Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces: Exhibiting Asian Religions in Museums

We have long recognized that many objects in museums were originally on display in temples, shrines, or monasteries, and were religiously significant to the communities that created and used them. How, though, are such objects to be understood, described, exhibited, and handled now that they are in museums? Are they still sacred objects, or formerly sacred objects that are now art objects, or are they simultaneously objects of religious and artistic significance, depending on who is viewing the object? These objects not only raise questions about their own identities, but also about the ways we understand the religious traditions in which these objects were created and which they represent in museums today. Bringing together religious studies scholars and museum curators, Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces is the first volume to focus on Asian religions in relation to these questions. The contributors analyze an array of issues related to the exhibition in museums of objects of religious significance from Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh traditions. The “lives” of objects are considered, along with the categories of “sacred” and “profane”, “religious” and “secular”. As interest in material manifestations of religious ideas and practices continues to grow, Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces is a much-needed contribution to religious and Asian studies, anthropology of religion and museums studies.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Printed in this Volume List of Illustrations Available to View Online at Bloomsbury.com Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction to Sacred Objects in Secular Spaces: Exhibiting Asian Religions in Museums Bruce M. Sullivan Part 1: Exhibiting Hindu and Sikh Religious Objects in Museums 1. What Do Indian Images Really Want? A Biographical Approach Richard H. Davis (Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Bard College, USA) 2. Under the Gaze of Kali: Exhibitionism in the Kalighat Painting Exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art Deepak Sarma (Professor of Religious Studies, Case Western Reserve University, USA) 3. Reconsecrating the Icons: The New Phenomenon of Yoga in Museums Bruce M. Sullivan (Professor, Comparative Study of Religions & Asian Studies, Northern Arizona University, USA) 4. Sikh Museuming Anne Murphy (Associate Professor in Punjabi Language, Literature and Sikh Studies, Dept. of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, Canada) Part 2: Exhibiting Buddhist Religious Objects in Museums 5. Planning the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery of Buddhist Sculpture 2009-2014 John Clarke (Curator of South and South East Asian Art at the Victoria & Albert Museum, UK) 6. Entering the Virtual Mandala: Transformative Environments in Hybrid Spaces Jeff Durham (Assistant Curator of Himalayan Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, USA) 7. Discovery and Display: Case Studies from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Denise Patry Leidy (Curator of Asian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA) 8. Mapping Cultures, Digital Exhibitions, Learning Networks: The Creative Collaborations at Austin College and the Crow Collection of Asian Art Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan (Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Austin College, USA) Part 3: Religions, Museums, Memory 9. Curating Asian Religious Objects in the Exhibition Sacred Word and Image: Five World Religions Janet Baker (Curator of Asian Art, Phoenix Art Museum, USA) 10. World Religions Museums: Dialogue, Domestication, and the Sacred Gaze Charles D. Orzech (Reader in Religion, Conflict & Transition, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow, UK) 11. Detritus to Treasure: Memory, Metonymy, and the Museum Michael Willis (Curator of the Early South Asian and Himalayan Collections, The British Museum, UK) Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Bruce M. Sullivan is Professor of Comparative Study of Religions and Asian Studies at Northern Arizona University, USA.

Review :
The essays themselves are fascinating, not least because they bring together both museum curators and religious studies scholars thinking aloud, hard, and in parallel, about the 'material' and 'religious' dimensions of the objects they are exhibiting. This timely volume is a valuable set of essays exploring the relationship between religious material culture and the politics of display in museums. The essays deal primarily with South and East Asian objects, each delicately balancing theory with ethnography and history. This book captures some of the many journeys made, and shifting roles played, by sacred objects when they are taken from their temples and shrines. They can become imperial trophies, scientific specimens, bland conscripts in multicultural narratives, stereotypes paraded to boost museum visits, respected ambassadors representing faiths, traditions or groups, commodities in the art market, and – perhaps – return to being intermediaries between the material and the spiritual. This book offers not a single argument, but a judicious mixture of appreciation and critique, scepticism and enthusiasm, history and philosophy. Beyond its clear relevance to religious and museum studies, it casts interesting light on one of the most important issues of our time, the public understanding of religious difference – and the role of museums as civic spaces in which difference can be explored.