FUNDING INSTITUTION

Lars Krutak

Title: “Prayers for Protection and Empowerment: Magical Tattooing Across the Indigenous World” by Dr. Lars Krutak

For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples across the globe have practiced various forms of tattooing to please or seek protection from particular spirits or ancestors who inhabited their worlds. In this virtual lecture, I explore the cross-cultural use of amuletic, “guardian,” yantra, and other magical tattoos as religious and practical tools that were utilized to enhance human well-being and access to supernatural power. Based on ethnographic data and fieldwork among numerous tattooing societies, I will discuss how this complex of personal power and belief allowed individuals to transcend their human, natural, and otherworldly realms of everyday existence.

Biography
Lars Krutak PhD is an American anthropologist, photographer, curator, and writer known for his research about Indigenous tattoo and its cultural background. He hosted and produced the 10-part documentary series Tattoo Hunter on the Discovery Channel and is a Research Associate at the Museum of International Folk Art (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA). Krutak is the author of more than 90 articles for scientific journals and popular magazines on the subject of tattooing. His books include Tattoo Traditions of Native North America(2014), Magical Tattoos and Scarification (2012), Kalinga Tattoo focusing on Indigenous tattooing culture in the northern Philippines (2010), and The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women (2007). Krutak also served as the senior editor for Ancient Ink: The Archeology of Tattooing (2018), the first book dedicated to the archaeological study of tattooing.

Lars Krutak PhD: https://www.larskrutak.com/
Research Associate, Museum of International Falk Art, USA: https://internationalfolkart.academia.edu/LarsKrutak

ZADAN – Hopes and Protections on the Body

ZADAN is an educational project and a common platform, which has been lead at the Jewellery Art, HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design to broaden an understanding of jewellery art based on an exploration of a specific topic. This ZADAN LECTURE SERIES, Hopes and Protections on the Body, comprises six lectures (October 2021 – March 2022) that investigates the hopes, desires, and fears that prompt jewellery makers in the creation of amulets/talismans/charms adornments and objects today.

Find out more about ZADAN visit here: https://craftlaboratory.org/zadan-2021-2022/

Thank you very much for our grant funders and supporters:
EXTERNAL PROJECT PARTNER
Four Gallery, Gothenburg https://www.fourgallery.com/

FUNDING INSTITUTIONS
IASPIS / The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Göteborgs Slöjdförening

Image Credits

1) Buddhist monk at Wat Bang Phra Monastery. Thailand. 2007. © Lars Krutak 

2) Mentawai shaman Aman Bereta tattooing Aman Ipai’s leg. Siberut Island, Indonesia. 2007. © Lars Krutak

3) Hand tattoos of Kayan elder Ado Ngo. Upper Rajang River, Sarawak, Borneo. 2011. © Lars Krutak

Elena Höpfner

What do people take with them when they run for their lives? What meanings do these things have for the refugees and what role(s) do they play on the way? And what can possessions tell us about the phenomenon of flight?

We cordially invite you to the fifth lecture in the ZADAN series by Elena Höpfner,
“Hopes and Protections on the run – Refugees and Things: A Grounded Theory and Material Culture Approach” 

Title: “Hopes and Protections on the run – Refugees and Things: A Grounded Theory and Material Culture Approach” by Elena Höpfner

In her lecture, sociologist Elena Höpfner tells us about her field research in a Berlin refugee shelter in 2015.

With the help of interview excerpts on specific objects (things) mentioned she is going to show us the extent to which objects are keys to narratives, but also anchors that link individual flight stories and conditions, life in the country of origin and expectations of the destination country. However, objects are not important for all people and so the methodological approach must always remain open in the sense of change: from the object back to the subject. Under the conditions in a shelter and the uncertainty of staying and getting asylum, talking about objects can be seen as a triviality and people may not feel taken seriously in their difficult situation.

Biography
Elena Höpfner, M.A., is a German sociologist, who has worked as a teaching assistant at Free University Berlin 2019-2020 and currently works as a PhD candidate at University of Erlangen. Höpfner is also a junior researcher at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg (Germany) since 2020. In 2018, she received the Young Talent Award of the German Sociological Association (DGS) for her master’s thesis Menschen auf der Flucht und die Bedeutung ihrer Dinge: Eine gegenstandsbezogene Theoriebildung im doppelten Sinne (Refugees and Things: A Grounded Theory and Material Culture Approach). She is currently working on job seeking and labour market availability of young single mothers on basic income support.

ZADAN – Hopes and Protections on the Body

ZADAN series will explore if new talismanic immaterial protections have emerged replacing these magical objects or if the digital space is unable to translate the talismanic of the material object. The series will investigate the hopes, desires, and fears that prompt jewellery makers in the creation of amulets/talismans/charms adornments and objects today.

The aim of ZADAN is to create a common platform, to broaden an understanding of jewellery art based on an exploration of a specific topic. The title ‘ZADAN’(座談) references the Japanese concept of a conversation among peers. With this in mind we welcome students and publics to participate as peers in the consideration of Jewellery Art as a ‘magical’ everyday practice and adornment.

For Hopes and Protections on the Body there will be six online lectures (October 2021 – March 2022) that include presentations in response to the topic from an artist, curator, sociologist, archeologist, and anthropologist.
Find out more about ZADAN visit here: https://craftlaboratory.org/zadan-2021-2022/

Image Credit
Illustration by Elena Höpfner (2019)
Portrait of Elena Höpfner. Photographer: Abdurrahman Gügercin.

EXTERNAL PROJECT PARTNER
Four Gallery, Gothenburg https://www.fourgallery.com/

FUNDING INSTITUTIONS
IASPIS / The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Göteborgs Slöjdförening

Dr. Kevin Murray

We cordially invite you to the fourth (online) lecture in the ZADAN series by Dr.Kevin Murray

Tuesday., 7.Dec.2021, 16:00 – 17:15 (UTC+1:00)
Register now in advance for this event*:
LINK to zoom lecture: https://bit.ly/30X2Wqb

Title: Luck by Design: The contemporary amulet as a social object

Is luck something we need in our world today? If so, how do we create it? While most objects in our consumer world are for private use, there is a class we might call “social objects” whose purpose is to maintain the fabric of our relations with others. This fabric includes our offerings, promises, welcomes, apologies and well-wishes. This fabric has been weakened by neoliberalism, particularly in the West with a focus on individual consumption. By looking back to the pre-industrial world, we can learn how to recover the lost functions that are still necessary in our world, such as “luck”. We look at the exhibition project Joyaviva, which includes proposals for contemporary amulets, leading to a strategy of “luck by design” that has important applications today.

Biography

Dr. Kevin Murray is editor of Garland magazine, a platform for sharing the stories behind objects made by hand today. He is Secretary of World Crafts Council – Australia and board member of World Crafts Council – International.  2000-2007 he was Director of Craft Victoria where he developed the Scarf Festival and the South Project. He has curated many exhibitions, including ‘Water Medicine: Precious Works for an Arid Continent’;  and ‘Seven Sisters: Fibre Works from the West’. His books include Craft Unbound: Make the Common Precious (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and with Damian Skinner, Place and Adornment: A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New Zealand (Bateman, 2014).

https://garlandmag.com/

IMAGE CREDITS

Luck by Design (2012), illustration by Ishan Khosla

Alice Whish, “Amelia with smart charm”
Alice Whish, Smart Charm (2012), mild steel, vitreous enamel, enamel pencil, pacific sand, silk string, pearl shell.

Jacqui Chan, “Brooch being hosted in Christ Church after earthquake”
Jacqui Chan, Host a Brooch (2011), brooch, river stone, rubber, silver.

Mayte Amezcua, Amulet San Judas Tadeo to Rescue Lovers

EXTERNAL PROJECT PARTNER
Four Gallery, Gothenburg https://www.fourgallery.com/

FUNDING INSTITUTIONS
IASPIS / The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Göteborgs Slöjdforening

Thomas Kühtreiber

“We cordially invite you to the third lecture of the ZADAN lecture series by Mag.Dr.Thomas Kühtreiber, “Medieval and Early Modern Amulets in Catholic Europe” held on November 23, 2021.”

Tuesday., 23.Nov.2021, 16:00 – 17:15 (UTC+1:00)
Register now in advance for this event*:
LINK to zoom lecture: bit.ly/3vM5Qtx

Title: Medieval and Early Modern Amulets in Catholic Europe by Thomas Kühtreiber

In the context of the Christian Pilgrimage, amulets have played an important role since the Late Antiquity. Things (objects) were touched with the relics of saints or with images of grace and then taken home. Likewise, votive offerings were deposited at these places. Besides specific materials and text formulas, the closed chains of contact were the main factors that guaranteed the amulets’ potency. The lecture will present and discuss specific strategies in dealing with these amulets, from production to distribution to the wide range of ritual uses.

Biography
Mag.Dr. Thomas Kühtreiber is an Austrian archaeologist and cultural historian with a chronological focus in the Middle Ages and Modern Times. He studied Archaeology, European Ethnology, History and Earth Sciences at the University of Vienna from 1993–1996 and he was affiliated to the Institute for Prehistory and Early History at the University of Vienna as assistant for Medieval Archaeology. Since 1997, he has been a senior researcher at the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture, Salzburg University (until 2012 Austrian Academy of Sciences). His research interests are studies on historical landscapes and built environments, but also on religious object links between humans, institutions, places and numinous entities, based on pilgrimage objects and amulets.
https://www.imareal.sbg.ac.at/team/thomas-kuehtreiber/

IMAGE CREDITS

Fig. 1: Ex voto-image with a woman, who was cured by using an amulet („Fraisenstein“), Unknown artist, panel painting (1745). Sonntagberg, Austria, Treasure Chamber. Foto: Karin Kühtreiber

Fig. 2: Ceramic Amulets from Sonntagberg, Austria, Sonntagberg, Treasure Chamber. Foto: Karin Kühtreiber

Fig. 3: Serial religious print with the miraculous image of the Godmother of Mariazell, Austria (18th century). © Image: Christian Schneegass, WikiCommons.

EXTERNAL PROJECT PARTNER
Four Gallery, Gothenburg https://www.fourgallery.com/

FUNDING INSTITUTIONS
IASPIS / The Swedish Arts Grants Committee
Göteborgs Slöjdförening

Nanna Melland

Neke Moa

WATCH BELOW THE RECORDING OF NEKE MOA

As part of the lecture series called Zadan—Hopes and Protections on the Body, Neke Moa gave a lecture called Making Taonga (Treasures) with the Ātua (Gods). Or Watch it here

Neke Moa
Making taonga(treasures) with the Ātua (Gods)

Tuesday, 12.Oct. 17:00 – 18:15 (Time in Sweden, UTC+2)
Register now in advance for this meeting*:

https://gu-se.zoom.us/meeting/register/u50udOGvrT8pGtXcJxsZ1qV0PoYQGSfNaNrx

ZADAN – Hopes and Protections on the Body

Insecurities and challenges in life have led humans to yearn to hold onto material objects throughout human history, especially those worn directly on the body as if they are magical devices that can provide greater protection and stability.

Jewellery, such as amulets, talismans, and charms, belong to such items endowed with magical properties to assure hope and protection. These items rarely follow seasonable trends in the way that fashion accessories do, and instead stay with their owners for a long time.

In this time of the pandemic, where many of our everyday experiences have dramatically shifted to the virtual realm, this ZADAN series will explore if new talismanic immaterial protections have emerged replacing these magical objects or if the digital space is unable to translate the talismanic of the material object. The series will investigate the hopes, desires, and fears that prompt jewellery makers in the creation of amulets/talismans/charms adornments and objects today.

For Hopes and Protections on the Body there will be six online lectures (October 2021 – March 2022) that include presentations in response to the topic from an artist, curator, sociologist, archeologist, and anthropologist. We cordially invite you to the first lecture in the ZADAN series by Neke Moa.

In this lecture, Moa will give an overview of her art practice as an adornment and object maker. How her location and cultural identity as Māori (with Scottish ancestry) influences and informs her artwork. How objects and adornment can hold and be instilled with Mauri (lifeforce) and Mana (power and status).  Connecting too and uplifting Ātua (Gods) principles in her life and how this translates in her work: Moa’s process for making, collecting and selecting materials. The potency and value of the materials she uses, especially Pounamu (nephrite jade) that was transformative for early Māori and became a cultural icon in Aōtearoa.  A brief history of Pounamu and how its problematic past with theft, cultural appropriation, and eventual return to Ngai Tahu Iwi (tribe) has seen its mana restored and the resource protected for future generations.

The stories imbedded in her work are a continuing development of research and interest in the intersection of the physical and spiritual realms, the metaphysical properties of materials and my navigation as Wahine Māori in these spaces.

 Neke Moa is Maori and is an adornment and object artist, predominantly working with Pounamu (NZ nephrite jade) and found materials. She is based in Ōtaki, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her work relates to themes of political and social commentary from an indigenous lens, cultural connectedness to land and self in the seen and unseen worlds. Moa has been a part of the Handshake Project since its inception in 2010, exhibiting in Munich, London, Thailand, Australia, Netherlands, and Aotearoa. She is a graduate of Te Wānanga-ō-Raukawa and Whitireia, New Zealand, majoring in Maori art and jewellery design. Moa has taught shell craft in Fiji and Tonga from 2016 until 2020 and continues to teach and learn as part of her art practice.

The aim of ZADAN is to create a common platform, to broaden an understanding of jewellery art based on an exploration of a specific topic. The title ‘ZADAN’(座談) references the Japanese concept of a conversation among peers. With this in mind we welcome students and publics to participate as peers in the consideration of Jewellery Art as a ‘magical’ everyday practice and adornment.

ZADAN Fall 2021 – Spring 2022 General information bulletin.

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