Critical Term: Hybridity

In this short film, Dr Kathleen Christian and Dr Leah Clark discuss the complexities of the term hybridity. As two specialists in the field of Early Modern art they look at the term to re-evaluate how we have long approached works of art from this time as monolithic or belonging to one cultural tradition when actually they are the result of cross-cultural dialogues. Drs Christian and Clark use the examples of a featherwork mosaic and a drug jar or albarello, both made in Mesoamerica, to reveal the complexities of the term and what Art History can gain by looking at art through the lens of hybridity. They also discuss the problems with the term and its history and consider other terms that have been employed such as cultural translation, cultural transfer, and crossed histories.

Works discussed include: Mass of Saint Gregory, 1539, feather on wood, Musée des Jacobins and Apothecary jar, c. 1700, Puebla, Mexico, Tin-glazed earthenware, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

[takisdust]

The idea of purity is a distorted lens in itself. But yes hybrid is derived from the idea of 'pure'. So it is inescapable. But the ownership of the word is important.