Status Updates From Art and Agency: An Anthropo...

I didn’t finish since I only needed to read a few chapters for my archaeology theory class. However, I think that Gell does a great job of diving into the important concept that art objects have agency. Although his writing isn’t always straightforward and he relies on a lot of formulas, I feel like Gell’s work is an important read for those seeking to understand object agency and its relation to archaeology.

All idols, I think, are ‘iconic’ - including the so-called an iconic ones - whether or not they look like some familiar object, such as the human body

The action-centred approach to art is inherently more anthropological than the alternative semiotic approach because it is preoccupied with the practical mediatory role of art objects in the social process, rather than with the interpretation of objects 'as if' they were texts.

p. 50 - "However, mostly the effects of the index
on the prototype are not primarily caused by the index, but simply mediated by the index, and agency lies with the artist or the recipient. In the Churchill/ Sutherland case, Churchill considered himself the victim of the agency of the artist, rather than his own agency as an ugly person."