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Art Talk Live: Doris Salcedo—Sculpture as Witness

This photograph shows a stainless steel chair with some of its back supports missing. It sits against a white background.
Doris Salcedo, Colombian, Untitled, 2004–5. Stainless steel. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Cowles, by exchange, 2010.573. © Doris Salcedo.

Gallery Talk

This event was recorded. Please view the talk here.

During these unsettled times, art allows us to reflect on and confront sociopolitical uncertainties through close looking at objects. Doris Salcedo’s sculpture Untitled (2004–5), recalling a worn, simple chair, marks the absence of countless victims lost to political violence in Colombia’s civil war. Curator Mary Schneider Enriquez will examine Salcedo’s work and will consider how an everyday object speaks to the power wielded by those whose victims remain silent.

This talk is part of a series investigating power dynamics in artworks across the collections. Considering intersections of art and power, members of our curatorial team discuss how artists engage with social and political crises, use art to upset systems of power, and imagine more equitable futures.

Led by:
Mary Schneider Enriquez, Houghton Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

This free talk will take place online via Zoom. To join, follow this link: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91006054299 (pre-registration not required).

For instructions on how to join a meeting in Zoom, please click here.

Art Talks Live are presented via Zoom every other Thursday afternoon at 2pm and offer an up-close look at works from our collections with our team of curators, conservators, fellows, and graduate students.

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