Legitimating space: art and the politics of place

Abstract

Rock art, graffiti, and other emplaced works of art bring people together at specific places. This type of art allows for encounters between people in their absence, and thus presents a range of possibilities for making statements about specific places and those who occupy or visit. This opens the possibility for issues of legitimation to become implicitly or explicitly articulated. However, the legitimate use of space, and the legitimate employment of art, can vary drastically across different contexts. Here, the paper discusses a range of different strategies of art and legitimation in three case studies from India, California, and Spain.

Keywords:

• legitimation
• rock art
• graffiti
• Chumash
• India
• Barcelona
• space
• place

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank John Robb and Elizabeth DeMarrais for the invitation to the SAAs in Memphis, as well as for this publication, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. I also thank the staff of the Wind Wolves Preserve in California for their support of my research, as well as the Rock Art Documentation Group and Rick Bury for permission to use his photograph. I thank Fraser Sturt and Julienne Bernard and all of the participants of the Enculturation Environments Project. I also thank my colleague Hector Orengo for our collaboration in Barcelona, as well as the crew of the Sanganankallu-Kupgal Archaeological Research Project in India, especially Ramadas.