An Anthropology of Making in Santa Clara del Cobre: Presence of Absence

About Michele Avis Feder-NadoffPaperblanks

Michele Avis Feder-Nadoff is an artist and anthropologist concerned with making not only as the creation of things but also of lives worlds meaning and correspondence. Her critical ethnography centers on Santa Clara del Cobre Michoacán México where she initiated an apprenticeship with a master coppersmith in 1997. This seminal experience formed the backbone of her trajectory from artist trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to founder of the arts and culture non-profit Cuentos Foundation to Fulbright Scholar and PhD at El Colegio de Michoacán. As a theoretician she incorporates perspectives of onto-epistemology performance and phenomenology to delve into the anthropology of making and everyday aesthetics employing collaborative research methods. Her approach bridges the gap between economic and sociopolitical critiques of craft and more formalist technical-aesthetic analysis integrating neuroscience cognitive studies physiology affect kinesthetics perception and embodied knowledge. Feder-Nadoffs art is included in private and public collections such as the Illinois State Museum DePaul University Museum of Art Elmhurst Art Museum Rockford Art Museum and the Figge Museum. She is the editor of Rhythm of Fire: The Art and Artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre Michoacán Mexico (2005) and the artistic director of the accompanying video Night-blooming Jasmine. Recent publications include her edited volume Performing Craft in Mexico: Artisans Aesthetics and the Power of Translation (2022) as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.