Art and Archaeology ― Collaborations, Conversations, Criticisms

Ian Alden Russell is a curator, designer, and academic based in Istanbul, Turkey. He is an assistant professor of contemporary art and cultural heritage in the Department of Archaeology and Art History at Koc University. Previous to this, he was Curator of the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, and he continues to curate exhibitions of contemporary art by international as well as emerging artists. With an academic background in history, archaeology, and heritage studies, his research engages with artists in galleries, museums, heritage sites, and public spaces to address issues around the constitution of cultural heritage. He is currently co-editing a volume with Michael Shanks (Stanford) and Mike Pearson (Aberystwyth) for Routledge exploring these themes. His previous edited volumes include Images, Representations, and Heritage (Springer: 2006) and Unquiet Pasts (Ashgate: 2010).

Andrew Cochrane is Project Curator at the British Museum. He has excavated with the Museum of London Archaeology, was a World Art Fellow at the University of East Anglia, and has been a Research Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. In 2008, he developed the WAC ‘art and archaeology’ exhibitions and conference with Ian Russell. He has been Project Curator for: The Power of Dogu exhibition (British Museum: 2009), the unearthed exhibition (Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts: 2010), and the Ice Age Art exhibition (British Museum: 2013). In recent years, Andrew has greatly enjoyed collaborating with Doug Bailey, Jill Cook, Andy Jones and Simon Kaner.