How to Cite

Van Loan, Theodore: Multiple Temporalities and the Scene of Time: A Pair of Wooden Doors at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, in Troelenberg, Eva-Maria, Schankweiler, Kerstin and Messner, Anna Sophia (Eds.): Reading Objects in the Contact Zone, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021 (Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality, Volume 9), p. 51–57. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.766.c10402

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.766
ISBN 978-3-96822-049-9 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-050-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-051-2 (Softcover)

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06/10/2021

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Authors

Theodore Van Loan

Multiple Temporalities and the Scene of Time

A Pair of Wooden Doors at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo

Abstract Art objects are staged and stage themselves in ways that ex­press various types of time and duration. The pair of wooden doors from the Fatimid period discussed in this chapter are staged in a way that make the layered and fragmented condition of temporality central to the expe­rience of seeing them. This chapter unpacks these layers. It includes dis­cussion of epigraphic and stylistic dating, practices of conservation and display, and the visual impact of physical fatigue. All together these layers constitute a dynamic and fluid scene with the object as both an active par­ticipant and passive recipient in their constitution.

Keywords Temporality; Materiality; Islamic Art; Ornament; Museum Display