Friends of Art History Visual Culture Series

“Two artists walk into an archive: decolonizing a colonizing space”
by Stacy Ernst, PhD Candidate, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture, Carleton University.

This talk will address interventions into the colonial archive by Anishinaabe artist Carl Beam (1943 – 2005) and settler artist Greg Curnoe (1936 – 1992). While each approached the archive in very different ways, I will argue that the result is similar – decolonization of the colonial archive. As Hal Foster argued, contemporary artists have had an intense interest in the archive bringing into question its function in modernity. Through Beam and Curnoe’s engagement with the archive it becomes clear that part of its function may be as a space from which a decolonial future could emerge.

Friday, January 23rd, 2:30 pm, 412 St. Patrick’s Building.
Free admission, and refreshments will be served.