Vanessa Woods: “Emic/Etic”
6 August-11 October 2016
Artist reception: Saturday, 6 August, 5-7:30PM
“Emic/Etic” showcases over forty collages from Vanessa Woods’ recently published book of the same name. The book, and corresponding collages, explore subversion, classification, and fantasy to imagine an ethnographer’s study of a lost tribe.
Sourcing original historical and contemporary material, “Emic/Etic” explores the embattled tradition of Western ethnographic interpretation poised between scientific objectivity and moralistic storytelling. The title of the exhibition, “Emic/Etic”, confronts the complicated nature of ethnographic research. Anthropological in origin, “emic” field research refers to an account of a culture derived from people within the culture, while “etic” field research refers to an outside scientific observer describing a culture’s behaviours or beliefs. In the work, scientific systems of classification drawn from anthropological study such as scale/size indicators, numerical systems and invented maps create a fictional method of ordering disparate material.
“At its core collage is subversive because you are collecting images, stripping them of their original associations and re-contextualizing them,” says Woods. “Collage becomes a way to endlessly re-imagine and re-invent history. In our highly image saturated world, collage also allows you to exert control by imposing new meaning on visual material intended for mass consumption.”
Drawing collage material from diverse histories, cultures and populations, including colonial era photographs, archaeological artifacts and contemporary fashion magazines, “Emic/Etic” creates a fictional culture that oscillates between the real and the imagined.
Invented idols, imagined rituals, and reconfigured symbols serve to create new mythologies that collapse internal (emic) and external (etic) orders of classification. A selection of over forty original collages made between 2014 and 2016, as well as Woods’ monograph published by Super Classy Publishing, are included in the exhibition.
(adapted from the gallery’s press materials)
INFORMATION
a.Muse Gallery
614 Alabama Street
San Francisco, California 94110 USA
(415) 279-6281
Hours:
Most days, 10AM-4PM
or by appointment
Image:
work from “Emic/Etic”
by Vanessa Woods
2015
Courtesy of the artist