MORI, Shoko
Research Associate
Research Keywords: Social Anthropology; West African Ethnography; Materiality; Expressive Practice
Email: shoko.mori[at]tufs.ac.jp
Ethnography of Ghana's Visual & Sonic Practices: Materiality & Performance
My research explores the intersection of materiality, embodiment, and visual culture in urban Ghana, specifically through long-term apprenticeship in local sign-painting workshops. By situating myself within the asymmetrical power dynamics of a master-disciple relationship?a bond that transcends simple "collaboration"?I have acquired painting techniques while engaging in local production and exhibition. My ethnography documents the emergence of my own agency as a Japanese apprentice and its impact on the workshop's social fabric, as well as the "residue" of reciprocal identity exchange.
At the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, I navigated the dual roles of a "disciple" accompanying my master and an "artist" producing filmic works. This experience allowed me to reflexively examine the embodiment of knowledge production?how the anthropologist is "gazed upon" within the museum space. Currently, I am working on constructing "ethnographic exhibitions" that utilize sign paintings, films, and fieldnotes to evoke the holistic lives of artisans.
Furthermore, I track the queer expressive practices of musical activists in Ghana. By contextualizing their activities through academic essays, social media, and my own practice of sign painting, I dynamically explore the performative power they exert in contemporary society.
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