Decolonizing,
reactivating, and intervening in the archive – a research-creation practice
In
this visual art seminar, we will examine archival practices in visual and media
art that address the archive as a site of decolonization, of reactivation, of
intervention and of artistic creation. Through research-creation, we will
explore how artists from diverse subject positions and cross cultural contexts
use the archive as a source, concept, or subject to interrogate colonial
histories; to reclaim collective memory; or to create a new archive. How has
historical knowledge been produced, communicated and preserved? Whose stories
have been told, remembered, and accessed? We will contend with the colonial
legacies of institutional archives, master narratives, and the production of
knowledge hierarchies as vectors of ideology, power relations, and claims to
truth. We will investigate how new archival practices are being democratized
through digital platforms and from underrepresented voices. What archival
strategies have artists used to take ownership of their collective memory from
oral cultures, embodied practices, erased histories, and in ways that are
accountable to Indigenous and other non-western ways of knowing? We will
explore how the archive can be a site of political resistance and knowledge
production through a research-creation methodology where we investigate and
make archival based works.
- Teacher: Sarah Shamash