Seeing syncretism as visual blasphemy: critical eyes on Caodai religious architecture
The exuberant, eclectic architecture of the Caodai Holy See in French Indochina was described as a "grotesque combination" of European and Asian elements by several famous writers and this sense of horror served to construct a notion of "visual blasphemy" which merged aesthetic a...
| Auteur principal: | |
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| Type de support: | Électronique Article |
| Langue: | Anglais |
| Vérifier la disponibilité: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | En cours de chargement...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Publié: |
Taylor & Francis
[2010]
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| Dans: |
Material religion
Année: 2010, Volume: 6, Numéro: 1, Pages: 30-58 |
| Sujets non-standardisés: | B
alternative aesthetics
B Vietnam B Blasphemy B Syncretism B COLONIAL PERSPECTIVES B New Religions |
| Accès en ligne: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Résumé: | The exuberant, eclectic architecture of the Caodai Holy See in French Indochina was described as a "grotesque combination" of European and Asian elements by several famous writers and this sense of horror served to construct a notion of "visual blasphemy" which merged aesthetic and ethical elements. Architecture is always read and misread though a cultural lens. It has been argued that the colonial "world as staged" (Mitchell 1999) produced its own "reality-effects," so I argue that an anti-colonial counter project of large public works tied to an innovative Asian synthesis of world religions served not only to bolster the morale of a once downtrodden people but also to convince them of the historical inevitability of their triumph. Caodaism was a new religious movement followed by 3 million people in French Indochina and its daring and "presumptuous" architecture was a visual act of insurrection, an iconographic revolution designed to precede and prepare the way for the political revolution to follow. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contient: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2752/174322010X12663379393332 |