Diaspora Reframed: Locating Identities
February 21 - March 13, 2022
Coordinated by Nicholas Raffoul
The Ethnocultural Art Histories Research Group (EAHR) is proud to present Diaspora Reframed: Locating Identities presented in collaboration with students of ARTH 389: Issues in Ethnocultural Art Histories: Race, Citizenship and Art in Canada (Fall 2021). This exhibition features written texts about selected works by Laurena Finéus, Marigold Santos, Dominique Fung and Shellie Zhang, of Haitian, Filipino and Chinese ancestry respectively. This exhibition is a conjoined project to share, written pieces (wall texts) and reflections that emerged within the context of the class, as they encouraged students to critically examine the politics of representation, redress and recognition in Canadian art, focusing (not exclusively) on contemporary praxis by artists of Asian and African descent.
The curatorial committee formed by undergraduate students Naimah-Bint Amin, Ali Byers, Rhys Buhl, Kelsey McGowan, Billie Palmer, and Kioni Sasaki-Picou enrolled in ARTH 389 during the fall of 2021 selected four texts written by their classmates to be featured in this virtual exhibition. Under their curatorial vision, all the texts and respective artworks have been grouped to expand course conversations, making this exhibition a space for discussion and reflection that transcends the classroom’s walls.
The authors of the selected wall texts have beautifully and critically responded to the artworks of four contemporary female artists from Turtle Island. The artists’ practices challenge a colonial gaze that has long dictated the selfhood of racialized migrant communities.
