swedish visual culture history. I examine this typeface using Swedish film posters by Eric Rohman (1891-1949) from the Charlie Chan-series from the years 1934-1940, focusing on the poster Charlie Chan i Kina (1935). The purpose is to examine constructions of ”the Chinese” and ”China” in these posters, and how this specific typeface has been used in these depictions as well as been constructed in relation to these ideas. Through a semiotic model for image analysis and the appliance of postcolonial studies, critical race theory and visual culture studies, I arrive at several conclusions. By imitating Chinese calligraphic visual elements, the typeface in Charlie Chan i Kina has the ability to connote ”China” as an exotic, traditional and foreign place, for a white Swedish audience. The analysis discusses the semiotic functions of the typeface in relation to contexts of the film poster, Swedish visual culture history and discourses concerning race in Sweden.

La France et la Belgique organisent plusieurs expositions coloniales internationales et universelles de la fin du XIXe siècle à 1958. Ces deux puissances coloniales y développent une propagande multiforme pour justifier leurs « missions civilisatrices ». Les missionnaires catholiques et protestants participent à ces grandes fêtes. La consultation d’archives des congrégations religieuses (Spiritains, Jésuites…), de l’œuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, de fonds publics français, belges, suédois et du Saint-Siège permet de comprendre comment s’organisent les missionnaires pour participer à ces expositions en France et en Belgique. De l’exposition de 1897 (Tervuren) à celles de 1935 et 1958 (Bruxelles), en passant par Paris 1900, 1931 et 1937, les missionnaires s’exposent dans des pavillons qui s’agrandissent pour devenir de véritables complexes architecturaux. Les vecteurs de la mise en scène changent et s’adaptent : les objets « indigènes » sont délaissés au profit de dioramas, de statistiques stylisées et de cartes lumineuses. L’architecture du pavillon est en elle-même un discours comme le prouve le pavillon des missions catholiques de 1931. A travers ces évolutions de la mise en scène, ce sont des changements dans les représentations missionnaires du monde qui s’observent : les colonisés et leurs cultures sont de plus en plus valorisés et le lien avec la colonisation moins affirmé
France and Belgium organised several international and colonial exhibitions, as well as universal exhibitions or World Fairs, from the end of the 20th century to 1958. Through these world exhibitions, these two great colonial powers developed various forms of propaganda to account for their “civilizing missions”. Protestant and catholic missionaries took part in those great celebrations. By reading and working on archives of religious congregations such as the congregation of the Holy Spirit, The Jesuit, and the oeuvre de la Propagation de la Foi, but also the French, Belgian and Swedish national archives and the Holy Sea archives, I was able to understand how the missionaries organized themselves to take part in those exhibitions in France and Belgium. The missionaries organised exhibitions in ever growing pavilions which would become huge architectural complexes, from the 1897 exhibition (taking place in Tervuren) to the 1935 and 1958 exhibitions (taking place in Brussels), not forgetting the 1900, 1931 and 1937 Paris exhibitions. The way missionaries staged their work changed and evolved. Indeed, “indigenous” artifacts were gradually less displayed and missionaries used dioramas, stylish statistics and lit-up maps instead. The architecture of the pavilion was in itself telling, a good example of this being the 1931 pavilion of the Catholic missions. The way missionaries staged their exhibitions reflected the changes in their worldview. The colonized populations and their cultures were more and more emphasized, while the link with the colonization was less and less asserted and straightforward

Abstract British composer Tarik Hamilton O’Regan is a significant choral composer of the early twenty-first century. O’Regan’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis and The Ecstasies Above exhibit two notable compositional techniques: minimalism influenced by Steve Reich and exoticism representing Balinese gamelan and Andalusian music. Additionally, Reich joins the technique of minimalism with the Renaissance practice of alternatim. The examination of these works will demonstrate the application of these two compositional techniques and how he integrates them into a textural context to evoke specific historical and cultural practices. Furthermore, this study will provide guidelines for researching and performing O’Regan’s choral works by explaining O’Regan’s stylistic characteristics.

Most studies of European exoticism tend to emphasize its complicity with the hegemonic or imperialistic gaze. This dissertation takes a different approach--exploring the tensions/connections between exoticism and resistance within European culture, especially with regard to representations of the exoticized female body. Its interdisciplinary range spans the 19th century British novel, the work of French and British orientalist artists (particularly Gerome), discourses on ethnology, medicine and criminology, conduct books for women, and the operas of Puccini and Bizet. I argue that several artistic constructions of the exoticized woman (in both male and female authored texts) enact ambivalences which rupture and destabilize the ideological structures of domesticity and imperialism. Moreover, I theorize the figure of the Eastern odalisque (which has so far been analyzed as the passive, eroticized object of the European male gaze) as an equivocal, racially hybrid female body, aligning it with the European courtesan. I redefine the odalisque broadly, as including (and blurring) the categories of harem woman, public dancer, nomad, vampire, and courtesan. I argue that often, the hybridized odalisque not only returns a compelling gaze of her own, but also articulates a powerful, transgressive female presence, continually negotiating cultural anxieties about female self-display and miscegenation. The Introduction and Chapter One survey Puccini's opera Turandot, paintings of seraglio interiors by orientalist artists, medical and ethnological texts by Acton, Ryan, Knox, Lombroso and Ferrero, and the positioning of the courtesan. I read Merimee's gypsy Carmen, LeFanu's vampire Carmilla, and Wilkie Collins's detective Marian Halcombe as exoticized women who unravel the plots of Victorian ethnology. Chapter Two explores the possibilities and limitations of female visibility, power and appetite through a discussion of the "haunted odalisques" in Charlotte Bronte's fiction. Chapter Three examines the dynamics of female adornment within orchestrations of imperial spectacle and regulated self-display in Collins's The Moonstone and No Name, and Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds. The final chapter investigates the links between the racialization of disease (in Victorian imperial medicine) and female insurgence in the fiction of colonial novelist Flora Steel, focusing particularly on the ethnology of the Indian courtesan.

This research aims to test the hypothesis that portable art objects and ornaments were used to create and maintain social networks between groups of hunter-gatherers coping with climatic insecurity. This is tested through the materials used to produce such objects. The results of tests indicate that the movement of objects of portable art and ornaments did not correlate with climatic values such as precise temperature and variance of temperature, which goes against the assumptions of the main hypothesis mentioned above. However, the variation in the production of these objects correlates well with broad climatic changes and with demographic events. This suggests that portable art objects and ornaments might have been used to a certain extent to help facilitate the population movements that were themselves affected by climate change.
Graduate