About

All of the objects in this exhibition shed light on how media artifacts have served as tools for forging and imagining communities in Latin America. Drawn from Wesleyan’s Archaeology and Anthropology Collection, Olin Memorial Library, and the Davison Art Collection, the objects date from the Pre-Columbian era to the twenty-first century, and range in form from stone tools, to photography and artist books. Together, they shed light on how media have been used as components in the construction of empire, to resist political systems of power, and to negotiate individual and collective identity.

This exhibition is the product of classroom discussions, individual research, and collaborative efforts to make sense of Latin America’s wide ranging media history. Some of the objects may challenge our contemporary definitions of media that often focus narrowly on digital communication or the press. By taking a broad and flexible approach, however, the exhibition examines how objects used to communicate ideas with text and image also reflected and attempted to shape societies and politics--through the crafting and re-imagining of Latin American communities.  

The exhibition is broken into three themes:

Forging Empire           Communities of Resistance       Artists' Visions of Identity