Talmor is a scholar and filmmaker who explores the art world as an "intercultural zone," where art and objects become global representations of specific cultures.
Ruti Talmor, the Hurford Humanities Center's Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow for 2009-11, comes from a family of artists and architects:“I grew up around art galleries and construction sites,” she says. She also began working as an assistant to her mother, a studio artist, at an early age.
And her Israeli/Venezuelan heritage, she says, exposed her first-hand to“cultural multiplicity,” a basis of anthropological thought.“When I discovered anthropology, it really resonated with me and my perception of the world.” So Talmor—who earned a B.A. in art history, a certificate in culture and media, and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from New York University—came by her areas of study naturally.
Talmor's ongoing research, based in Ghana and in global systems such as the art and tourist markets, concerns the idea of the art world as an“intercultural zone.” Art and objects, she says, are often the easiest ways for people to represent their cultures to the rest of the world, as well as for tourists to enter the cultural worlds of others.“When you think of the identity of different places,” she explains,“you often think in terms of objects: South African beadwork, Ghanaian brass weights, Tanzanian cloth.” She looks at the economic and political factors that shape the production and purchase of these objects, exploring such issues as what consumers are seeking in these exchanges and why producers want to create this kind of art in the first place.
“Art-making sometimes intersects with people's goals and aspirations,” says Talmor.“There is, for example, a group of urban youth who cannot afford higher education, and by creating and selling their wares, they have opened up a new realm of personal and professional possibilities.”
Talmor more closely examines this concept of the intercultural zone in a course she's teaching this fall called“Art Worlds: Contact Zones.” In the spring, she'll teach a class called“African Masculinities,” looking at various perceptions of maleness and the forces influencing these ideas and representations. Talmor will also participate in the Humanities Center's Interdisciplinary Faculty Seminar,“Material Identity,” organized by Associate Professor of Religion Ken Koltun-Fromm.
In addition to being an anthropological scholar, Talmor has also worked in documentary film and collaborated with visual artists. She has made a short documentary called Trainers about a gay gym in New York City and the community it creates for its employees. She hopes to bring other filmmakers and artists to campus for talks during her time at Haverford.
“I'm looking forward to the conversations I'll be having with faculty and students,” she says,“and to being part of the Humanities Center's exciting array of programming.”
