Enfilade

Plate 419, Silver-plating in L’Enclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers by Denis Diderot.

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From the MFAH:

Hidden Hands: Untold Stories of the Object
Rienzi Biennial Symposium
Online, Rienzi, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 6 November 2021

Geographic exploration and colonial expansion led to the introduction of new materials and technological innovation in the early modern period. These developments created an increased demand for goods made of ceramics, glass, exotic woods, textiles, and metals. The refining of raw materials and the production of these goods depended upon a diverse labor force made up of men, women, and children from across the globe. Despite the integral roles played by these workers in all of these varied enterprises, their names and contributions have often been lost to history. Who were these people? How did they interact and engage with these new materials and goods? What social, political, and economic forces contributed to the exclusion of their narratives? The symposium invites scholars to reconsider established ideas of craftsmanship and artistic authorship through the telling of these ‘hidden’ stories.

The symposium will be held in conjunction with the exhibition Hidden Hands: Invisible Workers in Industrial England, on view at Rienzi from 1 September 2021 to 3 January 2022.

Registration for the symposium is available here»

P R O G R A M M E

10.00  Session 1: Industry and Craft
• Misty Flores (Assistant Curator, Rienzi), Hidden Hands: Invisible Workers in Industrial England
• Javier Fernández Vázquez (PhD Candidate, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), All the Names: Recovering the Ignored Authorship of Metal-Casting Patterns
• Daichi Shigemoto (PhD Student, The University of Texas at Austin), Hidden Hands for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in Tokyo
• Q&A

11.10  Break

11.40  Session 2: Cultural Exchanges in the Americas
• Alfredo A. Ortega-Ordaz (Conservator, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City), Lightweight Sculpting: About Admiration and Exclusion
• Marco Díaz-Güemez (Research Professor, Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán), The Yucatan Hammock as a Product of Mayan Women: Tradition, Adaptation, and Resistance
• Philippe Halbert (PhD Candidate, Yale University), A Toilette in Their Fashion: Indigenizing the Dressing Table in the French Atlantic World
• Q&A

12.55  Break

1.05  Session 3: Movement of People and Ideas
• Lindsay Alberts (Professor, SCAD), Mustafa di Ramadano: Slavery Hidden in the Hardstones of the Cappella dei Principi
• Jordan Smith (Assistant Professor, Widener University), The Caribbean Origins of European Craftsmanship: A Case Study in Rum
• Bindy Barclay (Freelance Writer and Researcher), Unraveling Cook’s Voyage: Repopulating the Colonial Exotic
• Q&A