ABSTRACT
This chapter is a report from the field. It addresses what Schneider and Wright have called ‘the challenge of practice’ through an exploration of initiatives pursued in the space between art and anthropology. If visual anthropology has been associated with a simple-minded scientism, it has also been condemned for its artfulness. For, contrary to its perception as one of the most formally and conceptually backward areas of visual anthropology, Grimshaw and Ravetz found that it offered a crucial framework for experimentation in the space between art and anthropology. The idea of developing a project with Owen was linked to Grimshaw’s concerns about forms of anthropological representation. Connecting Art and Anthropology was an intensive, highly choreographed event attended by a small group of anthropologists, artists and curators. Some of the anthropologists explained that they were interested in the art and anthropology dialogue because disciplinary conventions made it difficult to communicate certain dimensions of human experience.
