Enfilade

From H-ArtHist:

Recycling Luxury
Christie’s Education, 42 Portland Place, London, 5 July 2019

Proposals due by 1 March 2019

The concept of luxury is associated with ideas of excess (luxus) or even worse immodesty (luxure). An infamous example involving Cleopatra dissolving a priceless pearl and swallowing it encapsulates some common associations between luxury and immorality, or luxury as intrinsically linked to the idea of waste.

This conference intends to go beyond the common connotations attached to the concept of luxury, and challenge them. It will posit that luxury cannot be seen entirely in the light of dissipation. Rather we would like to invite contributions that explore the links between luxury and the idea of recycling i.e. the re-using, repurposing, remaking, reshaping of luxury materials and objects across time and place, hence giving more space for discussion to this understudied historical phenomenon.

Object case studies from all fields of the fine and decorative arts are welcomed to foster conversations across disciplines—for example:
• Historical Fashion and Textiles
• Furniture
• Silver
• Ceramics
• Jewellery
• Armour
• Painting
• Sculpture
• Books and Manuscripts

Contributors can select from the following submission formats:
• Full Paper: 25-minute conference presentation
• Short Paper: 15-minute conference presentation
• Flash Paper: 5-minute (no more than 5 slides). We particularly welcome proposals from emerging scholars in this category.

This conference has been designed to coincide with Classic Week at Christie’s in July 2019. For all submissions, please send a 300-word abstract and short biography to jansell@christies.edu and mtavinor@christies.edu.