Geographical Fixity or Affective Ties: How do Artists Respond to Geographical Indications?

Abstract

The Geographical Indications (GI) of Goods is an internationally recognized form of intellectual property that legitimizes a product as “authentic” by linking it to its specific geographic site origin. As a part of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, which instituted the current GI framework, India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Based on ethnographic research in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh between 2012 and 2014, this article demonstrates how a market-driven search for authenticity also comes to define the identity of a practice and its producers, which are then deemed as “belonging” to this “site of origin.” A hereditary style of narrative cloth paintings, which belonged to the repertoire of traditional skill of artists spread across the Telangana, has today been “branded” as Cheriyal paintings, after the village that is home to the only practicing artist community. By looking closely at certain requisites of the GI of Goods Act 1999 that need to be fulfilled for compliance prior to registration under the scheme, this article shows the ambiguities in the definition and expectation of GI’s designation of “place” that are revealed through the community’s everyday narratives about inheritance, practice and apprenticeship.