The Department of Art and Art History hosts Claudia Brittenham's visit and main presentation in Yeager Recital Hall at 6 p.m.
Claudia Brittenham’s research centers on the art of ancient Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, with a special interest in issues of art and identity, intercultural interaction, the materiality of art and the politics of style. Her current research project examines problems of visibility and the status of images in Mesoamerica.
Unlike objects in modern art museums, many visually elaborated Mesoamerican objects would have been extraordinarily difficult to see in their original contexts. By exploring these conditions of visibility, Brittenham suggests that art could operate beyond the realm of the visual, and explore the ways in which concealed images and esoteric knowledge might be used to maintain power and social difference.