Phantasmata
Anthropology of Consciousness July 31, 2023 DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12206 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that painting can serve as a 'dreamweapon' or shamanic mode of cultural resistance, using pattern, saturated colour, abstraction, found materials and visionary, outsider and brut aesthetics to challenge Western rationality and redeem experiences modernity dismisses as phantasy or hallucination. |
Abstract
My art (Figures 1-7) revolves around the theory and practice of cultural resistance, which I call the ‘dreamweapon’ or the shamanic aspect of the fight for social justice. Through repetitive patterns, highly saturated colours, stark black and white alteration and abstracted anthropomorphisms, these paintings unleash an excess of spirits, a profusion of phantasmata, pineal eyes in ecstatic communion with heaven and earth. Flora and fauna imagery, as well as visionary, outsider and brut aesthetics challenge Western rationality and call for the reenchantment of inner and outer nature. I use found materials and specifically found paintings (Figures 2, 4, and 5) to allow for the entrance of heterogeneity, chance and formlessness into the work. My ultimate preoccupation is to redeem what is labelled 'phantasy' or 'hallucination', the reality of experience that is excluded from modernity, by restoring a sense of relatedness, mutuality, sacrifice and cosmic coexistence. Christopher Santiago is a sociocultural anthropologist, artist and poet who has taught at several universities and completed years of fieldwork in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research focuses on peasant resistance to transnational gold mining in Cajamarca, Peru as well as the ‘hystery’ of the phantasm in Western civilization. Exhibitions and performances include Flowers for All Occasions, The Living Gallery, Reckless Arts, Pari Passu, Contemporary Petite, Nth Gallery, HiLo Gallery, An/aesthetics, Flux Factory and ChaShaMa. Santiago is currently a Doctoral Lecturer in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at The College of Staten Island, CUNY and is published in The Psychoanalytic Review (2019), HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory (2021), The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (2022) and The Anthropology of Consciousness (2023).