Dream kitsch – folk art, indigenous media and '9/11': The Work of Pat in the Era of Electronic Transmission

This article explores the process of transmission of the image(s) of 9/11 through an ethnographic/art-historical examination of Bengali (Indian) pat (traditional scroll painting) made by a community of rural Indian artisans
with little or no exposure to mass-media. It transpires that while the impact of mass-media – often held responsible for the extinction of 'authentic' folk art – has been somewhat exaggerated, the argument put forward here is that the putative anteriority of a time before representation, is largely an illusion.