Imagining Resistance

J. Keri Cronin And Kirsty Robertson

Description

Imagining Resistance: Visual Culture and Activism in Canada offers two separate but interconnected strategies for reading alternative culture in Canada from the 1940s through to the present: first, a history of radical artistic practice in Canada and, second, a collection of eleven essays that focus on a range of institutions, artists, events, and actions. The history of radical practice is spread through the book in a series of short interventions, ranging from the Refus global to anarchist-inspired art, and from Aboriginal curatorial interventions to culture jamming. In each, the historical record is mined to rewrite and reverse Canadian art history—reworked here to illuminate the series of oppositional artistic endeavours that are often mentioned in discussions of Canadian art but rarely acknowledged as having an alternative history of their own.

Alongside, authors consider case studies as diverse as the anti-war work done by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal and Toronto, recent exhibitions of activist art in Canadian institutions, radical films, performance art, protests against the Olympics, interventions into anti-immigrant sentiment in Montreal, and work by Iroquois photographer Jeff Thomas. Taken together, the writings in Imagining Resistance touch on the local, the global, the national, and post-national to imagine a very different landscape of cultural practice in Canada.

Sujets

• Art
• Cultural Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 23 septembre 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781554583119
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Imagining Resistance

Cultural Studies Series Cultural Studies is the multi- and inter-disciplinary study of culture, defined anthropologically as a “way of life,” performatively as symbolic practice, and ideologically as the collective product of varied media and cultural industries. Although Cultural Studies is a relative newcomer to the humanities and social sciences, in less than half a century it has taken interdisciplinary scholar- ship to a new level of sophistication, reinvigorating the liberal arts curriculum with new theories, topics, and forms of intellectual partnership. Wilfrid Laurier University Press invites submissions of manuscripts concerned with critical discussions on power relations concerning gender, class, sexual preference, ethnicity, and other macro and micro sites of polit- ical struggle.

For more information, please contact: Lisa Quinn Acquisitions Editor Wilfrid Laurier University Press 75 University Avenue West Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 Canada Phone: [phone] ext. 2843 Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

Imagining Resistance VISUAL CULTURE AND ACTIVISM IN CANADA

J. Keri Cronin Kirsty Robertson EDITORS

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities of Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through its Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Imagining resistance : visual culture and activism in Canada / J. Keri Cronin and Kirsty Robertson, editors.

(Cultural studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Also available in electronic format. ISBN 978-1-55458-257-0

1. Art—Political aspects—Canada. 2. Politics in art—Canada. I. Cronin, J. Keri (Jennifer Keri), 1973– II. Robertson, Kirsty, 1976– III. Series: Cultural studies series (Waterloo, Ont.)

N72.P6I43 2011

701'.030971

C2010-905171-8

Electronic format. ISBN 978-1-55458-311-9 (PDF), 978-1-55458-347-8 (EPUB)

1. Art—Political aspects—Canada. 2. Politics in art—Canada. I. Cronin, J. Keri (Jennifer Keri), 1973– II. Robertson, Kirsty, 1976– III. Series: Cultural studies series (Waterloo, Ont. : Online)

N72.P6I43 2011a

701'.030971

C2010-905172-6

© 2011 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Cover design by Blakeley Words+Pictures. Cover image:902 Days and Counting. Photo by Anita Schoepp. Text design by Brenda Prangley. This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post- consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy. Printed in Canada Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material usedin this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements Imagining Resistance: An Introduction KîrSTY ROberTSON àN J. Keri Cronin Refus Global Speaking Pie to Power: Can We Resist the Historic Compromise of Neoliberal Art? Gregory Sholette Canadian Ar tists’ Representation and Copyright John and Yoko’s Media War for Peace Louis Kaplan Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge: A Living Culture Needs a Living Wage Monumental Interventions: Jeff Thomas Seizes Commemorative Space Claudette Lauzon General Idea and AIDS Resistant Performers and Engaged/ing Public(s) Jessica Wyman “The Named and the Unnamed”: Gendering the Canadian Ar t Scene Borders in the City Ayesha Hameed Crisis of Representation: Multiculturalism, Minquon Panchyat, and “The Lands Within Me” Bread and Five-Ring Circuses: Art, Activism, and the Olympic Games in Vancouver and London Kirsten Forkert Aboriginal Representation and the Canadian Ar t World

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95 101

115 121

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Contents

APEC at the Museum of Anthropology: The Politics of Site and the Poetics of Sight Bite RUThB. Phillips Culture Jamming Titanium Motherships of the New Economy: Museums, Neoliberalism, and Resistance Kirsty Robertson Anarchy Behind the Mask/I Am the Other: Solidarity and Struggle inThe Fourth World War David Jefferess Gentrification Toward a Conclusion: A Focus on the Visual Culture of Activism J. Keri Cronin

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

171

193

197

215

219

237

243

251

271

275

List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 Gerry Deiter,All We Are Saying56 Fig. 5.2 Gerry Deiter,The Bed-In—Longshot59 Fig. 5.3 Gerry Deiter,Confrontation61 Fig. 5.4John Lennon and Yoko Ono with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau65 Fig. 5.5John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Crowd67 Fig. 5.6 Allan de Souza and Yong Soon Min,Will **** for Peace68 Fig. 6.1 Carol Condé and Karl Beveridge,Detail from Theatre of Operations76 Fig. 7.1 Jeff Thomas,Indian Man from Nepean Point80 Fig. 7.2 Jeff Thomas,F.B.I.84 Fig. 7.3 Jeff Thomas,Why Do the Indians Always Have to Move?87 Fig. 7.4 Jeff Thomas,My Brave Indian88 Fig. 7.5 Jeff Thomas,Seize the Space90 Fig. 8.1 General Idea,Imagevirus98 Fig. 11.1 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,Remembering and Forgetting125 Fig. 11.2 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,902 Days and Counting128 Fig. 11.3 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,902 Days and Counting129 Fig. 11.4 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,902 Days and Counting130 Fig. 11.5 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,Papers Please!131 Fig. 11.6 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,Papers Please!132 Fig. 11.7 Ayesha Hameed and Anita Schoepp,Papers Please!133 Fig. 13.1 Anti-Poverty Committee,Homes Not Gamessticker 149 Fig. 13.2 Reporters Without Borders,Olympic Handcuffs154 Fig. 13.3 Native Youth Movement Logo 155 Fig. 13.4 Kirsten Forkert, List of corporate sponsors on fence surrounding London 2012 Olympics site157 Fig. 13.5 Kirsten Forkert,Bus used forI love £2.3 billion tour,prior to the start of the tour158 Fig.13.6 Kirsten Forkert,Martin Slavin of Gamesmonitor, dressed as a construction worker on159I love £2.3 billion tour Fig. 13.7 We Are Bad,Poster from We Are Bad160 Fig. 16.1 Sonny Assu,Kwakwaka’wakw Salmon Loops195 Fig. 17.1The Weston family wing and the Michael Lee-Chin building at the Royal Ontario Museum197 Fig. 20.1 Germaine Koh,Overflow239(at Centre A Gallery)

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Acknowledgements

The idea forImàGîNîNG ReSîSTàNcewas first hatched in 2003 at the Universities Art Association of Canada conference at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. As the conference drew to a close, we found ourselves chatting excit- edly about the potential for bringing together scholars who explore the visual in activism. The first manifestation of this idea was a conference panel, called (Image)ining Resistance, at the 2005 Canadian Association of Cultural Studies conference held at the University of Alberta. The two-part panel helped begin many of the dialogues that have informed the current project. Since that cold November day at the UAAC conference in Kingston, this project has undergone many transformations and we have many peo- ple to thank, including above all the scholars who have contributed their work to the book. We would also like to recognize the support we have received over the years from the faculty members we worked with at Queen’s University, in particular Lynda Jessup, Susan Lord, and Clive Robertson. Kirsty would also like to thank Janis Jefferies, Kelly Thompson, and Susan Kelly from Goldsmiths for all the encouragement they offered while she was a post-doctoral fellow there. Thanks are also due to Janine Marchessault, Cate Sandilands, Imre Szeman, and Anne Whitelaw for their continued support, friendship, and mentoring. We would like to acknowledge the support of our colleagues at Brock University and at the University of Western Ontario, especially Catherine Heard, Leah Knight, Patrick Mahon, Margaret de Rosia, Christine Sprengler, Katharine T. von Stackelberg, Linda Steer, and Kelly Wood. Kirsty would also like to thank participants in a graduate seminar at UWO on the economiza- tion of culture for their careful consideration of and lively debates over some of the issues present in this book. Those seminar participants include: Jennifer Orpana, Jamie Quail, Stephanie Radu, Kevin Rodgers, Jonathan Sarma, Josh Schwebel, and Matthew Smith. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge our friends and family, the people who have supported us and made us smile through the duration of this and many other projects: Alex Boutros, Bill & Ruthie Casey, Nikki Cormier, Duncan Cowie, Scott Cronin, Mario deGiglio-Bellemare, Kit Dobson,

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