A Woman Holding a Liver
Couch, Amanda (2017) A Woman Holding a Liver. In: Offal: rejected and reclaimed food: proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2016. Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery . Prospect Books, London, pp. 134-147. ISBN 9781909248557
For the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery’s theme Offal, I presented a performance-lecture, A Woman Holding a Liver, which contextually and artistically explored the practice and history of haruspicy or liver divination, followed by the divination of a lamb’s liver.
A Woman Holding a Liver began with an outline of the ancient practice of haruspicy. I showed examples of where liver divination has been represented in art and material culture, and contextualised it from my personal and artistic perspectives, as well as in relation to chance strategies in art history. I outlined my methods for performing an examination of a liver, drawn from a wealth of classical scholarship, before undertaking an inspection of a lamb’s liver, divining in response to a question that was collectively decided by the audience-participants.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-9668
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit View |