Statues, paintings, and masks—like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums—give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities, and sometimes these objects are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bali, and elsewhere in Asia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art-market commodities and museum artifacts.
The Social Lives of God Pictures and Temple Statues
By Laurel Kendall, author of Mediums and Magical Things: Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places The paintings of bold-faced gods in the Korean shaman’s shrine had fallen to the floor and …
Read More >
