London’s October Gallery continues its excellent series of presentations this Tuesday 28 July, with an appearance by Dr Robert Wallis, SA contributor and pal.
ANIMISM, ANCESTORS AND ADJUSTED STYLES OF COMMUNICATION:
HIDDEN ART IN IRISH PASSAGE TOMBS
This talk will draw on the theorising of ‘new animism’ in anthropology and religious studies which moves beyond the problematic attribution of spirit to matter and anthropomorphism to consider animist ontologies as those which conceive of a world which is filled with persons, only some of whom are human. Wallis argues that this relational approach enables new, re-enchanting insights into Neolithic art in the passage tombs of the Boyne Valley in Ireland, the study of which has tended towards an anthropocentric concept of ‘the social’ and neurotheological analysis of altered states of consciousness. Animist ontologies effectively disrupt the subject/object dichotomy of Western thought, challenge reductionist neurotheology, and offer an extended understanding of agency and personhood. The talk focusses particularly on ‘hidden art’ to demonstrate how a variety of animist ontologies (from animist-totemist to totemist-animist) may have operated at the Neolithic/Bronze Age transition.
Tuesday, 28th July 2009
Entry £7 /£5 Concessions, Arrive 6pm for a 6:30pm Start – Wine available
Please reserve your place as space is limited.
Email rentals@octobergallery.co.uk or call 44 (0)20 7831 1618