Making Matrice : Intersubjectivity in Ethnography and Art

Abstract

Through collaborative research design and creative process, artists, activists, and researchers often seek to give voice to underrepresented communities, to gain a better mutual understanding of common experiences or to call attention to issues of public interest. Artists and ethnographers work together to probe topics of common concern or to devise projects that bring people together to stage events or develop community artworks. 1 Fewer collaborative projects involving the arts focus on more intimate topics and situations; and those that do rarely have the production of art as their primary goal. 2 In this article we develop an intersubjective narrative (McCleary and Viotti 2009) about one such project that resulted in the making of Matrice, an installation composed of latex, burlap, and oil paint on canvas panels.In addition to the intersubjectivity of written word and audience, the Matrice narrative itself embodies dual related intersubjectivities (Mc-Cleary and Viotti 2009; Stolorow 2013)-a reconstructed conversation between the authors as well as the physical interaction between Susan as artist and the presence of Juliann in the form of a plaster belly cast. Juliann's exploration of her experience of maternity motivated Susan's artwork, itself informed by her skills as an ethnographer as well as an artist. The contours of our collaboration derive from two traditional mises en scène: that of fi gure drawing and portrait painting, which involves an artist and a model, and that of the researcher engaged in fi eld-

An exhibition in fieldwork form

“…It seems to me that the artwork presents important truths and perspectives that would have been missed had I employed other means and materials. 21 The article that Juliann and I wrote together about the research process adds to its meaning for others who might seek to collaborate as we did (Allison and Ossman 2014).…”