The Afterlife of the Western Canon: Archive and Eschatology in Contemporary Japan
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Archived in Japan is a full-scale replica of the Western art historical canon. This repository, painstakingly fired onto ceramic plates, is meant to preserve this storied corpus as accurately and indelibly as possible. At stake in our understanding of this monumental undertaking are the relationship of image to material, the critical limits of aura, the spatiality of the archive, and the anxieties of the Anthropocene. Eschewing the familiar rubrics of kitsch, copy, and simulacrum, we turn instead to early modern and medieval precedents to scrutinize the tension between this semipermanent archive and a changing discipline.
Date Issued
2020
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Language(s)
en
Additional Credits
Journal
The art bulletin
Publisher
Routledge
ISSN
0004-3079
Access(Rights)
restricted