An UMMA + Kelsey Dialogue: Transmissions across the Gap: 'Cosmogonic Tattoos' with Artist Jim Cogswell

Artist Jim Cogswell will explore his work in 'Cosmogonic Tattoos', a visually stunning and rhythmic procession of vivid, but fragmentary images installed on the glass walls of both the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and UMMA. On the occasion of the U-M Bicentennial, Cogswell's installation investigates how objects are understood in different contexts through time and space, across materials, geographies and institutions. The installation invites audiences to think about how cultures thrive by borrowing from each other; how the displacement and distribution of objects narrates histories of human displacement and exile.

'Cosmogonic Tattoos' celebrates the power of architecture, ornament, and material objects to shape knowledge, historical memory, and cultural identity. Its narrative speaks to us about distance, movement, and migration, through sagas of disaster, appropriation, and plunder.

Cogswell, who is also a Professor at the U-M Stamps School of Art & Design, will be joined by Terry Wilfong, Kelsey Museum Director and Curator of Graeco-Roman Egyptian Collections, and Raymond Silverman, Professor of History of Art and Afroamerican and African Studies, for a discussion and Q & A with the audience. The discussion will be moderated by Jennifer Friess, UMMA Assistant Curator of Photography.

Public reception to follow at the Kelsey Museum from 8:00 - 9:00pm.