Saturday, August 31, 2013

    Animators:
    • Chikonzero (Chiko) Chazunguza
    • (Artist, Toronto)
    • soJin Chun
    • (Artist, Head of Education and Community Outreach, Gallery 44, Toronto)
    • Terrance Houle
    • (Artist, Calgary)
    • Maureen (Miki) Korp
    • (Writer, Ottawa)
    • Christine Lalonde
    • (Curator of the Inuit Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)
    • Maria Legault
    • (Artist, Gatineau)
    • Melody McKiver
    • (Artist/Musician, Ottawa)
    • Ken Ogawa
    • (Artist, Toronto)/
    • Clara Venice
    • (Musician)
    • Theo Pelmus
    • (Artist Winnipeg)
    • Jeff Thomas
    • (Artist, Ottawa)
    • Irene Snarby
    • (Curator of the Art Unit Karasjok, Norway)
    • Jessie Short
    • (Aboriginal Curatorial Collective)
    Moderators: Ulysses Castellanos and Laura Margita Many artists and curators collectively worked through a polarized stance of identity politics that saw its pinnacle during the early 1990s. (Daniel Jay Martinez’ “I CAN’T IMAGINE EVER WANTING TO BE WHITE” text on entry buttons to the 1993 Whitney Biennial, Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez Peña’s Cage Piece for said event, the music of Public Enemy, Consolidated and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy, the curatorial practice of Hilton Kramer, the installations of Pepon Osorio, the work of the Guerrilla Girls, Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/jerry-saltz-1993-art/ Today (thanks to the trailblazing “shit hits the fan” work by artists who came into their own during the 1993 Whitney biennial), we can imagine working within a more self-reflexive stance, with a more complex representation of identity that allows for the existence of different view points coalescing within “problematic” practices (The paintings of Michael Ray Charles, the photographs of Cindy Sherman, The pseudo-neo Concretist psychedelia of Assume Vivid Astro Focus, the videos, sculptures and installations of Allora and Calzadilla, Ai Wei Wei, Gabriel Orozco, Hanna Wilke, Ryan Trecartin, Kalup LInzy, The paintings of John Currin and Elizabeth Peyton, the films of Matthew Barney, the “grossout” art of Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley and The Voluptous Horror of Karen Black, the films of Nick Zedd and Richard Kern) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexivity_(social_theory) Between a polarized or self-reflexive identity politics, how do you define your practice, or the institution you represent, within these stances? Do you see yourself as exemplifying one or the other, or a combination of both? -Ulysses Castellanos Talking Points: Have you felt that your practice or cultural work has been dismissed or ghettoized by dominant Canadian visual culture? Do mixed race issues affect you? (Two examples being the Canadian status card system and the US blood quantum policies.) What does it mean that it is economically advantageous to program indigenous artists? Is it now possible for non/other indigenous artists or cultural workers to explore or work within "indigenous" subject matter? How do we curate through the dominant mandate of our institutional spaces? Does an indigenous artist always have to be an activist? Does activism have a single point of view and how does this affect activist art? Does feminism still matter? Does gender bias remain?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ-8gfWo3AQ&feature=youtu.be http://www.charlatan.ca/2013/07/screenings-challenge-concepts-of-identity-and-oppression/ Gallery 101 is supported by our members, volunteers and supporters, The City of Ottawa, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.