Masterclass with Michael Taussig

Michael Taussig

Following on from his free public lecture join renowned anthropologist Professor Michael Taussig as he attempts to figure out the mastery of non-mastery. He will pause on Marcel Proust’s alignment of the mimesis between wasp and orchid as consonant with that of the sexual encounter between a baron and a tailor—prelude to his thoughts on inter-species sex, shamanism, and paramilitary massacres as copies chasing copies. Through these pauses, Michael will speculate on the fate of the mimetic faculty in relation to global meltdown and metamorphic sublimity.

Michael will continue on this theme as part of a masterclass the following day; a masterclass that he has designed as an experience of non-mastery: a lively illustration and discussion of his work, expanded through references to Joseph Losey’s film The Servant and Franz Kafka’s  short story “The Silence of the Sirens.”

To register for the public lecture, please visit Eventbrite.

To register for the masterclass and receive preliminary readings, please email the Centre.

Michael's visit to Australia is possible thanks to a collaboration with Melbourne and Deakin Universities.

University of Melbourne, Centre of Visual Art
Deakin University Australia
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