From Kitabkhana [Library] to Karkhana [Workshop]: The Arts of the Book in South Asia
The contemporary art world has witnessed an explosion of interest in the book form, exemplified by Karkhana [Workshop] (2003-2005), a project in which six artists graduates of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan modeled their work on the imperial Mughal kitabkhana (library). Taking its cue from such projects, this workshop examines art books and book arts in South Asia from 1100 C.E. to the present. Participants analyze the relationship of visuality, materiality, orality, and textuality in a society where “a painting was like the leaf of a book…not seen but read,” to quote art historian B.N. Goswamy.
10:00-10:15: Introductory remarks
Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
10:15-11:30: Panel 1: Carrying, Covering, Captioning
Moderator: Daud Ali, Associate Professor and Chair of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
“A Book and the Goddess: The Devimahatmya from Palm Leaf to Paper”
Jinah Kim, George P. Bickford Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
“Clothing the Book: Texts, Textiles, and An Ethics of Care”
Sylvia Houghteling, Assistant Professor of History of Art, Bryn Mawr College
“Meaning in the Margins: Kannada Captions in a Deccani Sindbadnama”
Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
11:30-12:30: Break
12:30-1:30: Panel 2: Cutting and Pasting
Moderator: Rahul Mukherjee, Dick Wolf Associate Professor of Television and New Media Studies and Associate Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania
“Books that Bind: The Persianate Album and its Widespread Circulation”
Yael Rice, Assistant Professor of the History of Art and Asian Languages and Civilizations, Amherst College
“Migrations Among Media: Photographic Albums, Wall Paintings, and Chromolithographs”
Holly Shaffer, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University
1:30-1:45: Break
1:45-3:00: Panel 3: Reading and Recycling
Moderator: Megan Robb, Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor in Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
“Lithographic Assemblages: The Urdu Art Book in the Age of Print”
Iftikhar Dadi, Professor and Chair of History of Art and Visual Culture and Director of the South Asia Program, Cornell University
“Books and the Matter of Art: Notes on Materiality, Dematerialization, and Value”
Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
“In My Father’s Trunk”
Anand A. Yang, Walker Family Endowed Professor in History and Professor of International Studies, University of Washington
Organized by Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, Department of the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.
Sponsored by the Penn Global Engagement Fund, the South Asia Center, the Wolf Humanities Center, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, the Workshop in the History of Material Texts, and the Departments of the History of Art and South Asia Studies.
