Lecture – Shadows of the Absent Body with Judith Butler

In this lecture, Judith Butler, the Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, considers how in the context of Salcedo’s work the field of grievability is a sensate field riddled with loss. Grievability is a potential that is only partially realized through a transformation of the object world—the tactical, the relations of proximity, and the shadows of the absent body in the field of objects. The remainders of a life assemble in new form, never giving back that life, but establishing counter-monumental forms of memorialization. To establish a life as grievable, as worthy of grief—and worthy of preservation—is an injunction that pertains to both the living and the dead. But under conditions when the body is no longer recognizable, how do the objects that remain come together to speak to the loss?

This program is part of "Topography of Loss: A Symposium on Doris Salcedo" (March 2–3, 2017) at the Harvard Art Museums.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK:

EXHIBITION / "Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning:" https://harvardartmuseums.org/exhibit...

+ARTICLE / "The Impossible, Made Real—Doris Salcedo's 'A Flor de Piel':" https://harvardartmuseums.org/article...

---

Support for the lecture is provided by the M. Victor Leventritt Fund, which was established through the generosity of the wife, children, and friends of the late M. Victor Leventritt, Harvard Class of 1935. The purpose of the fund is to present outstanding scholars of the history and theory of art to the Harvard and Greater Boston communities. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

Recorded March 2, 2017, Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums. All featured artwork © Doris Salcedo. © President and Fellows of Harvard College. Video: Danny Hoshino. For questions related to permission for commercial use of this video, please contact the Department of Digital Imaging and Visual Resources at [email protected].