Golboo Amani Chun Hua Catherine Dong Brendan Fernandes Aryen Hoekstra Manolo Lugo Kika Nicolela Jude Norris Kristina Lee Podesva White

REDRED GREENGREEN

BLUEBLUEGOLBOO AMANI CHUN HUA CATHERINE DONG BRENDAN FERNANDES ARYEN HOEKSTRA MANOLO LUGO KIKA NICOLELA JUDE NORRIS KRISTINA LEE PODESVA WHITE

EDITED BY JOHNSON NGO 3 Previous spread: Chun Hua Catherine Dong, After Olympia, 2011. Installation view.

Aryen Hoekstra, Out of Focus (RGB), 2013. Installation view.

4 10 � BY JOHNSON NGO

17 STOP. STAND. BE STILL. BY BRENDAN FERNANDES

24 RED / READ GREEN / YELLOW BLUE / BLEW BY JOHNSON NGO

41 ENUNCIATIONS BY KRISTINA LEE PODESVA

46 REFRAMING THE QUESTION OF COLOUR: EXHIBITION PRACTICES AND RACE POLITICS BY FRANCISCO-FERNANDO GRANADOS

60 TO COLOUR BETWEEN THE LINES BY EMELIE CHHANGUR

70 BIOGRAPHIES

74 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

7 Brendan Fernandes, Changing to Summer, 2005. Installation view. JOHNSON NGO a 42° Two parallel lines obliquely intersected by another; a road at a railroad crossing. b c Open the door ever so briefly to ensure the coast is clear Proceed along with caution across the tracks d e g f

As a curator, I have set up a scenario, that demonstrates equalities by revealing the an equation, with the exhibition title Red, unknown variables. The opposite angles are Green, Blue ≠ White, making a claim that three equal (angle a = c, angle d = f, and angle g = e); Figure 1 colours do not equal a fourth. This statement, the corresponding angles are equal (angle illustrated by the does-not-equal sign, was a = d, angle c = f, and angle g = b); and the not intended to signify inequalities. Rather, alternate angles are equal (angle b = e and it points to the impossibility of distilling ongoing angle c = d). As a visual motif, this symbol and shifting discussions of race and identity stretches beyond its function as a does-not- down to a simple equation (mathematical, equal sign. The forward-leaning stretch of the logical, or aesthetic). At a more poetic level, transversal metaphorically refers to the exten- rise of the white-supremacist alt-right. It’s Caucasian or white spaces for critical creative the structure of the “≠” sign serves as a device sion of conversations about race, departing been four years now and perhaps this publica- production, and in turn (I hope) shift the ways to open up possibilities to reconsider and chal- from an awareness of (in)equalities to arrive at tion and its launch are aptly timed to further institutions work from the inside out. It was with lenge existing definitions surrounding race and the artistic potential of shifting perspectives. the discourses and discussions around race, this sense of responsibility that I conceived the the politics of identity. Animated by a set of In other words, the transversal embodies a colour, and difference. thematic of the project, designed the exhibi- mathematical equalities, the symbol gestures to relationship to dialogue and time—it marks the In developing this project, I felt a great tion, and shaped relationships with the artists multiple angles—positions highlighted not for territory of the unfixed, the process of defining. responsibility as a “culturally diverse curator,” and organizations I worked with across the their lack or disparity, but for their potential in The exhibition explored that process of defining as described in the title of the grant that gener- Greater Toronto Area. relation to each other. The sign’s own equiva- as performative, happening alongside live ges- ously supported my research and work with the Curatorially, I wanted to disrupt the gallery’s lencies point to the contextual, relational, and tures, interactivity, and thoughtful conversation. Blackwood Gallery. It’s important to note that preconceived notions and existing exhibition spatial dimensions of examining identity in and Discussions of race and identity politics have I prefer this term, rather than “person of colour,” frameworks. Typically the Blackwood Gallery’s through artistic practice. escalated since the conception and run of Red, because it privileges how one actively identifies main space is understood to be a white cube, Throughout this publication, the intersect- Green, Blue ≠ White —within the contempo- instead of how one is perceived by others; the whereas the e|gallery is used as a black box, ing line, called a transversal, is used as a visual rary art world, with controversies of cultural power and agency is with the individual. Struc- better suited for time-based media such as motif. When a transversal intersects two parallel appropriation, as well as in the current political turally, this grant creates space and access video and sound installation. In a one-to-one lines, a series of equalities occur. Figure 1 illus- climate of Brexit, Donald Trump’s presidency, for culturally diverse curators to circumvent exchange, I traded one wall for another, giving trates a mathematical system within geometry the Black Lives Matter movement, and the existing systems of power within predominantly the Blackwood Gallery one black wall and the

12 13 e|gallery one white wall. This subtle gesture of Here is where colour reconciles to white. subversion, using colours that are often seen To allow new points of view and conversations as neutral, controlled the container’s canvas to begin, this is where I’ll end this preface— and allowed the artists’ works to engage with with the only work that does not necessarily the oppressive black box and white cube. deal with the politics of identity or race, but The bulk of the works address specific with colour as relational. Though the work’s identities, power dynamics, and histories relational presence hinges on this play of of colour’s varied connotations, working to colour, it also centres the body as a site for complicate the equation set out as the title many muddied and layered interactions. While and curatorial premise of the exhibition. I have monolithic whiteness remains an indisputable arranged each section of the text that follows force for the control of bodies, RGB≠W looks around these specificities of colour and their for potential in hybridity, in the intersection linguistic and performative extensions. I hope of identities that complicate and resist that the playful poetics of the text can capture whiteness’s domination. some of the liveness animating the show, and do justice to the ongoing conversations and relations between practices that Red, Green, Blue ≠ White generated. Ironically, however, Aryen Hoekstra’s Out of Focus (RGB) (2013) both refutes and confirms the title of the exhibition. Three slide projectors, each devoid of slides, beam light through a coloured filter while continuously auto-focusing. The red, green, and blue beams are positioned to converge into a rectangular field, creating a white “non-image” that represents the absence of colour. Upon further reflection, however, one notices that the three beams result in a field of impure white, a not- quite-white. When a viewer intercepts any one of the projectors’ throws, incidental colours created by the overlap of the two remaining primary colours mark the body of the intercep- tor with coloured silhouettes of yellow, red, green, magenta, etc. In this gesture, the body acts as a kind of prism—when white light meets the body, a multitude of coloured refractions result. Hoekstra playfully constructs a situa- tion in which white light emitted by the slide projectors is converted through coloured filters, only to be overlaid in order to recreate white on a freestanding screen, thus exploring the formal qualities of coloured light and its inverse, the white non-image.

14 17

20 21

READRED

25 RED | READ

printing process of layering four colours Podesva takes a similar approach to Brown (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) to create Study Colour Line in playing with optics and another colour—an other that is an inextri- legibility in Enunciations (2014) [page 41]. cable mix or blend. Perspectives change as The work appropriates a quotation from the viewer nears the work. At first glance, the Jacques Derrida in which he claims that halves of the diptych seem matched in colour, language is one of the last identifiers for but upon closer inspection, one serigraph is exiles and foreigners and yet also provides composed of small distinguishable circles of a sense of home. Podesva translates Derrida’s cyan, yellow, magenta, and black, whereas the writing from the original French—first into Homophones: Read, read (as in the past tense of the verb “to read”— other serigraph is resolutely one brown layer. the International Phonetic Alphabet (breaking As a metaphor for a universal colour, and by the words down into phonetic components) to look at and comprehend the meaning by mentally interpreting the characters or symbols) extension for race, brown blends and blurs and then into mirrored English (flipping the the lines, causing a constant re-focusing. words along a vertical plane). Playing with the Based on their multivalent artistic practices, duality of black and white and the legibility Fernandes and Podesva were invited to think of the text, Podesva critiques the hegemony through their mixed subject positions at the of the English language as it relates to ques- University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), tions of status and access. a campus known for both its architecturally- Fernandes’s artworks employ the performa- ...it would probably be a better world if we that allude to race and the construction integrated natural spaces and its widely diverse tive, whether highlighting variances within didn’t use colour terms at all to designate of identity. student body. In the autumn of 2013, both the body as successive tanning sessions groups of people. Failing that, it might well be To read, as a verb, is active even in the past Fernandes and Podesva joined the Blackwood expose a cultural reading, or directing the better if we used other terms, like pink, and tense, in reference to an object; to be read Gallery as artists-in-residence. [2] Working with viewer to pause for introspection. Similarly, grey olive, to refer to what we now call white gathers meaning and interpretation through UTM students, the artists reflected on their ear- Podesva’s artworks utilize optical illusions to people, partly because they are less loaded, actions between people, such as having read lier bodies of work on display in the exhibition play with perception, spatial awareness, and partly because this would break up the mono- another’s body language and, in turn, drawing and revisited their identities and subjectivities interpretations of colour. In each, questions lithic identity, whiteness. understanding from that reading. Works by through the intricacies of language and transla- around the visibility of race are intimately — Richard Dyer [1] Brendan Fernandes and Kristina Lee Podesva tion. This led to the production of the two artist tied to claims about colour as a determinant, ground the physical spaces of the exhibition projects produced for this publication, found on offering a way to more carefully consider the To understand how white is seen as the norm, with their nuanced approaches to the act of pages 17 and 41. politics of colour through the overlapping we must shift between present and reading the colour brown. Fernandes has looked to his traditional dance spaces of language and translation. past tenses, looking to the prevalence of Fernandes’s Changing to Summer (2005) is and ballet training to create performative whiteness within western European art and an installation consisting of eight photographs gestures on various themes such as political popular culture. In the above quotation, and a single-channel video. The video—a action, celebration, and intimacy. Inspired by film and critical race theorist Richard Dyer single stationary shot—masquerades subtly musical sight-reading—by which a musician expresses frustration at the racial categoriza- as just another photograph in the series. can play the basics of a song by quickly reading tion established by German scientist Johann Using stencils and a tanning bed, Fernandes and interpreting time signatures, keys, notes, Friedrich Blumenbach in the late eighteenth emblazons his torso with paisley textile motifs and rests on sheet music—Fernandes sought to century, according to which people are and then exposes his skin to artificial UV light, create an analogous process for movement. His divided into five so-called “natural varieties” layering tones and shades to make a photo- Stop. Stand. Be Still. (2014) [page 17] commands of red, yellow, brown, black, and white. gram. Thus, his body is read as a marker of a pause within this publication similar to that of Against an understanding of this colourist his cultural history of Kenyan-Indian-Canadian a musical rest. The words of the declarative title history, the exhibition Red, Green, Blue ≠ White backgrounds. undulate against the gradating colour field back- explored colour in its multitude of physical In the serigraph diptych, Brown Study ground, fading in and out of legibility, perform- characteristics, forms, and subtle gestures Colour Line (2011), Podesva employs the CMYK ing movement if only for a fleeting moment.

26 27 YELLOWGREEN

29 GREEN | YELLOW

impressions as they become active partici- Gender roles are further complicated since in pants in the work. Using descriptors such place of the confrontational gaze of the beau- as “coffee,” “licorice hair,” “sunshine face,” tiful young courtesan Olympia, Dong gives us and “carnival,” the viewers colour Nicolela’s a submissive, fragmented, and mature white body in difference as they focus on physical male body whose power is usurped. The licks characteristics that seem remarkable to them. contain the tongue’s capability for linguistic In one circumstance, an attendee expresses and sensual work—subverting the hegemony his synaesthetic [5] reaction, remarking, of the English language—Dong is empowered “You are black yourself but your doppelganger through measured articulation. Is the grass that much greener on the other side? is blue,” reading her body as black and her Slight contrasts in hue and language aura as blue. animate Golboo Amani and Manolo Lugo’s Yes, yes it is. The Finnish locals make assumptions about Covergirl (2012), a three-hour durational her cultural heritage, racializing and othering performance in which the artists conceal Being white is better, easier. her body—all of which remains, due to the each other’s faces with twelve readily available language barrier, unbeknownst to the artist. hues of Covergirl foundation. From “ivory” It is not until the end of the video that the to “normal beige” to “tawny,” each hue is artist’s vulnerable position is acknowledged and ceremoniously wiped from the face using the warm, receptive body language of her open a white handkerchief, which is then displayed While the proverbial grass is generally not initial impulses or reactions overpower arms and infectious smile triumphs over the as a trace or study for further examination greener on the other side, when it comes to interpretation and understanding. This subtle cool colours of the audience’s descriptions in within the gallery space, to explore how simi- race, I posit that it could be: being white is inversion of colour and language highlights this awkward social experiment/performance. lar each hue is to one another and reflect upon easier. Critical race and multicultural educa- the ways in which our perceptual capacities Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s photographic the naming conventions used by Covergirl. tion scholar Robin DiAngelo unpacks how so frequently fail to present the world to us work After Olympia (2011) was produced for The various hues of “white” foundation white people in North America are insulated objectively. the Bernie Miller Lightbox and was publicly are seen as superficial—literally cosmetic—and from race-based stress because they have the In light theory, the additive mixing of red, displayed on the northwest exterior wall of are purged from the faces of the artists. protection of the constructed social environ- green, and blue (RGB) creates pure secondary the heavily trafficked William Davis Building The cloths are evocative. Some are suggestive ment. [3] She quotes social psychologist colours, while in colour theory, the subtractive on UTM’s campus. The photograph depicts of the Shroud of Turin—the cloth that suppos- Michelle Fine to support her claim: “I find mixing of red, yellow, and blue (RYB) results a moment of pause during a three-hour edly reveals the face of Jesus of Nazareth, myself trying to understand the micromoves in duller tones and a smaller range of hues. durational performance in which the artist a holy relic which symbolizes purity and in by which Whiteness accrues privilege and How do the theories we use to structure colour first cleansed the body of her subject, a white turn, whiteness. [6] Hung together on the status within schools; how Whiteness grows affect our reading of it, perhaps favouring male, using rubbing alcohol before she metic- gallery wall, they have a ghost-like quality, surrounded by protective pillows of resources certain forms of misrecognition over other ulously licked his entire body with her tongue. and constitute a performative trace capturing and second chances; how Whiteness—of the forms of interpretation? What are the political Wearing a white lab coat, Dong dominates the the repeating gesture as the handkerchiefs middle-class and elite variety, in particular— implications for reading, or misreading, colour? image as an authoritative medical specialist. accumulate across the wall. Each containing provokes assumptions of and then insurance The misrecognition caused by perceptual The title is a reference to the history of an indexical residue of the artists’ faces, these for being seen as ‘smart.’” [4] and linguistic shifts described above reso- western European art, through French artist material traces are framed within a striking nates with the experience documented by Édouard Manet’s painting Olympia (1863), but visual device, a white rectangular field on Green, yellow. In the title of this section, I try Kika Nicolela in What Do You Think of Me? in the role of servant, Dong casts herself in a black wall that emphasizes the striking to capture how the eye registers colour first, (2009). Situated in Finland, the video records stark contrast to the archetype of the black contrasts between black, white, and the language second. We see one thing but read the points of view of off-camera gallery goers female “Negress” in Manet’s picture, who is colour range of Covergirl foundation. and understand another, as though the eyes as they respond to the eponymous question. subservient to Olympia and presenting her Foundation makeup is professed to enhance are playing a trick on the mind. One’s cogni- Speaking in their native tongue, they describe gifts. In this work, the objectification of the beauty by masking imperfections, but the con- tion is challenged as the brain recognizes the artist, who stands unassumingly in a white female body in society is reversed, offering stant masking and re-masking that takes place colour and language at different intervals, cube gallery space. These responses are first a critical commentary on racial stratification. in this performance muddies the conversation

30 31 around race by painting each face with the Red, Green, same tone, even as Amani identifies with Blue ≠ White. Iranian diasporic communities and Lugo Installation is ethnically mestizo (mixed), linguistically view. Hispanic, Mexican by birth, and Canadian by choice. Their homogenous hues further problematize the visuality of race since the available spectrum tellingly excludes darker complexions. As Homi Bhabha demonstrates in his canonical text, Of Mimicry and Man, the idea of becoming “white” through mimicry reforms a subject as a recognizable Other, a “subject of difference that is almost the same, but not quite.” [7] Here the artists are “reformed” through the gesture of the application of makeup, and who pointedly critique this need for assimilation through the absurdity of its repeated over-application. The artists’ gestures also conflate their subject positions, concealing their individual facial characteristics, mimicking one another, and blurring their genders and individual identities. Misreadings lead to assumptions. In these works in particular, the viewer is implicated as an active participant, directed to consider their own subject position in relation to the subtle allusions to colour and contrast. Racialized bodies are required to navigate such (difficult) situations of contested power relations on a daily basis. These perceptual shifts between recognizing colour and reading through language demand a deeper looking, beyond face value and into further introspection.

32 33 BLEWBLUE

35 BLUE | BLEW

rice represents the absence of colour, the off-site project, Brown Globe extended the ink its contrasting opposite. Dong invites concerns of the exhibition beyond the white viewers to participate in this gesture as a way cube and black box galleries and into public to embrace not just colour but the darkest spaces, disrupting and intervening into the colour, as a performative, political metaphor everyday experiences of non-art audiences for the shifting power relations between across the region. [11] a perceived majority and growing (visible) Composed of brown pigments created by minorities. mixing all colours together, the work furthers In Jude Norris’s single-channel video Podesva’s continuing investigation of brown Homophones: Blue, blew—as in the past tense of the verb “to blow” self-portrait in alterNation between descen- as a metaphor of universality and inclusion. sion & ascension (2010), the artist is caught in This larger-than-life gesture allows us to Purse your lips and blow perpetual motion. Wearing a Plains-style deer imagine the possibility of a utopian, globalized hide dress and regalia, the Sohkatisiw Iskwe- society while at the same time recognizing wasakay or Strong Woman Dress with the futility of attempting to incorporate the its flowing fringe, Norris draws on the stereo- world’s many populations as one. that fleeting moment as your breath ends. typical disjunction between traditional dress This brown is muddy. To be visibly “brown” and the contemporary urban setting of the (or should I say to be visibly darker?) is to Brooklyn Library’s brutalist architecture. be the subject of disadvantage: violence, When it is internalized within the body, breath- Materially, Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s Stepping upwards and downwards on an esca- surveillance, racial profiling, hate crimes, etc. ing is an involuntary action, however the performative installation, Hourglass (2010) lator, Norris is stuck in a mesmerizing limbo Here colour is relational, across a spectrum force or degree with which one must inhale consists of a table set with tweezers, black ink, between two symbolic planes: the freedom of darkness. Imagining future children whose or exhale is something quite deliberate. paintbrushes, and two fourteen-inch bowls— of spiritual movement and the rigidity of ste- heritages embody greater racial and ethnic A purposeful exhale is always preceded by a one full of white rice, and the other empty. The reotypes about Indigenous people. In a subtle variations, it’s optimistic to think that the pause, a single inhalation, before one uses their installation’s instructions invite the viewer to gesture of protest, Norris purposely impedes dominance of monolithic white will be no breath to sigh, to blow, to expel the air from use tweezers to select a single grain of white her own movement on the escalator, becom- longer, and yet I believe that the systemic the lungs. As a symbol of the performative and rice, meticulously paint it black, and place it ing caught in a transitional space between issues of the domination of whiteness could transitory, air and light come to stand in for into an adjacent bowl that will slowly fill up as access and knowledge. The artist negoti- still prevail. that which is fleeting and impermanent. Simi- the exhibition continues. ates her identity as Métis (Cree/Anishinaabe/ As a “culturally diverse” curator, I recognize larly, identities shift and change—perhaps even As black rice accumulates in one dish, Russian/Scottish Gypsy) of the Plains Cree my power and privilege within my own subject becoming unclassifiable by known “standards.” white rice diminishes in the other. The shift in affiliation, and through this treading action on position. It is with this privilege that I felt This instability of subjectivity causes unease, levels that results from the repeated actions the escalator, her head is continually bobbing compelled to weave a complicated narrative but is it dangerous? Are they dangerous? of the gallery goers contributes to the track- above the center of the frame (the horizon) of colour to further the nuanced discussions Artist and writer David Batchelor defines ing of time, and allows for meditation on the as she navigates staked racial territories. of race and identity politics. Diverse voices chromophobia as the fear of corruption symbolism of this gesture. The work becomes Through mechanical means, air is acti- were given space to share their stories, and through colour, which is interpreted as dan- a performative timepiece, an hourglass that vated to animate and sustain Podesva’s vinyl the performativity in the exhibition shifted gerous and alien. [8] However for a painter, is slowed down to an irregular and illogical sculpture Brown Globe (2007). At fifteen feet viewers’ perspectives, moving past superficial the use of colour allows for control of how pace. In fact, during the run of the exhibi- high and twelve feet in diameter, Brown Globe understandings of skin colour, and engaging objects are interpreted in relation to other ele- tion, one student repeatedly returned to the is a playful, inflatable monument in the shape with notions of hybridity and intersectionality. ments within a composition. A “cool” colour, installation to contemplate and add to its of the world, not unlike the world globes To colour, then, outside and beyond the lines of such as blue, is refracted by the eye, causing progression, remarking on the arduous action common in classrooms. It overwhelms the the ≠, blurs the symbol of order and equalities; the lens to flatten, receding the object back and the absurdity of the task. [9] As Dong has viewer through its expandable mass yet its simultaneously problematizing ideas of race into the picture plane. Instead of being dan- commented, “Sand in an hourglass cannot ephemeral nature as inflatable—and deflat- and reclaiming the verb in a positive light—to gerous or alien, colour becomes active—and flow without rotation as power cannot shift able—alludes to the plasticity of identity and imbue with special character or quality. signifies difference. without struggle.” [10] The whiteness of the the rhetoric of globalization. As a mobile, There is power through difference.

36 37 [1] Richard Dyer, White: Essays on Race and installation. There are approximately 333,000 Culture (London: Routledge, 1997), p. 48. grains of rice in the bowl and, on average, “Painters and photographers have often twenty seconds is required to paint each grain rendered white people entirely or in large of rice. Therefore, if two people painted con- part literally white.” tinuously for twenty-four hours a day, it would take 1,000 hours to paint all the rice from white [2] The artist-in-residence program was to black. supported by the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Program for the Arts. [10] Chun Hua Catherine Dong. “Rice Perfor- mance Series—Hourglass.” Chun Hua Catherine [3] Robin DiAngelo, “White Fragility,” Interna- Dong, May 2010. https://chunhuacatherinedong. tional Journal of Critical Pedagogy, vol. 3 no. 3, wordpress.com/2010/05/21/rice-performance- 2011, p. 54. series-hourglass/

[4] Michelle Fine, Lois Weis, Linda Powell Pruitt, [11] Brown Globe was installed in various and April Burns, “Witnessing Whiteness/Gather- locations across the Greater Toronto Area, ing Intelligence,” Off White: Readings including the Isabel Bader Theatre, the Innis on Power, Privilege, and Resistance. 2nd ed. Town Hall, the Richmond Hill Centre for the (New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 245. Performing Arts, and the Blackwood Gallery as part of a co-presentation with the Toronto [5] A synaesthetic condition is a neuropsycho- International Reel Asian Film Festival. logical condition where the subjective sensation of a sense, such as vision, evokes a contrasting sense, or in this case, the ability to read an aura.

[6] Dyer, p. 74. Arrah Evarts claims that white is “pure and untouched,” and thus chastity is derived from whiteness.

[7] Homi Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse,” The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), p. 85–92.

[8] David Batchelor, Chromophobia (London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2000), p. 22–3. Batchelor states that “colour has been the object of prejudice in Western culture,” where there have many attempts “to purge colour from culture, to devalue colour, to diminish its significance, to deny its complexity.”

[9] Dong asked a mathematician to calculate the length of time required to complete her

38 ənənsieʃənz ənənsieʃənz

41 ənənsieʃənz

ðə rutləs, ðə ɪkspɛld, ðə dəpɔrtəd, ðə hu ðoz ɛgzɑjlz, pərsənz,” “dɪsplest fɑrənərz, æbsəlut nomædz, lɒləs, stetləs, nomædz, rutləs, ɪkspɛld, dəpɔrtəd, ɑr læŋgwədʒ, ðə rɛkəgnɑjz tu kəntɪnju ɒfən nɒstældʒəz: tu sajz, əv sɔrsəz tu ʃɛr ɒl əltəmət ðɛr æz təŋ, məðər ðə kɒld ɪz wət ðə ɑn læŋgwədʒ. ðɛr ænd wənz dɛd ðɛr ples... rɛstɪŋ læst ðɛr ivən ænd homlænd, list æt rətərn, tu lajk wʊd ðe hænd, wən “ðə ɒlrɛdi ɪz təŋ “məðər” ðə kɒld ɪz wət ðɛr wɛr plesəz ðə tu pɪlgrəmədʒ, ə ɑn ðæt hɪr seɪŋ ɑr wi ɪf læŋgwədʒ.” əðərz (ðə ples rɛstɪŋ læst ðɛr hæv dɛd bɛrid wət nemli, lænd, netɪv ðə ɪz læŋgwədʒ sɪtʃuets hɪr fæməli əv ples rɛstɪŋ læst dʒuz wɑndərɪŋ ðə ɒl fɑrənərz, ɛgzɑjlz, dəfajnɪŋ fɔr hæbəteʃən ki ðə iθas, ðə ðɛr əv solz ðə ɑn əwe kæri wərld, ðə ɪn fɑðər, rɛlətɪvz, wɛr kəntri ɔr sɪti ðə hom, bɑdi, mɑnstrəs ə ɪvok tu nɑt ɪz ɪt ʃuz, ə ɪn rɛst æt ɑr grændpɛrənts məðər, mawθ huz bɑdi ə bɑdi, ɪmpɑsəbəl æn frəm ɪmobɪləti əv ples ðə ɪz ðæt rɛst ivən ænd əlɒŋ, fit ðə dræg wʊd təŋ ænd ðə ɒl ænd dʒərniz ðə ɒl mɛʒər tu wɪtʃ fit. ðə əndər əbawt dræg ɛgzɑjlz, hænd, əðər ðə ɑn dɪstənsɪŋs). ənənsieʃənz Enunciations

“dɪsplest pərsənz,” ɛgzɑjlz, ðoz hu ɑr ðə læŋgwədʒ, wət ɪz kɒld ðə məðər təŋ, æz often foreigners, absolute nomads, lawless who those exiles, persons,” “Displaced dəpɔrtəd, ɪkspɛld, rutləs, nomædz, ɒl ʃɛr tu ðɛr əltəmət homlænd, ænd ivən ðɛr læst is what language, the recognize to continue all nomads, rootless, expelled, deported, are sɔrsəz əv sajz, tu nɒstældʒəz: ðɛr dɛd wənz rɛstɪŋ ples...wət ɪz kɒld ðə “məðər” təŋ ɪz ultimate their as tongue, mother the called nostalgias: two sighs, of sources two share ænd ðɛr læŋgwədʒ. ɑn ðə wən hænd, ðe ɒlrɛdi “ðə əðərz læŋgwədʒ.” ɪf wi ɑr seɪŋ hɪr place... resting last their even and homeland, the On language. their and ones dead their wʊd lajk tu rətərn, æt list ɑn ə pɪlgrəmədʒ, ðæt læŋgwədʒ ɪz ðə netɪv lænd, nemli, wət already is tongue “mother” the called is What least at return, to like would they hand, one tu ðə plesəz wɛr ðɛr bɛrid dɛd hæv ðɛr læst ɛgzɑjlz, fɑrənərz, ɒl ðə wɑndərɪŋ dʒuz ɪn ðə here saying are we If language.” other’s “the their where places the to pilgrimage, a on rɛstɪŋ ples (ðə læst rɛstɪŋ ples əv fæməli wərld, kæri əwe ɑn ðə solz əv ðɛr ʃuz, ɪt ɪz what namely land, native the is language that (the place resting last their have dead buried hɪr sɪtʃuets ðə iθas, ðə ki hæbəteʃən fɔr nɑt tu ɪvok ə mɑnstrəs bɑdi, æn ɪmpɑsəbəl in Jews wandering the all foreigners, exiles, the situates here family of place resting last dəfajnɪŋ hom, ðə sɪti ɔr kəntri wɛr rɛlətɪvz, bɑdi, ə bɑdi huz mawθ ænd təŋ wʊd dræg their of soles the on away carry world, the home, defining for habitation key the ethos fɑðər, məðər, grændpɛrənts ɑr æt rɛst ɪn ə ðə fit əlɒŋ, ænd ivən dræg əbawt əndər ðə body, monstrous a evoke to not is it shoes, father, relatives, countrywhere or city the rɛst ðæt ɪz ðə ples əv ɪmobɪləti frəm wɪtʃ tu fit. mouth whose body a body, impossible an rest a in rest at are grandparents mother, mɛʒər ɒl ðə dʒərniz ænd ɒl ðə dɪstənsɪŋs). and along, feet the drag would tongue and to which from immobility of place the is that ɑn ðə əðər hænd, ɛgzɑjlz, ðə dəpɔrtəd, ðə feet. the under about drag even - distanc the all and journeys the all measure ɪkspɛld, ðə rutləs, ðə stetləs, lɒləs, nomædz, - deport the exiles, hand, other the On ings. æbsəlut fɑrənərz, ɒfən kəntɪnju tu rɛkəgnɑjz stateless, the rootless, the expelled, the ed, Enunciations

“Displaced persons,” ex- deported, the expelled, the rootless, iles, those who are deported, ex- the stateless, lawless nomads, abso- pelled, rootless, nomads, all share lute foreigners, often continue to rec- two sources of sighs, two nostalgias: ognize the language, what is called their dead ones and their language. the mother tongue, as their ultimate On the one hand, they would like to homeland, and even their last resting return, at least on a pilgrimage, to the place...What is called the “mother” places where their buried dead have tongue is already “the other’s lan- their last resting place (the last rest- guage.” If we are saying here that ing place of family here situates the language is the native land, namely ethos, the key habitation for defining what exiles, foreigners, all the wan- home, the city or countrywhere rela- dering Jews in the world, carry away tives, father, mother, grandparents on the soles of their shoes, it is not to are at rest in a rest that is the place evoke a monstrous body, an impos- of immobility from which to measure sible body, a body whose mouth and all the journeys and all the distanc- tongue would drag the feet along, ings. On the other hand, exiles, the and even drag about under the feet.

The texts included in Enunciations are ex- cerpted from pages 87 & 89 of Jacques Derrida’s Of Hospitality (in a volume published by Stanford University Press in 2000), which appear translated into IPA (mirrored), IPA, English (mirrored), & standard English.

Enunciations Kristina Lee Podesva 2014 REFRAMING THE QUESTION OF COLOUR: EXHIBITION PRACTICES AND RACE POLITICS

FRANCISCO- FERNANDO GRANADOS Red, Green, Blue ≠ White proposes colour as curated by Liz Park [1] as examples worth noting a matter of both form and content, simultane- in relationship to RGB≠W. ously aesthetic and political in dimension. Examining the possibility of expanding Via colour theory, the exhibition extends colour theory into the field of racial politics site-specificity into the realm of racial politics. requires a transformation of ideas regarding The state of contemporary art practice in aesthetic categorization inherited from the Canada requires rethinking site-specificity in European Enlightenment. Theorizing site- order to account for the colonial legacies that specific sculpture in the United States after the still structure the national cultural landscape. Second World War, Rosalind Krauss proposes Such an expanded sense of site-specificity is that, in addition to the task of mapping the fundamental in order to make space for art that structure of these emerging practices, “it is simultaneously rejects two conservative modes also important to explore a deeper set of ques- of operation in relationship to the issue of tions which pertain to something more than colour: strict formalism and simplified identitar- mapping and involve instead the problem of ian sloganeering. The alternative to these two explanation. These address the root cause—the extremes is not a middle ground, but rather conditions of possibility—that brought about Kristina Lee Podesva, Brown Study Colour Line, a critical practice that continuously recalibrates the shift.” [2] Krauss’s reference to a set of 2011. Installation view. the relationship between form and content. “conditions of possibility” alludes to Immanuel The curatorial strategy of RGB≠W, which Kant’s writings on aesthetic judgment. Yet, READING: In seventeenth-century Mexico City, steadily works through the double meaning of the task of reframing the question of colour the Catholic Church had racially segregated colour, is best understood as part of a history to include a racial dimension runs counter to books for registering childbirths. “The Book of of critical, race-conscious exhibition practices lines of thought in Kantian aesthetics. Douglas Spaniards” was reserved for those who claimed in Canada. In this essay, I suggest the touring Burnham’s encyclopaedic reading of Kant sum- to have no Jewish, Arab, Indigenous, or African exhibitions Yellow Peril: Reconsidered (1990), marizes the philosopher’s position, stating that blood; those who could not claim such racial curated by Paul Wong, and Limits of Tolerance: “aesthetic judgment must concern itself only purity were registered in “The Book of Broken Reframing Multicultural State Policy (2007), with form (shape, arrangement, rhythm, etc.), Colour.” [3]

50 51 Golboo Amani and Manolo Lugo, Covergirl, 2012. Courtesy the artists.

READING: Outside the disinterested disciplinary bounds of aesthetic philosophy, the question of colour identifies and arranges bodies as cultural signs.

[…] not sensible content (color, tone, etc.), The legacy of Kant’s form/content divide since the latter has a deep connection to the parallels a history of bias against explicitly politi- agreeable, and thus to interest.” [4] cized conversations about race within the North As a mode of perception, the aesthetic is American art world, particularly when artists of distinct from the rational, which is derived colour have called for equal access to means from concepts rather than the senses. [5] of representation and distribution for their work. The notion of the aesthetic comes from the In the curatorial essay for Paul Wong’s ground- ancient Greek word aesthesis, meaning “sen- breaking exhibition of identity-based Asian- sible knowledge.” [6] Aesthetic judgment is Canadian new media work, Yellow Peril: Recon- Aryen Hoekstra, Out of Focus (RGB), 2013. supposed to be disinterested, “meaning that we sidered, Wong describes this bias as a practice Installation view. take pleasure in something because we judge of exclusion echoed by official immigration it beautiful, rather than judging it beautiful policy. He cites laws like the Chinese Exclusion READING: Since the English word “colourblind” because we find it pleasurable.” [7] Disinterest Act of 1923 as one in a series of “racist obsta- carries an ableist connotation, it could be said separates beauty from physical pleasure and cles” that “prevented earlier generations [of instead that aesthetics is daltónica, the Spanish privileges form before content. What counts as Asian immigrants] from obtaining equal rights word for the eye condition that shifts the beautiful in aesthetic judgment is determined in Canada.” [8] Wong suggests a link between perception of colours. This set of conditions on the basis of its own closed system of defini- the socio-political circumstances structuring is named after John Dalton, an eighteenth tion. The particularity, perhaps the intensity, of the lives of non-white immigrants in this country century English chemist who had the the pleasure drawn from colour is what excludes and the opportunities individuals from these syndrome and published about it. it from being a factor in aesthetic judgment. populations may or may not have to participate

52 53 as producers in the field of contemporary art. funding in Canada, rendering the two In theory, the promise of a multicultural society meanings of the word mutually exclu- has made the right of immigrant and refugee sive. That is, culture as 1. an interest people to become cultural producers universal; in arts, letters, scholarly pursuits, etc. in practice, the question should be retraced in and 2. as the sum total in ways of order to ask: what are the conditions of possibil- living of a group of humans transmit- ity for participation as producers in the cultural ted from one generation to another field? In Canadian art, the question of colour […] Ballet is art, Chinese classical unevenly places artists and other cultural practi- dance is multiculturalism. [11] tioners (particularly but not exclusively those of non-European background) in a double-bind. Cultural diversity is a double bind because According to an episode of the CBC-produced it operates as both a condition of possibility television program Hot Type titled “True Cana- and a boundary for critical engagement with dians: Multiculturalism in Canada Debated,” the racial politics of the Canadian art world. For Canada became the first country in the world to Fung, increased visibility becomes a deterrent declare multiculturalism as official state policy, for the potential of anti-racist organizing. The recognizing three founding cultures: Indig- type of bifurcated public funding that he men- enous, British, and French. [9] First introduced tions still determines who is allowed as part of by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1971 and the national imaginary, but the strategy shifts adopted by parliament in 1988 as the Canadian into segregated assimilation: “Ballet is art, Multiculturalism Act, or Bill C-93, the policy Chinese classical dance is multiculturalism.” aimed to validate the “diverse population” of Although racialized migrant populations are Canada as an “invaluable resource.” [10] Artist, handled differently from one another in relation filmmaker, and theorist Richard Fung articulates to the Canadian state, the divide between what a critical perspective on the issue as a partici- constitutes art and multiculturalism remains pating artist in Yellow Peril: Reconsidered: consistent as a formula for distinction, and the basis for exclusion. This exclusion does not Multiculturalism shifts the focus only affect migrant populations from nations away from the political and social considered non-founding. Even though Yellow questions of race such as housing, Peril focused on diasporic cultural identity as employment, education, access to a connective category between the artists, the power, into a political marketing of writing that accompanied the show acknowl- personal identity. It champions a edged the problematic of race beyond Asian notion of cultural difference in which Canadian communities. Fung notes that, “[f]irst people are encouraged to preserve generation Western European Canadians don’t cultural forms of song and dance seem to have problems accessing power, yet they didn’t practice before they came Native Canadians, although they were here Jude Norris, self-portrait in alterNation between to Canada. Multiculturalism’s func- first, remain at the bottom of the socio-eco- descension & ascension, 2010. Installation view. tion has been to co-opt and eclipse nomic ladder.” [12] A fatal flaw of multicultural- the potential threat in anti-racist ism is its inability to account and transform the READING: Reframing the question of colour organizing. structure of Canada’s colonial relationship to is a necessary step towards the enactment of For this discussion, multicultur- Indigenous populations. a Nation-to-Nation dialogue, within the context alism has most importantly shaped In spite of the problematic nature of of Indigenous decolonization and settler policies in the area of cultural multiculturalism, it is important to acknowledge colonialism.

54 55 that is has also been an enabling structure that Reframing, as suggested by Park’s exhibition [1] Both Wong and Park have strong ties to [11] Fung, “Multiculturalism: Reconsidered.” has created some public means of production title, is a deconstructive strategy that continu- Vancouver’s artistic community. While the and distribution of work by racialized artists ously points to the conditions of possibility exhibitions discussed in this essay address the [12] Ibid. and curators. Identity-based art of the 1980s of a given frame. For Judith Butler, “to call the national Canadian imaginary, as well as the and 1990s made it possible to think of colour frame into question is to show that the frame global phenomenon of multiculturalism, it is [13] Liz Park, Limits of Tolerance. as a structural element that can challenge the never quite contained the scene that it was interesting to note that half of the artists in Red, divide between aesthetics and the politics of meant to limn, that something was already Green, Blue ≠ White have been, at some point in [14] Ibid. race. For curator Liz Park, “it remains crucial to outside, which made the very sense of the their careers, based out of Vancouver. recognize that the artworks and cultural activi- inside possible, recognizable.” [16] The group [15] “Limits Of Tolerance: Re-Framing ties based on identity politics in the late 1980s of Indigenous and racialized artists of immi- [2] Rosalind Krauss, “Sculpture in the Expanded Multicultural State Policy,” 2007. Morris and and early 1990s paved an arena where more grant and refugee backgrounds who made Field,” October 8, Spring 1979, p. 30–44. Helen Belkin Art Gallery, http://www.belkin. artists today feel freer to move away from dis- visible the exclusions of the Canadian cultural ubc.ca/satellite/limits-of-tolerance-re-framing- cussions of identity and recognition of political system called colonial frames into question [3] See Magali M. Carrera, Imagining Identity multicultural-state-policy. and social injustices.” [13] by rejecting the expected role of cultural in New Spain: Race, Lineage, and the Colonial Park’s statement evaluates the impact of informant. Wong and Fung’s writings are Body in Portraiture and Casta Paintings (Austin: [16] Judith Butler, Frames of War: When Is Life multiculturalism in the contemporary Canadian examples of artistic practices that use criti- University of Texas Press, 2012), xvi. Grievable? (London, New York: Verso, 2009), artistic landscape. Her research into cultural cal writing as a means of participation into p. 8–9. practices addressing issues of racial diversity debates in the public sphere. This strategic [4] Douglas Burnham, “Kant’s Aesthetics,” in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s culminated political move broadens identity from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Peer- in the exhibition The Limits of Tolerance: idea of cultural homogeneity into a practice Reviewed Academic Resource, last modified Reframing Multicultural State Policy. [14] She of embodied criticality. June 30, 2005, http://www.iep.utm.edu/ cited the shifting conditions of the post-9/11 Red, Green, Blue ≠ White gives a sense of kantaest world as her impetus for examining these a cultural landscape where racialized artists artistic strategies. [15] The show included works have a broader range of movement to deter- [5] Burnham, “Kant’s Aesthetics.” by Dana Claxton, Stan Douglas, Laiwan, Paul mine the way in which they engage with the Lang and Zachary Longboy, Ahasiw Maskegon- question of colour, a freedom of movement [6] Jean-Luc Nancy, “In Statu Nascendi,” Iskwew, Anne Ramsden, Ruby Truly, Henry between figuration and abstraction. It is impor- The Birth to Presence, translated by Brian Tsang, and Paul Wong. The artists in the exhibi- tant to emphasize that this freedom cannot Holmes et al (Stanford: Stanford University tion come from Indigenous, Asian-Canadian, be taken for granted, that it was hard-won and Press, 1993), p. 213–214. Afro-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian back- must be preserved. Conceiving of colour as grounds. The curatorial re-contextualization of a contemporary dimension in art involves a [7] Burnham, “Kant’s Aesthetics.” recent historical practices from the time period dialogue between abstract processes of aes- of Yellow Peril: Reconsidered expands the scope thetic perception and the sign-laden politics of [8] Paul Wong, “Yellow Peril: Reconsidered,” of identity-based practice by curating across representation. This dialogue is not a choice for Yellow Peril: Reconsidered (Vancouver: not only racial but colonial divides. From a cura- artists for whom colour is a matter of embodi- On Edge, 1991). torial perspective, this cross-cultural approach ment rather than merely a matter of form. And frames identity as a methodology for making yet, the issue is not limited to racialized bodies. [9] “True Canadians: Multiculturalism in Canada art in a political way, expanding on the rhetoric It is a question of contextual awareness that debated,” 2004. CBC Digital Archives, http:// of self-representation that often accompanies folds together artists, institutions, and publics www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/true-canadians- identity-based practices. Rethinking identity as across the cultural spectrum. Reframing the multiculturalism-in-canada-debated. a critical methodology beyond self-representa- question of colour performs an imaginative tion and self-promotion creates the possibility manoeuvre that can create the conditions of [10] Liz Park, Limits of Tolerance: Re-framing of re-focusing on the political and social ques- possibility for aesthetic experiences outside and Multicultural State Policy (Vancouver: tions of race that Fung references in his text. beyond the colonial logics of racial hierarchy. Centre A, 2007), p. 3.

56 57 Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Hourglass, 2010. Installation view. Golboo Amani and Manolo Lugo, Covergirl, 2012. Installation view.

Opposite: Golboo Amani and Manolo Lugo, Covergirl (detail), 2012. TO COLOUR BETWEEN THE LINES

EMELIE CHHANGUR ones. We have Black athletes, certainly. But do their coffee wondering whether it is dark or our money and our enthusiastic cheers equally bold, and most consumers at Starbucks don’t support them? What is the colour of our money, have to. But then again, I’m mixed. Mixed in anyway? [3] Now who’s being bold? colour and in race, that is. Brown, like the Pan Following this logic, it would seem that the American Games and bold, like dark coffee. Pan American Games are brown games! No The reason I feel compelled to analyze these snow falls on them, despite the hemispheric experiences in terms of colour—as outrageous nature of the competition. Yet these particular as it might seem at first—is because Johnson games are played in both winter and summer, Ngo’s exhibition and publication, Red, Green, depending on where in the hemisphere they’re Blue ≠ White, make it imperative. That, and staged and viewed. [4] Toronto hosted the I am a perfect “match” for the task. RGB≠W is Pan / Parapan American Games in the summer a provocation to think about the performativity of 2015, and I was watching. Watching athletes of colour and what it means to colour. Looking and audiences. Reception, of course, is part of through this exhibition to see colour as an active a balanced equation. Audience is the tertiary verb, not just as a description, has coloured my colour that is the result of mixing summer and world-view anew. winter, south and north, in these games. Thus, colour as a verb in the active sense A tertiary colour is made by mixing either one means that colour does things: it heats things I don’t know about your experience, but thinking about colour. I was thinking about think- primary colour with one secondary colour, up or cools things down, rather than pas- whenever I go into Starbucks and ask for a “tall ing about colour, and the language we use to or two secondary colours, in a given colour sively shape-shifting depending on what else bold,” the person taking my order replies back engage in coloured thoughts: a being and think- space: red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue- is around it. Whereas descriptions of colour with “dark?” I don’t usually say much of any- ing of the identity of colour, a becoming colour. green, yellow-green, for example. And whether have long defined us so-called People of thing; I just nod and reply with “yes, sure, dark,” Another case in point: the Winter Olympics we view North and South America as one Colour—either constituting our place in the my eyes fixed on the grinder on the counter experience. Something rather dark dawned on primary and one secondary, or two secondary world (by way of geographical location) or marked “bold.” But one day last year, I decided me while watching the Sochi Winter Olympics colours depends upon, of course, from where what our place in the world constitutes (by way to hang back a bit and see how this bold/dark in 2014—call it colour becoming. There were in the world we are looking. Right? of class and social hierarchy)—to do colour, in thing played out for others. I was shocked! It no athletes of colour performing. [1] The winter I began to wonder why Canada doesn’t seem the sense that Ngo suggests, is to make colour took a while, but as I lingered by the side bar, games are white, I concluded. [2] White, like the to value the Olympic Games as equals, given relational, not relative. Colour(ing) occurs where the milky white lattes and whipped snow and ice on which many of these games are that in Canada we have what constitutes the through interaction, not comparison. cream-laden specialty drinks arrive for con- played, its whiteness both apparent and cam- right mix in our demographic make-up to reign Ngo’s subtle reading of race through the lens sumption, I heard someone ask for a bold ouflaged. Canada fought hard for supremacy in supreme in both. [5] Is it really a colour thing? of visual science in RGB≠W offers a way to look coffee. The person behind the counter simply these particular games, to win as many shades What does it mean to be a multicoloured, at the significance of our own colouring, ques- said “of course.” The thing was, the person who of precious metal that mark rank in the elite excuse me, I mean a multicultural, country tioning whether the meaning of colour is inher- asked for the bold was white. It got me thinking hierarchy of world-class athlete. And throughout that only invests real money in white games? ent or ascribed. By opening up the possibility ... I mean, I’m also four feet ten inches, but the these games we, as Canadians, cheered on. And what exactly is it that we want the games to look more closely at how we are coloured by barista never makes a comment on the “tall” We cheered for the white games because to portray: the shades and hues that consti- our experiences of colour, Ngo puts the onus on part of my coffee order. Canada, as a country, had invested in white ath- tute our composition, or the monochromatic us, the viewers. And in his writing, he too takes So, what exactly does it mean to colour? That letes. We cheered in bars, we cheered in com- undertones that colour position and frame responsibility for how his curatorial undertaking is, to sense colour and ascribe it significance munity centres, we even cheered in mosques. importance, i.e., its white base coat? might colour our assumptions about the works as a relational practice? How is colour seen, If the winter games are white, then—as the Now, I realize that this simple analysis seems on display. and felt, in relation? And what does it say about story of achromatic colour goes—their opposite, pretty extreme. And at least a little oversimpli- Through the exhibition’s design, Ngo the person doing the colour-ing? Or about the summer games, must be black. Canada never fied, naive even; I know that athletes wouldn’t acknowledges that we, the viewers, are entitled things being colour-ed? After pondering these does well in the black games when compared to reduce sport to colour distinctions, or clashes, to our own subject position as interpreters of ideas for a while, I realized that I was no longer the relative successes we achieve in the white and nor should they. Most people don’t drink the artworks by including works that depend

64 65 either on our participation to complete them out how people look at colour. And whether [1] Okay, I saw two. in 1990. The idea was dropped due to a lack or on our physical proximity to make sense of they thought about race when asked about of interest and after Canada and the USA won what we are seeing (i.e., viewing them up close colour by a person of colour. [2] I am not the only one who has come to all eighteen medals. http://www.torontosun. or from a distance). But his display strategies So, for three months, with a little voice this conclusion. In a study conducted by the com/2013/10/01/any-takers-for-the-pan-am- also demonstrate that we emerge as both recorder in hand, I asked everyone I saw, met, University of Toronto and published in the games-winnipeg-anybody?token=96db6964de subjects and objects of colour alongside the or passed by, the following question: “What is academic peer-reviewed journal Public Health, 082e958b1aec7e70a79239 other works in the exhibition. Indeed, “the live- the first thing you think about when I say the researcher and kinesiology and physical ness of colour” that Johnson seeks to enact in word ‘colour’?” When I say the word “colour.” education professor D.W. Lawrence says it like [5] Actually, I am being generous here. the spaces around these performative works Me. Subtly, by announcing myself as the subject it is: 94.9 percent of athletes from Canada, Lawrence’s study sadly—but not surprisingly— belongs to us. We read these works differently of a question regarding colour, I wanted to see USA, Great Britain, and Australia at the Sochi reveals that even the “black” games are still depending on our relationship to them—both whether the answer might shift from aesthetics Olympics were white. And race is not the only white: 81.7 percent of athletes from Canada, physically in the gallery space, through blocking to race, or from science to culture. I was curious thing on his mind: athletes are also coloured USA, Great Britain, and Australia were white the colour in Aryen Hoekstra’s work and chang- to know how language shapes the perception by class. (D.W. Lawrence, “Sociodemographic at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games held ing the colour of Chun Hua Catherine Dong’s, of colour. What is the idea of colour for most profile of an Olympic team,” Public Health 148 in Rio de Janeiro. and also culturally; I read Brendan Fernandes’s people? How do we imagine colour in our (2017): 149–158) colour transformation and Jude Norris’s liminal- minds? Do people really see colour in terms ity not as formal investigations but as cultural of race? Are people of colour more likely to [3] Canada ranked third in the medal count expressions, likely because I’m “coloured” too. see colour differently? at the 2010 Winter Olympics in contrast to The relationship between colour and race, Interestingly, out of hundreds of people thirteenth at the 2012 Summer Olympics. it would seem, depends here on our perspec- I asked, only a handful of individuals answered In September 2013, it was reported that Own tive as well as our proximity to the works with race—and the pattern had nothing to do The Podium officials discussed funnelling more on display. This is of course a basic tenet with the colour of their skin. One young person money into the winter sports instead of summer of colour theory (and reception theory): to said, “colour is the difference between people.” sports as a way of bettering its investment in place the same coloured object on different Whoa. Most people said “hue,” or, simply named terms of increasing Canada’s overall medal coloured backgrounds, for example, changes their favourite colour. A few people started with count. (Terry Davidson, “Canadian Olympic the object’s colour in our minds. This is called their favourite colour and then—as a second- Committee pumping $37M into Own The subjective colour phenomenon, which shows ary thought—mentioned race, although again Podium,” Toronto Sun, 12 December 2013). how colour is relational. It is the spaces that their position on colour was not dependent surround coloured objects (for example, the upon their race. One of the individuals who [4] The National Post says the Pan Am Games nature of paint on the surface, the colour answered “hue” qualified their answer with, “I’m “are a quadrennial multi-sport event, just like of light used to illuminate it, the intensity of white so I guess I have less at stake in relation to the Olympics, but without the glamour, prestige this light, and the chromatic characteristics colour,” but that was then counterbalanced by a and round-the-clock international coverage.” of other surfaces nearby) that give colour its Person of Colour, who answered with “painting.” http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/what-the- meaning, and, I might add, its power. Another individual replied that they would have figuring-out-torontos-plans-for-the-pan-am- Learning from the exhibition, and inhabiting named their favourite colour if I had asked the games the spaces Ngo curatorially opened up for my question in their country. But because we were own participation in, and of, colour, in all its in Canada, their answer was race, believing In terms of prestige, the Toronto Sun remarked nuanced hues, races, aesthetics, and otherwise, that we, as Canadians, complicate things that “the Pan Ams aren’t even bronze medal. I decided to play my own kind of colour compe- are straightforward by, for instance, making the More like 4th place, after Olympics, world tition and test colour theory in a performative colour question also a race question. I didn’t championships, and Ben Johnson commercials” way. To test the knowledge I have gained from bother telling them what I thought about the and queried “who cares about the Pan Am hanging out at Starbucks or watching sports on Olympic Games, or asking whether they had Games? Ever hear of Mar del Plata? Me neither.’” TV or by simply allowing myself to be “coloured” seen Ngo’s show, or whether they prefer a dark According to Wikipedia, there has been only by my personal experiences, I wanted to find or mild coffee at Starbucks. one edition of the Winter Pan American Games,

66 67

Previous spread: Kika Nicolela, What do you think of me? (2009), detail. Courtesy of artist and Vtape.

Kristina Lee Podesva, Brown Globe, 2007. Installation view.

70 71 ARTISTS

Golboo Amani Brendan Fernandes Manolo Lugo Jude Norris Golboo Amani is a multidisciplinary artist best Brendan Fernandes is a Canadian artist of Manolo Lugo is a Mexican-born artist and Jude Norris (aka Tatakwan) is a multi-disciplinary known for her performance and social prac- Kenyan and Indian descent. He completed the educator working in performance, video, Métis (Cree/Anishnawbe/Russian/Scottish tice works. Acknowledging that many of us Independent Study Program of the Whitney photography, and installation. His work speaks Gypsy) artist of Plains Cree cultural affiliation. are marked by long, personal histories and Museum of American Art and earned his MFA to the conditions of migrancy, precarity, and Norris’ work focuses on relationships—to self, prescribed relationships with pedagogy, Amani’s from Western University and his BFA from York queerness in advanced capitalist societies. others, animal world, earth, culture, commu- work often addresses the conditions of knowl- University. He has exhibited widely, including He has performed and exhibited nationally nity, territory, technology, spirit world, time/ edge production that render epistemic violence exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim and internationally in venues including Unpack timelessness and the “Great Mystery” —and the as invisible, insignificant, and benign. Much of Museum (New York), The Studio Museum in Gallery (Toronto), University of Toronto’s Art placement of those relationships in contempo- her work focuses on interventions or alternatives Harlem, Museum of Art and Design (New York), Centre, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City), rary situations. Her work has been screened and to formal sites of pedagogy to include forms, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, National LIVE Biennial of Performance Art (Vancou- exhibited internationally and can be found in contexts, and content normally excluded from Gallery of Canada, MASS MoCA, Andy Warhol ver), and Visualeyez Performance Art Festival the collections of major museums across Turtle institutionalized knowledge production. She Museum (Pittsburgh), Stedelijk Museum (Amster- (Edmonton). He received a BFA from Emily Carr Island. She is a recipient of the Chalmer’s Arts has presented her work nationally and interna- dam), Guangzhou Triennial, and The Getty (Los University and recently completed a Masters Fellowship Award. tionally, including at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Angeles). Fernandes has participated in numer- of Visual Studies at the University of Toronto. Articule (Montreal), Encuentro: Hemispheric ous residency programs and he is currently He works as a Digital Media Technician at the Institute, TRANSMUTED International Festival of artist in residence and faculty in Art Theory and University of Toronto, Scarborough. Performance Art (Mexico City), 221A (Vancou- Practice at Northwestern University. He is repre- ver), and the LIVE Biennial of Performance Art. sented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

Chun Hua Catherine Dong Aryen Hoekstra Kika Nicolela Kristina Lee Podesva Chun Hua Catherine Dong is a Chinese-born Aryen Hoekstra is an artist and writer. Recent Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist and independent Kristina Lee Podesva is an artist and writer artist working with performance art, photog- solo exhibitions in Toronto have been hosted curator whose work includes video, installation, working between art-making, writing, and raphy, and video. She has performed and by YYZ Artist’s Outlet, 8eleven, and Mercer and photography. She has participated in over publishing. Her artwork has appeared in exhibited her works in multiple international Union and other recent exhibition venues 100 solo and collective exhibitions interna- exhibitions at Artspeak (Vancouver), Darling performance art festivals and venues, such as include Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (Toronto), tionally, in institutions including the Museum Foundry (Montreal), Museum of Contemporary Quebec City Biennial, Canadian Museum of Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton) Gallery of Image and Sound (São Paulo), MASP (São Art Denver, No Soul for Sale at the Tate Modern Immigration, The Aine Art Museum, Grace Exhi- 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography Paulo), Museum of Modern Art (Buenos Aires), (London), and Power Plant Contemporary bition Space in Brooklyn, Kaunas Biennial, Rapid (Toronto), Forest City Gallery (London), and KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Art Gallery (Toronto), among other venues. Pulse International Performance Art Festival in Modern Fuel (Kingston). He has contributed Museum Ludwig (Cologne), LOOP Gallery She edited the contemporary art journal Chicago, 7a*11d International Festival of Perfor- writing to YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Susan Hobbs, (Seoul), GL Strand (Copenhagen) and Parc Fillip from 2005 to 2015 and has co-edited mance Art, Place des Arts in Montreal, Dublin COOPER COLE, and Daniel Faria Gallery, and de La Vilette (Paris). In 2010, she had a the publications Tradición versus Modernidad Live Art Festival, and more. She received a BFA his art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art, retrospective of her videos at the Museum (Tradition versus Modernity), Sur: Volume 1, from Emily Carr University Art & Design, a MFA C Magazine, Border Crossings, and Magenta of Modern Art in Salvador, Brazil. 100% Vancouver, and Institutions by Artists: from Concordia University and was the recipient Magazine. Hoekstra is the founder and direc- Volume 1. She is currently working towards of the Franklin Furnace Award for contemporary tor of the independent project space Franz opening the Bruna Press + Archive, where she avant-garde art (New York) in 2014. Kaka in Toronto, Ontario. will be Editor and Publisher.

72 73 WRITERS CURATOR AND EDITOR

Emelie Chhangur Francisco-Fernando Granados Johnson Ngo Emelie Chhangur is an artist and award- Francisco-Fernando Granados is an artist Johnson Ngo is an artist who works in perfor- winning curator and writer. She is known for whose multidisciplinary critical practice spans mance and sculpture. Ngo’s research explores her process-based, participatory curatorial performance, installation, cultural theory, digital connections and disjunctions between his practice and the creation of long-term media, public art, and community-based proj- “gaysian” identity and Western queer culture. collaborative projects performatively staged ects. He has presented work in galleries, muse- Recent exhibitions include Art Gallery of within and outside the gallery context. ums, theatres, artist-run centres and non-tradi- Windsor, Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Spark Con- Chhangur has developed an experimental tional sites since 2005. These venues include temporary Art Space (Syracuse, New York), approach to curatorial writing with an inter- the Art Gallery of Ontario, Mercer Union, Art Toronto Free Gallery, 7a*11d, University of est in how texts perform to create unique Gallery of York University, Vancouver Art Gallery, Toronto Art Centre, and the Mississauga Living interpretative experiences that follows the Darling Foundry (Montreal), Neutral Ground Arts Centre. Ngo recently completed a two- operative principles of the artworks. Over (Regina), Third Space (St. John, New Brunswick) year, curatorial residency at the Blackwood the past decade, she has been committed to Hessel Museum of Art (New York), Defibrillator Gallery. Currently, Ngo works in the Public finding inventive ways to enact activisms from Gallery (Chicago), Voices Breaking Boundaries Programming and Learning department at the within an institutional framework, questioning (Houston) Ex Teresa Arte Actual (Mexico City), Art Gallery of Ontario. the nature and social function of the contem- Kulturhuset (Stockholm), and Theatre Academy porary art gallery through embedded critical- at the University of the Arts (Helsinki). His writ- ity and new methods of gallery “in-reach.” ing has been published in exhibition catalogues, She currently holds the position of Assistant magazines, art journals, online platforms and Director/Curator at the Art Gallery of York books including FUSE, KAPSULA, Canadian University (AGYU), Toronto, and is the founder Theatre Review, and PAJ: A Journal of Perfor- of the AGYU’s residency program. Chhangur mance and Art. He completed a Masters of makes single channel videos, installations, and Visual Studies at the University of Toronto in performances that are shown nationally and 2012, and is currently an Assistant Professor internationally. in the Department of Art at OCAD University.

74 75 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Throughout this multi-year project, I’ve had the Publisher The Blackwood Gallery gratefully acknowl- immense pleasure of working with an amazing Blackwood Gallery edges the support of the Canada Council for group of artists, curators, writers, and mentors. University of Toronto Mississauga the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Thank you to all of the artists in the exhibi- University of Toronto Mississauga. tion—Golboo Amani, Chun Hua Catherine Editor Dong, Brendan Fernandes, Aryen Hoekstra, Johnson Ngo Manolo Lugo, Kika Nicolela, Jude Norris, and Kristina Lee Podesva—and to the contribu- Contributors tors to the publication, Emelie Chhangur and Golboo Amani Francisco-Fernando Granados. Emelie Chhangur an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario I am grateful for the invaluable mentorship Chun Hua Catherine Dong of everyone at the Blackwood Gallery, past Brendan Fernandes and present, throughout this project, including Francisco-Fernando Granados Christof Migone, Juliana Zalucky, Julia Abraham, Aryen Hoekstra Joanna Sheridan, and Christine Shaw. Their Manolo Lugo guidance, generosity, and the productive Kika Nicolela All photographs were taken by Toni conversations we shared shaped the exhibition Jude Norris Hafkenscheid, unless otherwise indicated. and my practice immeasurably. Kristina Lee Podesva All images appear courtesy of the artists, I would like to thank the Canada Council for unless otherwise indicated. the Arts, the Jackman Humanities Institute, Designer the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Drew Lesiuczok Festival, and the Ontario Arts Council. These projects would not have been possible with- Editorial Support out the support of the Canada Council for the Gina Badger Blackwood Gallery Arts Grants to Culturally Diverse Curators for Alison Cooley University of Toronto Mississauga Residencies in the Visual Arts. Sara Rozenberg 3359 Mississauga Road Special thanks to Deirdre Logue, Michelle Jayne Wilkinson Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6 Jacques, Allyson Mitchell, and all my friends 905-828-3789 and family who have supported me throughout Copy Editors blackwoodgallery.ca this journey. Alison Cooley Jayne Wilkinson Gallery Hours —Johnson Ngo Monday–Friday: 12–5pm Staff Wednesday: 12–9pm Christine Shaw, Director/Curator Saturday: 12–3pm Jayne Wilkinson, Assistant Curator Petrina Ng, Exhibition Coordinator The Blackwood Gallery promotes LGBTQ2 Alison Cooley, Curatorial Assistant and positive spaces and experiences and is barrier- Collections Archivist free. The gallery is FREE and open to the public.