Embodied Dependencies and Freedoms : Artistic Communities and Patronage in Asia

Open AccessHave you ever thought about dependencies in Asian art and architecture? Most people would probably assume that the arts are free and that creativity and ingenuity function outside of such reliances. However, the 13 chapters provided by specialists in the fields of Asian art and architecture in this volume show, that those active in the visual arts and the built environment operate in an area of strict relations of often extreme dependences. Material artefacts and edifices are dependent on the climate in which they have been created, on the availability of resources for their production, on social and religious traditions, which may be oral or written down and on donors, patrons and the art market. Furthermore, gender and labour dependencies play a role in the creation of the arts as well. Despite these strong and in most instances asymmetrical dependencies, artists have at all times found freedoms in expressing their own imagination, vision and originality. This shows that dependencies and freedoms are not necessarily strictly separated binary opposites but that, at least in the area of the history of art and architecture in Asia, the two are interconnected in what are often complex and multifaceted layers. Preface Contents Chapter 1. Introduction: Embodiments of Dependencies and Freedoms in Asian Art Chapter 2. Climate and Resource Dependencies in Buddhist Art and Architecture along the Northern Silk Road Chapter 3. Temple Architecture in Coastal Karnataka: An Interplay of Climatic Dependencies and Artistic Freedoms Chapter 4. Chinese Export Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty and its Dependence on Foreign Silver Chapter 5. ‘Slaves of God’: Extreme Religious Dependency in Medieval South India (800–1100 CE) Chapter 6. Usages and Instrumentalisations of the Sanskrit Term ‘Dāsī/Dāsa’ (Servant-Slave) in Pre-Colonial and Colonial South India: The Case of the Devadāsīs and Rājadāsīs Chapter 7. Mediating Śakti: Embodied Dependencies and Senses in Teyyam, Malabar, South India Chapter 8. Patterns of Dependency in the Buddhist Tantric Iconography of Nepal Chapter 9. Dependence and Freedom in the Theory and Practice of Indian Temple Architecture Chapter 10. Bound by Tradition?: An Investigation of the Extreme Dependency of Artists on Un-written Artistic Conventions for Dance Imagery in Sculpture and Painting Chapter 11. Dependencies and Artistic Freedom in the Context of Himalayan Conservation Projects Chapter 12. Countering Cerebral Invasions: Sculptors Against Dependencies Chapter 13. The Story Tellers of Mysore: Regime Change and the Musarrati Performance Artists of Tipu Sultan’s Court Chapter 14. Indigenous Modernities in Dependent Princely States: Design of Public and Civic Spaces in Baroda Glossary List of Plates Notes on Contributors Index Open Access Have you ever thought about dependencies in Asian art and architecture? Most people would probably assume that the arts are free and that creativity and ingenuity function outside of such reliances. However, the 13 chapters provided by specialists in the fields of Asian art and architecture in this volume show, that those active in the visual arts and the built environment operate in an area of strict relations of often extreme dependences. Material artefacts and edifices are dependent on the climate in which they have been created, on the availability of resources for their production, on social and religious traditions, which may be oral or written down and on donors, patrons and the art market. Furthermore, gender and labour dependencies play a role in the creation of the arts as well. Despite these strong and in most instances asymmetrical dependencies, artists have at all times found freedoms in expressing their own imagination, vision and originality. This shows that dependencies and freedoms are not necessarily strictly separated binary opposites but that, at least in the area of the history of art and architecture in Asia, the two are interconnected in what are often complex and multifaceted layers. In der Buchreihe des'Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies'werden Monographien und Tagungsbände, die das Phänomen der Sklaverei und andere Formen asymmetrischer Abhängigkeiten in Gesellschaften untersuchen, veröffentlicht. Die Reihe folgt dabei der Forschungsagenda des BCDSS, die die vorherrschende dichotomische Vorstellung von'Sklaverei versus Freiheit'überwindet. Das Cluster hat dazu ein neues Schlüsselkonzept ('asymmetrische Abhängigkeiten') entwickelt, das alle Ausprägungen von ungleichen Dependenzen (wie etwa Schuldknechtschaft, Zwangsarbeit, Dienstbarkeit, Leibeigenschaft, Hausarbeit, aber auch gewisse Formen der Lohnarbeit und der Patronage) berücksichtigt. Dabei werden auch Epochen, Räume und Kontexte der Weltgeschichte bearbeitet, die nicht der europäischen Kolonisierung ausgesetzt waren (z.B. altorientalische Kulturen sowie vormoderne und moderne Gesellschaften in Asien, Afrika und den Amerikas).