Water and wet bodies have been viewed in a variety of ways in different historical periods and geographies. This exhibit illustrates how people in West Africa, Hawai'i, and India have, historically understood water: incorporated it into designed landscapes, places of worship, and residence; grappled with its scarcity; and practiced sensual immersive cultural practices such as swimming, bathing, surfing, and ritualized blood sports with marine creatures. These traditions provided lives with meaning, purpose, and value and dignified nude and semi-nude human bodies as gifts from the creator. By contrast, European Colonialism viewed water was a dangerous space yet also promoted water as picturesque, consumable, touristic in visual culture. This exhibition features a rich collection of original early modern and modern (ca. 1600 - 1940s) materials of visual culture, including newspapers, travelogues, paintings, photographs, prints, and postcards.
Please join us for an opening reception and talk by Dr. Kevin Dawson and Dr. Aditi Chandra on Wednesday Feb., 7, 2018 from noon - 1:00pm in KL362.
Curated by: Kevin Dawson, Associate Professor, History and Aditi Chandra, Assistant Professor, Global Arts Studies Program
Digital Curator: Rina Faletti
Co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, UC Merced and the UC Merced Library
For more information contact: rfaletti@ucmerced.edu.
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