Recent Migration Library readings:
April 14, 2016, Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI) kitchen – excerpts from these texts were read collectively,
- Leanne Simpson (2011), Chapter 4 – Nimtoowaad Mikinaag Gijiying Bakonaan (Dancing on our Turtle’s Back): Aandisokaanan adn Resurgence, Dancing on our Turtle’s Back, ARP Books, pages 65-68.
- Francis Haines (1938), “The Northward Spread of Horses Among the Plains Indians” in American Anthropologist.
The discussions centred around how indigenous resurgence is produced through story, pow-wow flash mobs, publishing, horse trading, academia, and occupation. We discussed the way the Idle No More movement was occupying the offices of Indigenous & Northern Affairs, along with Black Lives Matter, in Toronto and other cities. They are demanding that the Canadian Government and the Canadian public respond to the dire living conditions in Attawapiskat First Nation.
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April 20, 2016 for SFAI’s event Access Denied: Creative Responses to Borders, this text was circulated as a ‘zine for the audience. The ‘zine includes a link to the author delivering the text aloud in a lecture, and features my (re-)drawing of his illustrations that I sourced in a printed version. Use the pdf to view the zine.
- W.J.T. Mitchell (2010), “Migration, Law, and the Image: Beyond the Veil of Ignorance,” in The Migrant’s Time: Rethinking Art History and Diaspora, Saloni Mathur, editor, Clark Studies in the Visual Arts Series. New Haven: Yale U Press. 61-77.
- Lois Klassen (2016), Migration, Law & Image. PDF – Download MIGRATION_LAW_IMAGE_w
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Today, April 21, 2016 under the blossoming trees in the grounds outside SFAI, we read excerpts from,
- Nancy Princenthal (2015), Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art, Thames & Hudson.
- Rudolfo Anaya (1972, 1994), Bless Me, Ultima, TQS Publications.
This reading group took up specific narratives set in New Mexico in the middle of the 20th century. Princenthal’s new biography of Agnes Martin raises questions about how to place of personal and social histories of an artist who valued and carefully guarded her own privacy. In sharp contrast, Anaya’s Chicano coming of age story is full of embellished detail that form spell-binding tales that are perfect for sharing –on a lazy afternoon, lying on a picnic blanket in the dappled shade.