OCAD University Open Research Repository Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences
1992 Decolonizing the imagination: Artists' exchanges Tuer, Dot
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Tuer, Dot (1992) Decolonizing the imagination: Artists' exchanges. C Magazine, 33. pp. 34-41. ISSN 1193-8625 Available at http://openresearch.ocadu.ca/id/eprint/866/
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In December Greg Curnoe of 1987, as I walked of a plane Pst- (198): . . to attend the nmth lntemattonal Fe ti val . Sanish vel of Map of Norh rca (1972) of New Latin Ame n. OHet hthgraph, 61 t 46 cm can C.mema m. H avana, into the sweet, . sticky nig· h t air f C u b a' tropica I ociali m I began . ' an ��I ration of art and revolution that ha led me . . . 1· n many directions. This exploration lived out a ' a enes· of enco nter with arti t and their work, � touched on tion rai ed issue of po tmoderni m and the politic the history, dream and politic of a post-revo lution of location vis a vis art and the context in which it i ary Cuba. It revealed a dynamic culture wher . e past shown.3 oppressions and revo I utionary vi ion intertwi ne. It A reciprocal exhibition wa held in Havana at b rought into harp ocus the challenge of the Cuban Casa de la America (1988) featuring works by Ron context to a wester modernist paradigm that � . sep Benner, Greg Cumoe, Murray Favro, Jamelie Ha an Below arates art from pol1t1cs and artist from ideolo Jos� Bedia and Fem Heland and accompanied by a catalogue Cota Nkunia con su ma,a (1990) Similar to eforts of other Canadian orging cultu:i Acrylic on canvas . with a text by Christopher Dewdney.4 Introducing 204 x 270 cm lmks with revolutionary Cuba, I was engaged with an Cuban to arti t ba ed in London, Ontario, the piece in the exhibition ranged in theme from the me age of political re i tance embedded in Jamelie Ha an' ceramic replicas of cultural artiact (Common 0c.ANO Knowledge, 1981/82) and Murray Favro' recycled ob (Bicycle, 1988) P-If/CO ject of everyday lie to the geographic pecificity of Ron Benner' photo-in tallation of a puma caged by the rocks of Lake Erie (Place of the Puma, 1982/85) and Fem Heland's photo-installation of tourists caged by Niagara Fall (Tourists at Niagara Falls, 1988). To adverti e the exhibiti n, Greg Curnoe designed a poster based on hi Map of North America I articulation both of cultural diference and cultural olidarity. In o doing, I ought to reach acros the (1972), an artwork that redraw the political bound barricade of north- outh tensions and ea t-west an arie of the America by eliminating the United States I tagoni m - to reach towards the construction of a and joining Mexico to Canada. Pia tered on wall cro -cultural dialogue. aero Havana, the poster of a North America sans In particular, the activities of cwo Canadian - America erased the reference point of dominant ide London, Ontario artist Ron Benner and Toronto pro ology with one bold stroke and simultaneously in grammer/writer David Mclnto h - intersected with voked the complexity of conceiving a cross-cultural and enriched my endeavour. David Mcintosh, as the dialogue. Projecting the ideali tic map that Curnoe co-curator of a series of independently produced video ha drawn onto a landscape of regional and global and film by young Cubans, "Chr nicles of my Family" politics, however, I quickly di covered how dificult it (1991), provided an verview of Cuban work addre - i to engage the complexity that Curnoe has po ed. ing theme of identity and community, self-repre en For in eeking to reframe arti tic practice as specific tation and nation. eeking to "e cablish a dialogue to their own histories and contigencie , one moves between what is specific and that which unite u de rom a world of imaginary mapping to a territory where pite nationalicy,"2 Mcintosh empha ized the impor the centre exerts an overwhelming magnetic pull. tance not only of learning about each other, but from A the first sociali t revolution to unfold in the each other. Ron Benner, together with London artist Americas, Cuba' rupture with we tern capitalism in Jamelie Hassan, organized gallery exhibition in 1959 had serious repercu ion for the traditional pe Toronto 199 that intro riphery/centre paradigm and or the cultural hege Page� and London in 1988 and 0 Jose eedl• duced Canadians to a new generation of Cuban art mony of the United States in the region. Privileging litcn e o (191) Aryhc n ca1 i b m at . Providing the art a a tool of ocial reflection and ocial change, 212 x 12ocn the time of the revolution opp rtunity for Con uelo Ca taneda Castellanos, post-revolutionary Cuba directly challenged mod Rog lio Lopez Marin and Humberto Ca tro in 1988 erni t value that permeated an understanding of cul and Jo e Bedia and Maria Magdalena Campos Pon in ture in we tern ociety. The operative eparation of 1990 t travel to Canada with their work, the exhibi- individual creativity rom collective ideology, high art
SPRING I 992 c 36 37 C 1992 SPRING
Of all the arti ts wh e work wa exhi bited in of memorie of re i tance at the same time Erie at Port tanley to ee the northen view of Cuba' anada, Jo e Bedia articulated m t ere cendo cogently a co . .1 cern n. t th e Political pace for the aff1rmat n of cu I tura I andy beaches. Placing documentation of the cultural in hi work to map a critical dial gue b cha . . . ' etween a nee throughout the Third World 1 being ra d1- ge graphie of plant and architecture between the ultural context . eeking to undermine dinere . . the cola. ini hed. The uba of the 19 Os, m which ph cograph on the gallery wall and drawing the out· nizer' imagination, Bedia' inve ca JI Y dim · tigati n of Afro. d · I uban and work uch a Jo e Bedia's emerge , conc111ues 111 t 1e line of ocean and p litical b undarie n the gallery native American traditions ha I cl hi we t· m to 90s to proclaim it defiance of t h e capita· 1· I t l fl r, Benner proceeds to challenge the conceptual a o cupy a frontier b tween n n-we ten and I 9 we ten · f the 1990 . But wi th Lenin 's statues topp1· mg well as perceptual boundarie that divide peoples and values, to attempt a synthe Fdt . . .. i between "primitive" and "mo lern" arti tic acro Ea tern Europe· the v1et Union 111 d1 olu-. culture . practices. Wheth r drawing ' . Ron Benner from his experi nee [ion and developing nation abandoning economic Di locating and relocating the viewer within a s te Cw F/, ( 194-91) a a ldier in Angola t constr As The Crow Flies lnstaltaoon uct 1 r World Bank handout , truggles for pri m of geographical landmark , in tallation that imultane nan· on a1· m � u ly expre olidarity econ Omic and cultural elf-determination at the pe suggest chat the remapping f a centre/periphery riphery confront the increa ing domination of a U. paradigm i not as imple as Cumoe's elimination of engineered New World order. Never �a the need for the United rate a a territorial reality, but neither is the con cructi n of a cro -cultural dialogue eemed it an imp ssible dream. For as As the Crow Flies ug O urgent or more vershadowed by a centre/periphery ge t , the di ranees between uba and Canada and imperiali m. among indigenous cultures of resistance are not as , For me, in chi context, R n Benner s recently va t as the colonizer have imagined. completed in callati n As The Crow Flies ( 1984-91) ofer a c mplement to Bedia's call or cultural li Dot Ter is a Toronw-bsed riter who s ritten ex dariry and my own explorati n of the e issues. even tensively on film, video and the visual arcs. She hs a par years in the making, thi mixed media photographic ticular interest in the development of artists' institutions in tallation encompa e documentation of voyages and politics in Canada and in Latin America. She teaches cri -crossing the Americas and spawned, among at the Ontario College of Arc. other thing , the Cuban-Canadian cultural exchange Photographing north and south views of specific The author would like ro thank Alberro Gomez for his input during the points along the latitudes of 81.14 and 79.23, Benner writing of this article. link the eemingly di connected ge graphie of Port
NOTES I• J.JC M.ini, ourAme,i· w;1ith1Rson Ulff11 America and tbeStruglefor Culxm Inendence( 'cw York: M nthly Review Prss. 1977). p.4
M 2. A awloguc for "Chonicles f My F:1mily wa.; published in Aug. 191
by the Euclid 111"..llc.Toonto in Spani.;h and English I 3. Ex.hibiLions were held at Gallery 76, Toronto: For..'>t City Galley and
Cultu r.:tl EmlxL_Y Houe, London, Ontario
. atalogue for the exhibition (Nov. 17 - CX-c. 2 , 18),. .is pul lishcl in I Spani.-.h by 1he Galeria Latinoamcri .1, ·1st de :1s Aeri .1-., 1 lav-•.ana s. Jean Fmnc.u refers to Spl ak'� critlqu · of Minfonn:uion:11 n:triev:.11" rnccha approved formal trategie to undennine the cultural with Arican lieration movements and a de ire to tran· nisms in the irurcluc1ion to her book P/01tf11g W'onwu. Geuder ,,,,d hegemony f Ameri an ontent and ideology. Piece end the inhumanity f war or visiting the shaman of Rep,c.entarto11 111 J\Jexfco ( 'cw York: lumbi::1 . Press, 1989), p.xi;
uch a Jo e Bedia' mixed-m dia in tallati n f ph - ::iy:itri d,::,kr.worty L pi .,k's e.:ssay� :1n I: found in rwo collections: /11 Profile of a People (Homage an American Indian re erv in uth Oak ta in order tographs and artifact , ioux lr \7oll.s: ays In C1tl111r1/ JtJ/ltls (Ne, York, Routl..clge, 187) nnd arch American Indians) to further under rand the ignificance f the co (19 6) and on uelo santer(a es, ed. Sarah l-far::Lf11 11X! JJ-Clonal Oitlc ( 'ew ork: RoutleclAC, 10) Triangle for Indian figure in uban reli i u practic a taieda a tellan ' painting, the Bedia' o cupation of chi frontier i both a p litical 6. 1�or �1 ck."lailed ::t.Unt of the t.�11clal .'t! :1urk.! Halein, 1ltue and Giaconda (19 4), which inc rp rate vi ual fragmen Re\ lution.M in ed. o:ald R.:1cb.h. 71! New 11ba· Pc11ru.l.S and te111ias and conceptual act of cultural olidaricy. Hi drawings Ron Benner ( ew York: � illiam Morrow & Co., 1976) and eymour Menton. Prose tation and a mixture of R nai ance icon and I cal s te Crw ls (1 984�91) - in cription f re i ranee to a cultural imperialism lnstallatl etail memorabilia, relected a tratcgy of hybridization that Plctlo11 ftbeCuln H,,J1111fo11(Au._in: . ofTs Ps, 1975), pp.J 549 that extend back in time fi e hun Ired year - delin· 7. For a complelc list of polici., .'C vlenton. pp. 149-5 1 embrace p pular culture and indigenou ymbol a eate the difference between a universalizing colonial· well a local uban hi t ry and olidarity with tru - tanley, Ontario; Cape able, Florida; Bay of Pigs, 8. Hobeno Fem5.n