Speaker: Joseph Quick Ph.D.

In the sixth installment of the weekly Proseminar Series, hosted by the Department of Anthropology, Visiting Assistant Professor Joseph Quick will be discussing "Kichwa Visions: Ethnography of/through Indigenous Artistic Critiques of Political Economy in Highland Ecuador."

Since the 1970s, the Kichwa artists of Tigua and Quilotoa have developed a genre of representational painting that may be found in touristic markets all over the Ecuadorian highlands. The genre responds to international tourists' taste for bright colors, folkloric themes, and small dimensions, but the artists are not constrained by such tastes, and they have proven themselves adept at using art to express critical perspectives on cultural history, national society, and global events.

This talk explores how Tigua-Quilotoa tourist art reflects Kichwa articulations with global flows of people and ideas, and then outlines how the genre’s role as a point of articulation allows for innovative uses of art in ethnographic research.