CiCAC

Contemplating Maraya

2012-01-17T01:18:00.015-08:00

I’m thinking about a few things, all fittingly reflective, as I ponder the Maraya project. First, I want to keep front and centre Rita’s reminder to consider the absences all too often made invisible by a material present – when we look at a landscape, urban or architectural, how do we keep in sight what is no longer or differently ‘there’? Second, I want to remain mindful of Glen’s warning about the dangers of simply recirculating images that conform to what he calls a ‘knee-jerk’ criticality that sanctifies the position of the artist-as-social-critic. Both these positions are integral to an understanding of what the Maraya project is, and also to the portals it can open for us. The position of the artist/creator as a social conscience is one that haunts us, even as we recognize the value of a gaze that is (apparently) without economical or political investment. Of course, this is rarely the case, as within any socio-political ideology, we stake claims, stick by them, or move through choppy waters as these positions change (or change us). But the artist-as-voyeur, objective observer, presents a journalistic fallacy, and worse, suggests the possibility of a disinterested notetaker who records and then spells back the simple truths of this act. It seems inescapable that we are, to considerable extent, our own stories, if not the centrepieces then significant waystations along the narrative.

What I am trying to point to here is that Maraya – let’s call it the activity of the project rather than the creative process as the former does not ascribe any intentionality, which is important in this case – can work on multiple levels. Just, as Rita points to, it can record an absence almost palimpsestically by recording the ‘newness’ afforded by a space-once-something-else. In such a case, this activity does not necessarily exceed the documentary, attempting to encapsulate a moment in history through image-making. It is left to the critical viewer to understand – to add to – the project by seeing downward-focussed photographs as a sign of progress, inhabitation, degradation, capitalism gone wild, etcetera. But the relative lack of agency imposed by the documentary style can also do something else – like the journalist who insists on recording the present moment without implicating the journalistic gaze, replete with binary perspectives and value-laden ideologies, the ‘straight up’ photograph can also lend itself to and blend itself into an existing status quo.

In circuitous fashion, this brings us to an old thorn, the notion of the social responsibility of the cultural producer. That is where Maraya becomes so interesting. Does the project present a tableau and gaze upon it with marvel? Clearly not. But nor does it emulate One Ride with Yankee Papa 13, an undeniable surface of inquisition and evident criticality.

Certainly we have shifted from the almost pornographic photojournalist revelation of the Vietnam war to a space and time that is ultimately more complicated, infused with exponentially greater amounts of information, and nuanced by such radically different and competing forces that even trying to understand the idea about a place is a challenging political act. Perhaps there is where we must begin to engage with what Maraya suggests to us. Far from Tolstoy, what we are presented with are the disturbing and yet enticing possibilities that the familial is not easily blocked off into categories of satisfaction and difference, but rather is a stack of undulating options that progress and recede from our line of sight in patterns, insisting that we explore the absences and presences that we already envision, and those we do not yet see.

Entry written for the Centre-A blog site for the Maraya Project

Reconciliation Summer Institute

2012-01-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

In the latter planning stages for a summer institute on Reconciliation to be held at TRU in July of 2012. Still working out the general issues, but the idea will be to have a two-week intensive face-to-face with a cohort of students enrolled in three undergraduate courses (upper levels in Philosophy, Anthropology, Communication) either for credit or a non-credit certificate. This will be a dynamic pedagogical experiment with a series of guest faculty in live and virtual formats and an interactive base for students to engage with the issues of reconciliation in multiple contexts. We hope to enrol 20 students (for a total of 60 seats) and foster future developments in the field, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Janvier, Week One

2011-10-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

Extremely successful and productive week one for Alex Janvier's artist residency at TRU. He has stapled severak canvasses to gallery walls and has begun work on three of them, pictured above. Every day, every hour, the studio/gallery changes as this amazing artist adds brushstrokes and intensity. Volunteers have dropped in to help him gesso the canvasses and take him out to lunch or just plain chat, and the work grows within that spirit. Only five days into the residency, and the gallery has already taken on a whole new aura.

Today, Alex went to collect lava rocks for a sweat lodge back in Cold Lake, but will be back at work in the studio tomorrow.

And yesterday, the Edmonton Journal ran a substantial two-page spread on Alex Janvier and his work, focussing on the construction of his new gallery in Cold Lake, designed by Douglas Cardinal.

To see how work has progressed in the first week, take a look at this video walkthrough of Alex's studio/gallery here at TRU.

Art+Reconciliation

2011-10-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

As part of an ongoing discussion regarding art+reconciliation, a number of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists, writers, curators, and researchers are gathering this week in Kamloops to investigate possibilities. Those attending include Jonathan Dewar, Peter Morin, Tania Willard, Richard Wagamese, Sophie McCall, Dave Gaertner, Ashok Mathur, Kevin Loring, Jaime Black, Jaimie Isaac, Alex Janvier, Gabe Archie, Gabe Hill, and a few others who will participate in various ways. This is functioning more as a think-tank than as a rehearsed public presentation, so the agenda is unfixed, other than to explore ways of looking at the intersections of the notions of art and reconciliation in their myriad identities. As part of this project, however, and in sync with the connectivity of art and research, there are several creative projects at play during the same time: Alex Janvier, renowned for his painting and founding member of the Aboriginal Group of Seven, will be converting the Thompson Rivers University art gallery into a studio for the next three weeks; Jaime Black is producing the site-specific REDdress project that acknowledges the 600 missing and murdered Aboriginal women; and curator Jaimie Isaac in conjunction with artist Leah Decter is hosting a two-day interactive work (at TRU and the Kamloops Art Gallery) "official denial" which uses Hudson's Bay blankets and the suturing/stitching of words to address a lack of awareness of colonization in Canada.

During this time, our collected group will be thinking through future possibilities for exhibition, publication, and activity/activism to both complicate and articulate the difficult intersections proposed. The ongoing thoughts and reflections will be posted and compiled as we determine the most useful ways to proceed.

Alex Janvier, artist in residence

2011-10-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

Alex Janvier, one of the most renowned painters in contemporary Canadian art, officially started his three-week residency at Thompson Rivers University today. Hosted by CiCAC, Janvier will be converting the TRU Art Gallery in Old Main into a visiting studio. The video above shows Janvier working beside research assistant Gabe Archie in preparing the site for his painting activity. The white walls of the gallery will soon be converted into an amazing array of colour, thanks to this senior artist and one of the founding members of the Aboriginal Group of Seven. Check back to see the transformations as they occur. Janvier was welcomed to the space by visual arts students and the Dean of Arts, Michael Mehta (welcoming address), and will be participating in numerous activities over the course of the next three weeks. Here is more information on Alex Janvier's painting and history as an artist.

Inversions: Hyung Min Yoon's "Heaven and Earth" installation

2011-09-12T10:27:00.006-07:00

Photo by Chris Jones

Optically, philosophically, aesthetically, we are drawn to the questions and confusions of reflection. It quite literally turns our worlds upside-down and inside-out, and in so doing, captivates our imagination. In "Heaven and Earth," inter- and multi-disciplinary artist Hyung-Min Yoon’s has designed a critically engaging and site-specific installation, currently floating in a pond at the Sun Yat Sen garden in Vancouver. Constructed of three-dimensional words form-cut from styrofoam, the installation floats on the surface of the water but also casts reflections on the viewers' perceptions, enticing as well as discombobulating. At first, the blocky letters look out of place, appearing to free-float but continuously jerked back into place by underwater tethers, and we have to perform some mental acrobatics to re-view the mirrored and inverted words. Four of them: a definite article, a pair of nouns, and a verb, encouraging interchangeability as would a child's set of wooden blocks. Is it "the earth reflects heavens" or "the heavens reflects earth" or something more disjunctive? Perhaps the article can come at the end or the middle, the verb at the beginning or end. But this perception only once the mind as been able to turn the blocks around so they make sense to our cognitive capacities. And only then does our gaze drift down to the subtle, always-there but somehow unseen reflection of those same words, displayed perfectly in the reflective surface of the pond.

Yoon draws inspiration for this piece from a Taoist adage from the 6th century B.C., a simple question of what begets what, and yet her re- and displacement of this poetic and philosophical concept is what so intrigues. Amidst the gardens, themselves a simulacrum of untouched nature but in actual fact a highly constructed re-creation, this installation carries with it both a zen peacefulness and a radical contemplation of contemporaneous culture. Just as the stone structures that grace the gardens are artifice, so too the styrofoam blocks are less and more than they seem. Undoubtedly, they reflect the tranquil nature of the pond, but they are the product of a highly industrialized process and product derived from the mixture of raw ethylene, benzene, and aluminum chloride in a highly-controlled laboratory environment. Indeed, the generic product we know now as styrofoam was first produced by Dow Chemicals around the time as WWII, feeding into and from a growing militarized and resource-driven economy. So, like many forms of illusion that surround us in new and old media, Yoon's contemplative and harmonious installation also reflects a much deeper and insidious history, much more than that which floats on the surface.

Nonetheless, the beauty of this work is profound and affective, particularly as a full moon rises above the horizon and complements the artificial pools of light thrown and diffused from corner spots. Over the course of the evening, the natural daylight casting a certain type and quality of reflection gives way to a deeper, richer, and more poignant quality of light that allows viewers to see the reflection in transition, as it were. Seen as single objects or grouped together as a four-word sentence or phrase, the inverted text changes shape and form, and in so doing, causes us to reflect on the nature of our own reflections, cultures, and communities.

Yoon's work possesses that ineffable quality of layered mulitiplicity, not so much meaning different things to different people as it allows for a transient understanding of the surrounding world through our cognition of words. Indeed, in earlier works, Yoon has played with this sensibility, as with her 2009 website "Reverser," which interactively runs backwards any text entered into the site, or her 2008 "Backwards Metamorphosis," that runs the entire text of Kafka's renowned text from finish to start along a wall and as a book project. But as those earlier pieces touched on the linearity of text, "Heaven and Earth" further addresses the tactility and nuanced texture of language, creating a frame and forum well worth consideration.

Heaven and Earth is installed at the Sun Yat Sen garden pond (578 Carrall St, Vancouver) from Sept 2-25, 2011

Hyung-Min Yoon was born in Seoul, Korea and studied Fine Art at Korean National University of Arts in Seoul (BFA) and Chelsea College of Art in London (MFA). Yoon's works have been shown internationally in exhibitions such as à ses parents – Variations autour de Le Corbusier (Switzerland, 2006) and The truth of Contradictions and exceptions (South Korea, 2009). She has recently participated in art residency program at The Banff Centre in Canada (2009) and at The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (SÍM) in Iceland (2009).

A different form of construction and architecture

2011-08-03T14:15:00.001-07:00

Unsteady iphone video and an attempt to gaze through and over a Mungo Martin totem pole outside the Maritime Museum in Vancouver. Sea to sky.

Vancouver Powaqqatsi

2011-08-03T14:09:00.003-07:00

Always overwhelmed when I see the foundations laid, the amount of displacement and labour involved. This, a new construction site along 7th avenue in Vancouver, a hole dug to contain a concrete structure in the not too distant future.

playing with barcodes

2011-07-28T15:32:00.003-07:00

Summer beaming down and lots of paperwork to catch up on, easier to engage in new activities that don't have a history or a responsibility attached. To that useful end, have been playing around with generating barcodes for various sites. The ways tech allow us to use less words to give out more info, or something like that. Attached, two attractive images of barcodes that represent this blog (howzat for meta-circles) and the little distillery website and installation.

A response to Len Findlay's blog on Indigenous Humanities

2011-07-06T13:14:00.002-07:00

The following is in response to a blog posting entitled “Soft Sovereignties and Strokes of Genius: Situating the Indigenous Humanities within Canada” by Len Findlay (UofSask). In it he looks at numerous elements that both inhibit progressive action, and strategic formations to resist and change....

Thank you, Len, ascerbic and adroit as always. Your formulations of strategy are both straight-forward and entirely radical in their simplicity -- if those of us inhabiting academic posts could mix and match these in our daily interactions (or if we could even intertwine any two!), we could start the difficult yet important task of unravelling the cords of colonialism that currently bind our system.

Recently, I've been following the machinations of a process in Vancouver called the Dialogues Project, its intent apparently to bring Aboriginal and new/immigrant communities together to create some form of understanding. On the surface, and, I have no doubt, within the particular working groups, this is doing that task admirably, but it also reminds me of how those of us engaged in serious anti-racist activism in past decades were so mindfully wary of the term 'dialogue.' On whose terms was this writ, we would ask, and to what ends (and whose gains)? Dialogue seemed to be the desired start point for those who exercised considerable privilege, not totally unlike oppressive regimes proffering apology and then demanding said apology be duly accepted (sounds familiar, i know). Don't get me wrong: I'm not against dialogue, unless you think of how any of us must necessarily be 'against,' as in pressed-up-beside-and-forced-to-look-at-critically any 'thing' that is placed forward as either a panacea or an instant step in the right direction. Rather, I want to take that aforementioned criticality into the dialogues or apologies or otherwise positively-constructed actions and ask the difficult questions that can only come from, well, from the featured strategic formations you mention in your conclusion. It's a difficult path to follow, certainly not the one of least resistance, but to change our worlds, it's a must-follow path. Thanks for the words, the analysis, and the commitment.

Shirley Bear, Order of Canada

2011-07-01T20:11:00.003-07:00

Announced today, Shirley Bear is one of 50 new recipients of the Order of Canada. Her educational, artistic, and activist work has been instrumental in progressive arts circles in the country, so this is well-deserved and a long time coming.

Here's the cbc story on her award. And more info republished below.

Shirley Bear is an artist, writer and First Nation elder. Born on the Tobique First Nation, she has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout Canada, the United States and in Europe.

She has curated numerous exhibitions related to First Nations issues and was the recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award from the New Brunswick Arts Board in 2002.

While living in British Columbia for 10 years, she served as cultural advisor to the British Columbia Institute of Technology, First Nations education advisor at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design and resident elder for First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia.

___________
Bio: Shirley Bear is a multimedia artist, writer, traditional First Nation herbalist and Elder. Born on the Tobique First Nation, she is an original member of the Wabnaki language group of New Brunswick. As an artist, poet, and activist, she has played a crucial role in First Nation women’s creative and cultural communities. In 1989, she curated Changers: A Spiritual Renaissance, a national show of work by Aboriginal women artists, which toured all major galleries across Canada. The 2002 recipient of the New Brunswick Arts Board’s Excellence in the Arts Award, Bear studied art in New Brunswick, New Hampshire, Boston, and Vancouver. She has worked extensively as a lecturer, performer, activist and curator including serving as Cultural Advisor to the British Columbia Institute of Technology, First Nations Education Advisor at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, and Resident Elder for First Nations House of Learning at UBC. Bear has exhibited internationally and her work has been purchased by collections across Canada including the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Arts Centre, the New Brunswick Art Bank and First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia. Bear’s writing has been included in several anthologies including Kelusultiek published by Mount St. Vincent University and The Colour of Resistance from Sister Vision Press, as well as the catalogues for the exhibits Kospenay and Changers—A Spiritual Renaissance. She has been profiled for film and television, by CBC, the National Film Board and independent producers in such films as Minqwon Minqwon and Kwa’Nu’Te by Cathy Martin, Keepers of the Fire by Christine Welsh and The Sacred Feminine. She has published a book of poetry, Virgin Bones (McGilligan Books, 2006).
_________

The Order of Canada, one of the country's highest civilian honours, was established in Canada's centennial year of 1967 to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation.

In the last 40 years, more than 5,000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the order.

Toronto launch of Cultivating Canada

2011-05-26T07:07:00.005-07:00

Tonight, launch of Cultivating Canada in Toronto. Event starts at 7 pm at the Lambert Room, OCAD University. with editors and contributors speaking a little bit later on. We'll begin with an official opening by Duke Redbird and then go into intros from co-editors including Executive Director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Mike DeGagné, and AHF Research Director, Jonathan Dewar. I'll say a few words by way of contextualizing the volume, and then contributors will say a few words-- hoping to hear from Ravi de Costa, Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Srimoyee Mitra, Meera Singh, and others. The event will close with a few words from OCAD President Sara Diamond. Be sure to come by and pick up a complimentary copy of the book or order it from ahf.ca.

From Hiphop to Haydn

2011-05-22T09:26:00.003-07:00

Easy flow from Swisslizz at cicac to the VSO at the Chan Centre, moving through musical modes. A short youtube clip from the concert, shot from the choral loft behind the stage.

Swisslizz, recorded at CiCAC

2011-05-21T18:09:00.004-07:00

Check this out, Swizzlizz's new work, Stop the party Freestyle... a careful eye and you'll see the video recorded in its entirely at cicac. We're a producing label.

Equity in the arts

2011-05-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

The question of equity in the arts, what it means, how to make it matter, is a constant and evolving question. There was considerable work done on this issue in Canada in the early 1990s and for a few years after that, but since then the issue was put on a backburner, at least in terms of mainstream address. But now, it seems to be gaining currency in a number of quarters. Most recently, the Canadian Public Arts Funders (CPAF) has commissioned a couple of consultations and reports to bring equity issues to the forefront. To that end, a small team assembled through the auspices of CICAC is doing some intensive research into the field. We have team members from Calgary, Vancouver, and Germany, working at a bank of resources to try to create a snapshot of what equity means today, and how that might inflect the policies and trends of tomorrow. The report will be delivered to CPAF at its meeting in Edmonton in mid-June, and we hope to make it available to the public soon after, at least in some version. There are plans afoot to release this as a CiCAC publication later in the summer, part of a new series of books that will address a range of topics, from policy to art to creative production. Current team members of the consultation report, Equity Within the Arts Ecology – Traditions and Trends include: Aruna Srivastava, Tracy Wong, Ayaka Yoshimizu, and Kit Heinzmann, co-ordinated through my desk as director of CiCAC. If folks want a copy of this report (or a version that we can release to the public), do let me know. It will be comprised of a fairly decent bibliography and an analysis of equity in Canadian arts as it stands today.

Cultivating Canada at Congress

2011-05-10T08:11:00.005-07:00

Thanks to the hard work by Mara Juneau, logistics coordinator, and many others at the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences, we will be holding multiple launches and events at Congress 2011 this May/June in Fredericton.
I'll be there with Jonathan Dewar, research director of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and co-editor of CC, to present on the book and to distribute copies. Our 'main event' will be on Tuesday morning, May 31, when we launch the book officially at the Book Fair, 10:30 a.m and where the third co-editor and Executive Director of the AHF, Mike DeGagné, will also speak. But we will also either speak briefly, distribute books, or distribute bookmarks (see image on the left) informing delegates on where to get a copy during or after Congress.

Here is where we'll be. Please consult the Congress 2011 program for venue details:

1030 a.m. Sunday, May 29
CACLALS
Aboriginal Roundtable

315 p.m. Monday, May 30
Celebrations of Canadian Literature

Featured Launch
1030 a.m. Tuesday, May 31
Reception Area, Book Fair
with editors Ashok Mathur,
Jonathan Dewar, Mike DeGagné

5 p.m. Tuesday, May 31
Equity Session: Indigenizing the Academy

All Day Thursday, June 2
Workshop: Being and Becoming Aboriginal Youth in the City

Complimentary copies of the book will also be available at the Arsenal Pulp Press bookfair booth from May 27–31 and at the UNB booth from June 1-3.

Cultivating Canada, Toronto launch

2011-05-09T11:58:00.005-07:00

Join us for the Toronto and area launch of this new publication. Regional contributors include Cheryl L'Hirondelle, b.h. Yael, Meera Margaret Singh, Jamelie Hassan, Miriam Jordan, Ronald Lee, Bonita Lawrence, Enakshi Dua, Srimoyee Mitra, Malissa Phung, Ravi de Costa, and George Elliott Clarke.

Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity is the third in a three-volume series addressing the complex notion of reconciliation in a national landscape. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation brings together disparate voices to address how communities—immigrant, racialized, ‘new’ Canadians, and other minoritized groups—relate to the intricacies of reconciliation as a concept. Many of the contributors included address questions of land, Aboriginal histories, and different trajectories that have led to the current conﬁguration and conglomeration of peoples in this geographic space. And, a central organizing principle of this collection is artistic practice, speciﬁcally in how embedding creative acts within critical responses helps to create a relevant framework of possibilities as we move inexorably into uncertain futures.

Featured within are perspectives from Ashok Mathur, Shirley Bear, Henry Tsang, Glen Lowry, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Joseph Naytowhow, b.h. Yael, Sandra Semchuk, Elwood Jimmy, Dorothy Christian, Rita Wong, Sylvia Hamilton, Meera Margaret Singh, Jamelie Hassan, Miriam Jordan, Renisa Mawani, Rhose Harris-Galia, Sid Chow Tan, Ronald Lee, Bonita Lawrence, Enakshi Dua, Robinder Kaur Sehdev, Srimoyee Mitra, Malissa Phung, Henry Yu, Roy Miki, Ravi de Costa, Tom Clark, Rinaldo Walcott, Mitch Miyagawa, Jen Budney, Jayce Salloum, Rita Shelton Deverell, George Elliott Clarke, Diyan Achjadi, and Kirsten Emiko McAllister.

Facebook announcement
Ordering information from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation

Moving 600 books of Cultivating Canada

2011-04-04T19:21:00.001-07:00

Yes, that's the plan. We have six CC events in six days, taking us from kelowna to Kamloops to Vancouver to Regina with a couple of those double-headers. We hope to be moving 600 or more copies of the book in those days, chockfull of official launches, research cabarets, symposia, and special cultural events. For anyone who's interested, that's just under one imperial ton of books:)
And for those who can't grace our events with their presence but want their own copy, ask for your gratis copy at the Aboriginal Healing Foundation website at ahf.ca.

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

and this is the cultivating canada tour schedule

2011-03-28T17:22:00.003-07:00

Hope folks can meet us in Kelowna or Kamloops or Vancouver or Regina! Free books for all, and should be an interesting time all around.

Cultivating Canada, Kamloops book launch

2011-03-27T20:30:00.001-07:00

Book launch of

Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity

(published by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2011)

5 pm, Tuesday, April 6

the art we are cafe, 246 Victoria St

Kamloops

Editors will be on hand to discuss the context and contents of this, the third in a three-book series published by the AHF to address the questions of residential schools, apology, truth and reconciliation, and cultural difference. This third volume looks at the issue of reconciliation largely from the perspective of non-Indigenous, non-white Canadians. This book features extensive colour artwork and creative projects and will be available AT NO COST to everyone attending the launch. Those who cannot attend may still receive a free copy from the ahf.ca website.

Canada Council-sponsored reading by poet and critic George Elliott Clarke. Free and open to the public.

YOW-YUL, from bureau to art

2010-11-18T08:46:00.001-08:00

Whirlwindish tour through Ottawa and Montreal. Arrived at the former to have an update meeting on The Land We Are editing project for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and this aft off to see the Sobey awards in Mont, with kamloops hopeful Brendan Tang a strong contender for the $50k prize for young visual artists in the country. Had hoped to meet with sshrc officials about a partnership grant proposal but scheduling didn't work out, so that meetup now deferred to a teleconference sometime next week.
On VIA in an hour for the sobey/mont visit, then back to bc on Friday to connect more on the p'ship grant options, pre-Australia, which is where much of the planning will occur.

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

A letter re the current arts funding debacle in B.C.

2010-09-09T19:19:00.001-07:00

Reinstatement of arts funding only first step

Now that Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger has reversed his government’s controversial and wrong-headed decision to decimate arts funding in B.C., it is critical for all members of the provincial arts and cultural communities to reflect upon this not as a victory, but an important possibility for our collective future.

Mr. Krueger has shown his utter disregard for British Columbians, first when his office initiated the significant cuts to the B.C. Arts Council, then when he refused to attend to the will of the people expressed through an impressive and widespread protest movement, and finally when he petulantly reinstated funds with the accusation that he felt both threatened and extorted. It is clear that the minister should follow the lead of chair of the B.C. Arts Council and resign his cabinet post immediately. But while Jane Danzo strategically and graciously stepped down from the Arts Council in order to speak honestly and critically about the current intransigence of the B.C. Liberal government, Mr. Krueger must exit in order to allow a fresh and consultative voice into that office.

As Ms Danzo and others have so correctly noted, the current arts funding crisis is not soley resultant of a government whose failure of imagination treats arts and culture as unnecessary frivolity, but also precipitated by an inability by the provincial government to maintain an arms-length policy of non-interference in the arts. Our federal and most of our provincial arts councils adhere to such a principle, which encourages funding governments to trust these councils with their assigned tasks – namely, to promote and advocate for the arts from an informed and stable base. Without such arms-length distance, it is all too easy for a government to step in to expedite a political agenda, such as we saw recently with the government’s non-consultative institution of the so-called “spirit festival” initiative that was announced as a surprise not only to artists and cultural workers, but to the B.C. Arts Council itself.

In general, the arts function not as a form of entertaining excess, but as a model to understand, interpret, and yes, even critique, our contemporary culture, including our various pillars of power. Not unlike the fourth estate, the arts effectively work by providing a commentary and reflection of our realities, and for this to exist in a democratic society, it must not be subject to the whims or fears of political leaders.

The possibility that exists for us now is a reconsideration and restructuring of the B.C. Arts Council such that it may operate unimpeded by political interference. To nurture a flourishing arts scene in British Columbia is the task at hand for the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, and the people of this province deserve a successor to Mr. Krueger’s portfolio who brings in a far more progressive and visionary understanding of what art can be to serve the people rather than an assumption of what it should be to serve the state.

Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, B.C.

Dean's blog

2010-09-09T09:51:00.002-07:00

Thanks to Dr. Michael Mehta, new dean of arts at TRU for his generous blog entry referring to my 3-day novel process. FYI, Dr. Mehta comes to Kamloops by way of Winnipeg, and takes on the challenging new post as TRU starts its new year and celebrates its 40th as an institution of higher learning.

Video clip, prior to the 3day

2010-09-08T13:16:00.002-07:00

Didn't get around to uploading this before the writing took place, but here, for archival purp's if nothing else, the video I recorded just minutes before starting the 3day novel contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hLiOOp2IZY

Trying to keep my 88s straight

2010-09-08T11:55:00.002-07:00

Done, and now emerging from the strangeness of a 72hr seclusion... In the end, produced an 88-page long poem, parts of which I think work and that I quite like, parts of which, well, not so much. But as a graduate supervisor once told his Ph.D. student as she struggled with her dissertation, "sometimes it's more important to be finished than to be perfect."

It was a great experience, though, inhabiting the freemont block and attempting to inhabit a history as well. Much movement freely flowing back and forth from history to fiction, parts that are imaginary, and parts that are verbatim from a variety of texts, blurred together so to tell the truth, not sure what represents what.

The process now is to print out (have done so) and post it to the 3day contest office, which I shall do later today. Have had a good time, too, talking to Kamloops media -- print, radio, and tv -- trying to explicate the project and the process. Next step will be to broach this subject with the City to see if we can create some sort of event next year, the centenary of the freemont block. Hoping a Dept of Canadian Heritage grant I put in for, to create an educational video, will come through to complement, and away we go.

Less than 3 hours to go

2010-09-06T21:00:00.002-07:00

It's been a journey to say the least... find myself moved through this long poem in and out of kamloops and through historical mists. JF Smith, who was an Indian agent for a number of years, and a strong supporter of the Conservative gov't, found himself at odds, I'm sure, with his own history as he enacted his own life. The third and final section that I'm wrapping now uses a line from a long poem by Daphne Marlatt to review how the body remembers and what that means. Drawing fragments to the present to consume and then let them go to filter into the steps that lead us here.

Will post some final thoughts when final keystrokes struck at midnight....

closing day 2

2010-09-05T23:43:00.002-07:00

Papers flow and abound, every possible surface covered with yet more documentation... books on St Croix in the early days of the slave trade, west indian folklore, letters from and to JFS and family, histories poring out of pores, newspaper articles, memos, and moments, all sliding into this poem that is less long than gangley...

And conflated histories, too, for instance, this on fires back in St Croix and in Kamloops...

Fireburn: St Croix, June, 1878, thirty years after freedom bells rang but when slaves move to labourers there’s an economic shift and a paradigm collapse and what is there left of then, and how to make all of this ordinary? Collapse. A generation born into freedom and into poverty. The power to create is the power to destroy and the fireburn that did not happen when Buddho marched into town waited for a trio of decades and then, then it came on a prayer for change. How many fires have started when the people speak of enough? How many fires are stoked by the rule that changes language but does not change attitude? The time to burn always comes when it does, when there is nothing left but fuel and desire.

Fireburn, kamloops. June 29, 1892, the house of Chung Lee, the house of Ah Mi, the house and store of Kwong Hi, two houses of Gin Lee, the house of Uh Gum, the boarding house and store run by Kwong Fat, haberdashery owned by Kwong Lung, a boarding home run by Hang Lee (known as Sam and the manager of the Cosmopolitan Hotel dining room), the wash house operated by Kwong Joern, and lastly, the bootshop and residence of J. F. Smith, all burned to the ground. Within a year, the timber and row housing was rebuilt. But the following fall, a failed robbery attempt to blow up a safe, turned the town to fire again, and Chinatown was not rebuilt again.

or this reflection on how JFS was perceived by certain of the military elite and how history of sugar and slavery helps constitute this story:

if it could be avoided that nigger Smith not be employed as the officers of my regiment consider that white men should fill these official billets and decline to meet anything in the way of colour. We have none of us any personal object to Smith only he is in a position which makes intercourse with whites often necessary and when national defense in under consideration we would confer with men of our own race if possible.
– Lieutenant-Colonel Chares Flick, commanding 31st regiment, March 13, 1913, to T.J. Cumminskey, Inspector if Indian Agencies

ecdysis
that noble art that reptiles own
of shedding skin that has become tiresome

the default epiderm is always what the viewer has in mind and when the viewer occupies the observation deck then all is set

nothing personal
but personnel cannot be expected to comply
a wry turn of phrase and a door clicks shut
ballast is what they call it
the balance of what is taken in and taken out
the optimum of trade to ship in something and take a different something out

in christiansted the product leaving crusian shores is sugar pure and simple worth its weight to sweeten palates and circle plates around the tables of the civilized

in christiansted the product coming in are bodies chockablock like sacks of sugar, and like the same, some do go bad on voyages over and needs be tossed aside

the bow of the ship rises up in the water, lets go its grind of weighty bodies, then submerges once again when much more valued sugar comes aboard and those departing, brave new world that hath

At any rate, another 24 hours from now, will all be done, if not done well....

Tentative first steps

2010-09-04T02:02:00.002-07:00

First two hours behind me, tried to put a dent into the 3day manuscript, not too displeased to be a thousand words in. But now will call it a night and return to see what directions this will go in as a long poem and narrative.

The First White Black Man

ashok mathur
saturday, sept 4, 2010

one

Far from ordinary

all this becomes ordinary far from where it happened
—Dionne Brand

the prologue

an ordinary building on an ordinary street
like any other in a town grown up around rushing for rail and gold
it does not speak back to voices from the street, volumes elevated by inebriation
it does not even echo but stands
an obelisk of quarried brick
absorbing sound as if it were a fluid poured directly into cracking grout
letting loose occasional whispers of where here happened to be

this is where language retires
behind a mask of weary words that make no sense of nothing
no, these walls do not have ears and
no, these walls do not have capacity for speech
(that would be far too far from ordinary)
but trapped inside somewhere deep maybe behind a loose brick hovering amontillado-like to suffocate lurking sounds is
a building’s soul if buildings can have souls
and even voiceless it gesticulates, a prairie preacher listen here listen up for here there is a story to tell, and to tell it well, unleash a cast of characters from here and here and mostly here with resonance and dissonance from there

the problem with history is that there’s too damn much of it and the little we do remember, well, that has a way of interfering with the best of stories, pitching truth against a brick wall until it splatters a sputtering version that suits the palate even if it rails against the stoney obtrusiveness of fact
so
we peek into our pack of characters to travel into acres of possibility, to unearth the stench and pleasure that is mixed into the mortar and sealed into an ordinary building

Sir: it has long since been my eyes grew foggy patches across their line, and teeth that once could address the most indelicate of morsels ended falling one by one to leave a head empty of all but the ideas of youth. But death is nothing but another ferry ride and I have done my share of those. Crossing water, that’s the thing, it has always been this way for me, the answers come from crossing water, questions too, and most of all, the memories and memoranda from those heady days. I once told my friends that having explored portions of the North Thompson uninvestigated by any man not native to this land, I must thereby be the first white man to pass that way, if, of course, by white you mean not one of the Secwepemc or their relatives east and north and west. That always got a rise and a laugh, me of Crucian blood, naming myself as White, a last laugh in a muddled type of way. My name? Smith, easy enough to write down in census books, though that name was passed down not so much through bloodlines as through the lineages of property. Which is why born two years after emancipation, my parents middlenamed me Freemont, a free man of colour, note the two e’s, and this I carried with me proudly all my livelong days. John. Freemont. Smith.

he came to me as if in a dream he did and i was shy and turned away. Mary i whispered when he asked me my name, Mary, and that was it and nothing more. He leaned into me then and whispered back some words i have long since misrecalled but i know or think i know they had something to do with how he would take me away as his bride and that was the truth of it. My parents, well, my parents, they were dark as he was, but of a different sheen for where we came from in the dark clear coastal nights there was considerable passage between the indians and the blacks and while i do not know for certain, i feel my people did not come exclusive and uncut from africa.

...a bit more written, but needs some morning revisiting before it posts...

Press and practice, 3day...

2010-09-03T16:59:00.002-07:00

I'm wandering around the loft after a trip to the health food and office supply stores. Where to put the various bits and pieces so the various bits and pieces are within easy reach as i prepare to get this writing started? The PR folks at the university have been busy, with a release just put out, and I've done an interview just now with Radio NL (streaming link) though no saying when that will run, and they threaten to call back monday to see how i've fared. They asked how much I'd write and I made up a figure -- 100 to 120 pages, i said, which seems a bit impractical, but it's something to shoot for. And so now back to prepping and primping and getting the room set for the writing. Resurrected an old G3 with a 23inch monitor to let myself have some more real estate to type onto. Will try to upload a video link later.

The First Black White Man: a 3 Day novel

2010-08-30T01:57:00.002-07:00

Many of you will be familiar with one of Kamloops' founding leaders John Freemont Smith, a three-time city councillor in the early 1900s and multi-talented entrepreneur who prospected, cobbled, and even served as an Indian agent in those early days of the community. Further, in June of this year, we were fortunate enough to host the great-granddaughter and grandson of Smith as they came from California to Kamloops to visit archives and explore the landscape of the site where their ancestor once lived.

Now, with the new term upon us, we are investigating a few ways to celebrate this history through a variety of creative practices. Andrea Baines, JFS's great-granddaughter, is in the process of writing about her experiences on her trip 'home,' and we are also planning ways to recognize the centenary of the Freemont Block, which was built in 1911.

Most immediately, through the support of the Canada Council and the auspices of the 3-Day Novel Contest (http://www.3daynovel.com/), I will be spending the 72 hours of the Labour Day weekend writing a new novel -- actually, the genre I'm using will be the long poem -- entitled "The First White Black Man." (This title comes from a quotation attributed to JFS who, as one of the few Black men living in the interior, playfully referred to himself this way when talking of prospecting in an area where no non-Native people had lived before.)

The tenets of the 3-Day Novel are fairly simple -- on the honour system, writers from across the world begin a new novel project at midnight of Friday, Sept 3, finishing off 72 hours later at midnight, Monday, Sept 6. Finished manuscripts can then be edited for minor revisions and submitted to the contest judges. It's less a competition than a way of challenging oneself into starting and finishing a project over the course of a long weekend, and its 30-year legacy has been one of some celebration.

I will be undertaking this task from one of the beautiful loft residences of the Freemont Block, since much of the novel is placed near or around that building -- no, I won't be going sleepless for the entire time, but I will spend all my waking hours in the writing process. I will also try to place a few updates, text and video, including fresh-off-the-press excerpts.

More updates from the middle of the journey! (And for those interested in some of the recent experiences, check out the Hogan's Alley Memorial Project: http://hogansalleyproject.blogspot.com/2010/07/descendents-of-black-bc-pioneer-john.html)

+Ashok

________
Ashok Mathur’s Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry at TRU began in 2005. His books include _Loveruage: a dance in three parts_, _Once Upon an Elephant_, _The Short, Happy Life of Harry Kumar_, and, most recently, _A Little Distillery in Nowgong_, currently in hardcover and available in paper in 2011. He is cross-posted to the departments of Journalism, Communication, and New Media and Visual and Peforming Arts, and he also directs the Centre for innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada (CiCAC)
www.cicac.ca
www.littledistillery.com

More photos from the religion show

2010-08-28T10:50:00.002-07:00

Founding my religion

2010-08-28T10:41:00.002-07:00

Five days of sourcing and sauntering around Kelowna, finding artifacts and art facts that would contribute to this new religion. A lot of play with sound and sight, which all led to narrative tricks and tales to relate to this religious project. The text(s) below are hardly sacred, but they do reflect something of the faith...These were the didactics place next to the various objects and photographs inhabiting the corner of the Alternator Gallery....

The consonants “S” and “X” from the Roman alphabet are of absolute significance in this religion, which, of course, derives its very name from these symbols. Adherents of the faith will see these letters – on their own and together – in numerous combinations every single day. These symbols first came to the First Prophet in a dream where he saw the figures flying through the air on wings. He was perturbed to see hundreds of disciples, fully clothed but for inexplicable reasons, shoeless. This element of the prophecy was not fully understood until the first Disciple entered the faith. When the First Prophet visited a display outlet store on the western coast, he was drawn to a bin containing symbols purporting to designate clothing sizes, and he immediately purchased a case of the “extra small” denominators – XS. The Prophet was struck by the interdimensionality of this Gift: the XS clips, inverted, read perfectly as SX. Thus began the first of the Relics, the encasement of what were once garment clips inside what were once jewellry boxes. True adherents of the faith always carry a copy of this Relic wherever they go.

Sally Xaiver, originally from Essex County, was visiting Kelowna for a distant cousin’s wedding when she chanced upon the First Prophet in a beer hall named after a great fish. They had a stimulating, but otherwise not memorable, conversation, and at closing time they bid each other well and Sally made her way back to her residence. As she walked along a street that was named after a head of a monastery, she was drawn as if by magnetic force down a dark street toward the water. As she got closer, she began to quicken her pace, first to a brisk walk, then to a jog, and finally to a full-out sprint. She began uttering incantations from an ancient language that no one has yet deciphered and, in her desire to be fleet of foot, discarded her shoes in ecstasty. It was at this moment she became the First Disciple, moments before she dove headlong in the lake, never to re-emerge. This is now referred to as the Divine Podiatral Ascension, and all subsequent disciples have experienced similar episodes of incomprehensible jabbering concomitant with the ecstatic discarding of all footwear.

While other faiths express dualities and trinities, it is not surprising that our faith is attentive to the number 6 (SiX) and has acquired a Holy Sextenary. These are: 1) sandalwood incense and myrrh which, when lit, enter the Disciples’ bodies through scent and breath; 2) the holy bag of sand, discovered by the First Prophet along a Kelowna beach – note the uncanny nature of the bag in which the sand was discovered, emblazoned with the Sacred Letters hidden within the word, “SoeX”; 3) the Sign, originally discovered by the First Prophet and later mounted by the Original Disciples on a fragment of Sacred Beach Wood. It is still used as a seal for ceremonial purposes; 4) the Elements – tobacco flakes, rock salt, and pine cone – are inherent to the belief system and were collated by First Minister Heather Martin, aka Sister SX; 5) as all living entities are close to the heart of this faith, adherents of SX lopped off these berries to display them because they were in the shape of the Sign; 6) in death there is life, and so this display of fallen leaves collected from the House of Jefferess, Johnstone and Johnstone (HJ3)is a significant part of the Holy Sextenary.

Adherents of the faith will see a surfeit of feathers everywhere and at all times. Sometimes they are attached to the bird who grew them; sometimes they are floating through the air; and sometimes they are found along the footpath. Ministers are required by doctrinal law to bend and retrieve any such feathers, while adherents may gather these artifacts but are also permitted to simply observe with requisite obeisance.

Because the godhead in this faith is ephemeral, ethereal, and disembodied, it is often represented as a transparent female head. This should not be mistakenly thought of as an idol or an actual representation of a specific deity, but as a meditative practice to focus the disciple’s thoughts on the true meaning of the religion. It is said that only the Final Prophet will be able to lift the Sacred Head without scattering the enclosed SX/XS relics across the Holy Table and over the secular gallery floor. It is not known when the Final Prophet will appear, but according to the Book of Signs, it will probably be a late Thursday afternoon or perhaps an early Friday morning.

When the First Prophet was touched by the faith, he immediately wrote down all the tenets and laws of the religion in the Book of Signs. As this was divine language, it is not accessible to non-believers, and although scores of linguists and computer technicians have exhausted countless probability equations, they are still no closer to translating the text. Disciples of the faith are often surprised that others are unable to decipher what to them is the simplest of sacred texts, which has led to friction in communities where the religion has taken hold. The greatest epiphany to behold is where a non-believer pores over the book with furrowed brow, then in a brilliant instant doffs all footwear and begins to preach in languages unknown.

This interview was recorded by satellite link between a journalist reporting from Essex, U.K, with the First Prophet in Kelowna, during the First Holy Installation. There is some speculation that upon completing the interview, the reporter shook off his Birkenstocks and leapt feet first into the Thames to join the First Prophet, but this is unsubstantiated.

The First Three Ministers, the initial half of the Holy Sextet that adjudicates over all religious matters and has the power to initiate and discipline all disciples, celebrate their conjoined nature. First Ministers Younging, Pickering, Martin perform the Dance of the Us Not Them, which acknowledges adherents and non-believers alike.

The First Three Ministers prepare the Dance of the Unclad Feet. Note that they begin the ceremony wearing footgarb since upon discarding sandals and shoes they immediately begin talking in gibberish and so can no longer understand each other until someone once again dons shoes (called re-soleing) and adjourns the ceremony in a language the others can understand.

This polaroid photograph of the Lake was taken several decades before the Polaroid camera was invented, a sign to believers of the forward-thinking nature of their faith.

The inverted tree is a symbol of life and culture, known as the Tree of Rodney, and much discussed by scholars of the faith.

Shadows in the XS culture are as real and true as the bodies that form them. It is probably the only global religion that acknowledges it truly makes sense to be afraid of your own shadow. Also to get out of the way in case it hits you.

This photograph looks remarkably like the Kasugai Gardens in Kelowna, but is actually a re-creation formed by pure mental energy pouring forth from the First Prophet. He also does still lifes of fruit bowls, but mostly gardens.

The Shroud of XS is another result of pure mental energy flowing from the First Prophet, formed after a night of restless dreams. The first time it happened, an angry hotelier demanded reparations for soiled sheets, but since then the First Prophet travels with a rubber sheet and extra linens. Unlike other religious shrouds that are either one-ofs, or knock-offs, the Shroud of XS is eminently replicable, limited only by the number of times the First Prophet naps.

Two of the first adherents of the faith, Mr. and Mrs. Smith later went on to successful modeling careers in the photographic frame business.

kelowna sand and water

2010-08-22T15:18:00.003-07:00

Triathlon, sweetgrass, incense

2010-08-22T15:05:00.002-07:00

Out in the public, downtown Kelowna, searching for the Truth and finding a triathlon sweeping the pathways of the city. I am still searching. I find an arts store and the clerk asks me if she can help. I say I'm just looking. But she still stands there and then addresses me by name. Does she know something about me? What does she see? It turns out she does know me, or knew me, back from an earlier time when I was teaching at a school where she was studying. We talk about Art. And Religion. I walk out with some ideas for creating this new religion.

I remain unimpressed by the online templates for starting a new religion. They are too dismissive http://www.ehow.com/how_2160175_start-new-religion.html or too arrogant http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/HowTo:Start_a_Religion or purporting to be something they're not http://englishatheist.org/ownreligion.shtml. It seems like a lot of people have it in them to talk about starting new religions, but not a lot of effort is put into practicing this act.

I burned sweetgrass and incense together, lighting one from the other, to see if the smoke would swirl into an answer. It did not, but the scent was wonderful.

Finding my religion

2010-08-22T11:01:00.001-07:00

Day one, mid morning, wandering from beach to beach on a windy cloudy
summer fall kelowna day. Thinking of religion, partic the one I'm
trying to found right here right now. It has to do with... I know it
has to do with land and water. So my first Polaroid looks over sand to
waves to mountains, wooden pier inflecting a corner. Dionne Brand
writes: "the physical world is not interested in us, / it does what it
does, / its own inventory of time, of light and dark" (Inventory 46).

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

How to Found a New Religion in Less Than a Week Through Detritus, Ephemera, and Homespun Artifacts

2010-08-22T00:37:00.002-07:00

Today marks a rebirth, in a manner of speaking. I've been thinking for a while about religious identity and how this comes into being. When the Alternator Gallery in Kelowna invited me down to work on a project and follow-up with some administrative consulting, I figured this would be a chance to explore religion in a roundabout sort of way.

From today until Wednesday, Aug. 25, I'll be founding a new religion, using whatever comes to hand and mind.

The work will be part performance and part installation-assembly, beginning with an empty space (a portion of the gallery) and ending with all the elements that normally constitute the foundations of a religious formation. This will include Polaroid images, video clips, found objects, poetry, and other forms of expression that will be housed in the constantly mutating space. Visitors will have the opportunity to contribute and create their own tenets to this religion. No contribution will be refused, but may be altered to fit particular parameters.

There are numerous sites online about how to start a religion -- most of them are tongue-in-cheek, if not dismissive, of the origins of various religious structures, comprised of multi-point primers or tenets that take a parodic run at well-known religions. I don't want to be cavalier about this, which of course runs the problem of taking it too seriously... so, to start, I have to think of where to start. Ideas and suggestions are more than welcome. But in a hurry -- I only have a few days for a new religious order....

Reconciliation and new Canadians

2010-06-19T15:10:00.002-07:00

Returning from the Truth/Reconciliation gathering in Winnipeg, much food for thought. In the coming months, I'll be editing a book for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the final book of a three-volume series on reconciliation and healing in the context of Indian Residential Schools, the Apology, and the aftermath. This third volume will take a renewed look at the issue, focussing on the perspectives of racialized, new, and non-white Canadians. How do we come to this issue, the concept of living on Indigenous land, unceded territories, and within a colonizing framework? It's a difficult question, and one that always gives rise to strong positions from anyone pondering the concept. Where will we go from here, and where is it we have come from? We will see what can be done with the contributors, the volume, and the question as the TRC today winds down its first national gathering and sets its sights ahead to the second national gathering, planned for Inuvik in 2011. So much more to say, to speak to, but for now, time to sit still and reflect.

The stories continue

2010-06-18T13:25:00.001-07:00

The rains started in Winnipeg yesterday morning, led to a tornado
warning that was later lifted. But the rain keeps coming. The tents
are abandoned and the commissioner's circle has moved inside the
theatre complex on the grounds of the forks. So we sit here, listening
to piped in audio and watching on closed circuit tv the testimonies
from the room next door. Stories after stories. Earlier today, talking
to a volunteer at the survivor registration tent, who tells me, as I
take a trc survey, that her sister is heading to bc soon for events
surrounding the missing women. She knows someone who has gone missing.
Everyone knows someone or knows someone who knows someone. We
acknowledge each other with a nod. And the stories continue.

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

Testimonies

2010-06-16T12:21:00.001-07:00

The crowd goes as the day gets long. A march following the
commissioners' introduction takes us to the sharing circle, and this
is where the stories begin. The tent is past capacity and the
atmosphere brims with anticipation of what words will flow.

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

Truth and reconciliation - the Winnipeg gathering

2010-06-16T07:15:00.001-07:00

The day begins at 5 am at the forks in Winnipeg, a sunrise ceromony to
begin the first national gathering for the Indian residential school
truth and reconciliation commission. Over the next four days there
will be ceremonies, testimonies, stories, art, and many discussions.
There will be 7 such gatherings over the next months and years, so
this is the beginning of beginnings. The story grows from here

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

The yvr whirl

2010-02-11T12:29:00.001-08:00

Amazing shifts happening in Vancouver these days, fr security to art
to an influx of visitors. I hope to use this space over the next few
days to document at least some of the buzz.

______________
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural & Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC

CBC North x Northwest

2010-01-10T12:20:00.003-08:00

Sheryl McKay, of CBC's North by Northwest, interviewed me late last year in connection to the novel and installation of A Little Distillery in Nowgong. She's a splendid interviewer and we had a great time. For those who weren't up at the crack of dawn this morn but are still interested in catching the chat, it should be up as a podcast later today or tomorrow. There is supposed to be some play on the novel in the G&M, the Vancouver Sun, and on Ottawa's CKCU, so I'll post that when it gets to press/broadcast. Meanwhile, I'll be travelling to Ottawa and Halifax in a week or so, launching the book at the Ottawa Library and at St Mary's Art Gallery (Halifax) on Jan 26 and 28 (posters attached). Will also be doing a chat at NSCAD and hoping to meet up with other artist-researchers to talk about some of the work that Glen Lowry and I continue to do, documenting and collating research-creation across the country.

cicac year in review

2009-12-31T10:57:00.002-08:00

Yes, the inevitable dormant blog rears its head as the years switch over.... What with twitter and facebook as the major conduits of electronic information, this blog has been given incredibly short shrift, and yet, like others who are re-posting and re-blogging these days (again), there is always the possibility of re-invention. With that in mind, and with no promises to be faithful to this blog, I'm posting here an excerpt from the renewal documents I recently filed toward my Canada Research Chair. This section has to do with a synopsis of CiCAC and its focus since inception. If it reads like a bureaucratic document, well, that's because that's what it is, and rather than edit for blog-friendly language, am just pasting it here. Perhaps the start of something new, and as twenty-ten promises, lots of newness on the horizon...

CiCAC Residencies and Symposia
Unlike more traditional CRCs where there is already an established track record of related research, my CRC in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry is establishing relatively new ground and, as such, a key component of my role is to create opportunities for artist-researchers to work within these parameters. In this nascent field of artistic research, the outputs are often not documented publications, but events that lend themselves to outputs in different avenues. For instance, even before CiCAC was up and running as a physical space, I initiated an invitational event, bringing nine artists from various sites to the interior of BC and to the Banff Centre to 'investigate' notions of interiority. Premised on the idea that language and imagination shape our art research and practice, our team explored the idea of the 'interior' as it affects geography, the racialized and gendered body, and ideas around space and possibility. This artistic think-tank, a novel concept in the field of the arts, was not predicated on a definitive product, but on collaboration that would ladder into other works. The nine artists met, discussed, and articulated possibilities to explore in an environment where they were not required to provide an end product. However, this did not have the effect of a lack of production – indeed, quite the contrary. All of the artists and critical thinkers went on to produce independent work based on their 'interior investigations,' and three of the artists produced significant performance work for the following year's CiCAC-sponsored symposium, "Crossing Borders, Performing Identity," held in Cyprus to recognize the difficult spaces of bifurcated states. The performance work produced by David Bateman, Hiromi Goto, and David Khang has gone on to be performed at numerous venues and disseminated in online forms (including through the CiCAC website, www.cicac.ca). Following these group ventures, CiCAC supported several short- and long-term residencies, including those of writers Shane Rhodes, Shirley Bear, Roy Miki, David Odhiambo, and visual artists Meera Margaret Singh, Amy Modahl, Tricia Sellmer, Doug Buis, Shima Iuchi. These residencies have resulted in major research-outputs for both artists, including publication of a new book of poetry and the development and exhibition of a new series of photographic prints. In 2009, I wrote, edited, and designed a photo-book, subtitled "111,111,111 seconds of a research creation story" , published by CiCAC Press in a hardcover edition and also available as a free download, to document the variety of activities at the Centre since its inception. Related to these activities is the operation of the 'speakeasy gallery,' a space I curate and organize out of a residential loft space in a historic building in downtown Kamloops. This gallery has been the site of many experimental/initial exhibitions that provide a meeting ground for researchers from TRU, the Small Cities CURA, and the arts and general community of the city. Of pre-eminent importance is the ongoing nature of artistic discovery and how this research chair can contribute significant findings that shape the overall discourse of artistic research.

Situating Reconciliation

2009-01-09T09:48:00.003-08:00

Once again, the blur of travel and activity. We're back from Cape Town and into the fray of multiple tasks. Most pressing is the "Situating Reconciliation" project a large group of us is trying to pull together. It will involve more than 40, probably much more when it comes down to the actual project, artists and academics and groups and associations from Canada, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Australia, working on artistic responses to the complicated terrain of 'reconciliation.' The letter of intent for this project is due in a few weeks, and now's the time when many hands make light work, so they say, and we hope it all culminates in a nod toward doing the full application for this Major Collaborative Research Initiative supported through SSHRC. Alongside (and with the same unfortunate deadline of month's end!) is the culmination of another SSHRC project, this one a research-creation grant that sees my ms, *A Little Distillery in Nowgong* transmogrifying into an installation at Centre-A in Vancouver. The novel itself will be released later this year by Arsenal Pulp Press in Vancouver. So the next few weeks will involve much video and photo production up at CiCAC (now that the Coquihalla is open post-mudslide) and a hefty amount of editing toward all these projects. Send warm vibes from whatever part of the globe you inhabit -- it's the backstretch, the 11th hour, and we need the smoothest of trajectories!

2009-01-09T09:43:00.001-08:00

Christmas time food and scenery in wine country, Franschhoek

year end in CT

2008-12-20T00:59:00.003-08:00

A buzz of activity over the past few days. Artists, organizations, sites, all toward trying to get a sense of this place in all too brief a time. In the midst of it all, of course, the crisis in Zimbabwe worsens, feeding into a sense of where hope might come from. It's still convincing to think that once NGOs and government bureaucrats have had their say, that the participation of artists in this particular mix is perhaps a creative if-not-solution, then suitable question and/or process. More on this as we reflect...

krishna, cope, creativities

2008-12-15T04:04:00.001-08:00

Eventful few days here in CT. We went to a township with a couple of people we met through the Hare Krishna temple here. Vraj is from Bulgaria and he and his group do a weekly veg lunch distribution in a township just adjacent to Cape Town, so we accepted his invite to tag along. It was an engaging time, the kids very playful and energetic, and the scene one of bustle and strangeness as Vraj and his colleagues drummed and chanted and the kids followed along in an odd rendition of a pied piper show. Yet all of this was quite interesting -- while the homes were shanties, built of corrugated iron and bits of wood, the streets were newly laid ashphalt with curbs and gutters, and amidst the homes were occasional handpainted signs advertising corner store goods and oddities like cell phone services. A matronly woman was Vraj's contact, and she orchestrated the kids, who seemed far more interested in playing games and grabbing a drink of the provided juice than having lunch, even though it was quite a nice-looking curry. Then we stopped at another township to move out the rest of the food, and again it was more fun and games with the kids as cars of all types and sizes drove by the narrow streets. Quite an adventure. Also a feeling of conspicuousness, our very attendance in the township, both in terms of optics and intent. How must we have appeared to the people there? An experiment to be sure. At the very least, showed the incredible latitude of experience and disproportionately distributed wealth here in this city. Emotionally quite an odd experience as well. In the middle of all of this, South Africa prepares for national elections in 2009. The splinter group Cope, formed from the disgruntled core of the ANC, is changing the landscape in all kinds of ways. They won a series of byelections just yesterday, boding well for their performance next year, and all of this creating a feeding frenzy in the media as it reflects on the young democracy, barely a decade and a half old. And amidst all of this, the impending sense of violence and gloom, interterpreted variably from families to taxi drivers to waiters. A sense of things spiralling out of control, and yet all within a deep lament and love for the land. All very hard, near impossible, for visitors to grasp as there are only glimmers of reality outside the metaphorically and literally locked doors it seems.

pleasures of the dance

2008-12-12T04:24:00.002-08:00

Low light, slow shutter, and an almost-three-year-old... That's Zahra on her first visit to Cape Town :)

looking to reconciliation day

2008-12-12T04:11:00.002-08:00

Today was a day of bureaucracies, trying to get the home accommodation hooked up to the internet. Turns out you can't get there from here, in the logic of the day! That said, everyone at UCT has been very nice and helpful, and it is amusing to be there as the graduands celebrate convocation in Jameson Hall (named for one of the architects of UCT but also roundly critiqued for imperialist policies -- indeed, if there is any one thing that stands out in CT, it's the inevitable backhanded commentary around all public spaces and ventures, it seems. For instance, a large portrait-sculpture of Cecil Rhodes looks out over the city, and a didactic notes how he put Afrikaaners and Brits together post-Boer to create a uni environment, but that his racist and imperial legacies were still prominent in making of the site... in other words, rather than eradicating histories as often happens with toppled monuments etc, there is a sense here of 'language' coming to bear on the situation. The mission statement at UCT, for eg, is explicit in its movement to produce an equitable postsecondary site that recognizes the histories of apartheid...)

The other major happening that we're in the midst of is a series of byelections that will lead to the general election in January. The ANC seems to be unravelling at an alarming rate, while the splinter party, COPE, borne partly from its ashes, is taking a more key role. On the surface, it seems more progressive, but there seems to be a large number of surfaces here in CT, so hard to say!

Meanwhile, we continue to meet up with academics, researchers, artists, plying the for information and seeing how we might work with them toward this Major Collab Research Initiative, now tentatively titled "Situating Reconciliation," which will focus on how artistic means might address global intersective issues of reconciliation, quite a massive task, but necessary despite its problematics.

Tomorrow we are going to take a lunch trip out to a nearby township with an interesting fellow, Vraj, a monk with the Hare Krishnas here near the uni. We chatted with him at length a few days ago and it was quite fascinating. Weekly, they serve a free veg lunch to a group of children so we are going to tag along and find out a bit more of the local scene.

More photos and narratives once there's better access!

Cape Town and reconciliation

2008-12-11T04:27:00.004-08:00

Arrived in Cape Town last week, spent a few days near the water front getting used to the time zones and climatic changes, crazy trip in to amsterdam and then on straight south.... But we're here, meeting some fascinating folks on the street, at the uni, and around town. Promises to be an exploratory adventure, leading us to all kinds of places. Initially, hope to find folks who are interested in connecting up with the Major Collab Research Initiative on reconciliation. More on that as it unfolds.

summering kamloops

2008-07-05T20:13:00.002-07:00

Back in the loops now, settling in and setting up the loft to make it fully functional. Hosting a gathering Saturday next to bring folks together for midsummering, and to open (officially) the Speakeasy Gallery, a unique very Long and very Narrow space that is adjuncted, indeed, encompassed, by the flat. The idea is to do an interactive piece based on the space itself, to wit, on John Fremont Smith. Something quite deep is engaging about this and it's exciting to think through and about possibilities. Meanwhile, whiling away the time and getting a grip on the ensuing few months. It's good to have this down time before things pick up again. But the picking up, too, is fully engaging and far from threatening. Lots of talks of recent on critical inquiry, taking on questions of reconciliation, near and far, and how to make things progress. Revelling in this process...

John Fremont-Smith

2008-07-02T16:18:00.002-07:00

Heading back to the flat in the Fremont Block in Kamloops, reflecting on some of the research on John Fremont-Smith. After perusing photos in various archives over the last bit, am somewhat transfixed by the visceral data of the image, how it goes beyond the fact of history. This one photo, probably the best known and certainly most distributed, of Fremont-Smith, has much to offer, and I'm interested in the various 'moments' of the photo, the placement of bodies, how the grain takes over and writes its own story. More on JFS in the coming weeks...

beoynd paris

2008-06-24T09:13:00.002-07:00

Not officially part of CiCAC business, but post-Derry, came out to Paris for a few days, just to relax and recharge before heading back home. First taste of summer for some time, as most previous sites have been oddly cool and sometimes climately nasty, but Paris has been warm and sunny. We arrived here on the night of the solstice, the summer music festival filling the streets around the Latin Quarter, and that's created a nice re-entry into cosmopolitan life! Mostly occupied ourselves walking all over and around, a bit of time in parks and talking in cafés, but no serious museum-attending or event-taking-in. Tonight, our last here, will see a Chopin performance at an old church nearby, then relax back in for a flight home tomorrow.

blog on bogside artists

2008-06-20T09:49:00.004-07:00

Another day wandering around Derry, this time with a more defnitive purpose. I had dropped a note to the "Bogside Artists" a three-person collective of muralists who have produced what can only be considered to be a definitive living-history of the Troubles from a distinctly Derry perspective. Their latest mural, an homage to cultural/social activists such as Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa, was unveiled only a few days ago (images from that new mural here), the latest in a series of works they have created over the years.

I met up with them at their studio, chatted about mural-making, artist activism, and the importance of inhabiting spaces of social agency, all with an eye toward perhaps having them work with local Kamloops artists at some undetermined point in the future. Off the top, I suggested the possibility of them working with First Nations youth in the area, perhaps developing a mural project of some order. Initial stages, but they were very accommodating and forthcoming, and since they will be in Canada next summer (albeit in the Maritimes) we thought we might work toward something such as this. Their level of commitment and closeness to various political struggles is admirable, and I hope we can work out something with CiCAC and in Kamloops, Something to ponder.

masala and scarman

2008-06-18T04:42:00.008-07:00

Had to try this Indian-Asian fusion spot just up the road and right by the uni. The proprietor said they have run a variety of indian restaurants for a couple of decades, but then started this three years ago as a Japanese and Asian place, blending in Indian options soon after. The bento boxes only come out at lunch, so i had a couple of starters - jhinga tandoori and wok fried spicy squid - along with a pilau. The beer was Tiger (homage to bengal, praps, tho this was a brew from indonesia bottled in the uk), and the pre-app was a plate of pappadum with a truly odd assortment of sauces. The prawns were quite something and it was all an exquisite experience of identity. Upon finding out I was visiting from Canada, the proprietor asked with some concern if I might be French Canadian, as the Euro2008 match was on and, he glibly informed me, the Italians were going to beat handily the French team. I assured him I was not of Quebecois stock; and he was right in that the Italians scored twice to advance over the French. The rest of the evening I spent wandering downtown, explored the glitzy and flashy Kremlin club, then caught some live music at Aunty Annie's pub. Today it's back to special collections where I will look at the Belfast Creative Writing Group portfolio and more of the Scarman tribunal -- although the entirety of this text documenting the civil unrest in Derry and Belfast in 1969 is all online, seeing the original police photographs, the typescript, the hand-done timelines, is an exercise of fascination. One such photo of the bombed out Grosvenor Post Office is striking in the capture of a moment of play amongst the distress. In the background, the smiles and laughter of young boys, belieing the gravity of the situation, perhaps, or allowing for those moments of delight-resistance to shine through....

murals and musings

2008-06-17T05:15:00.005-07:00

Yesterday spent at Queens University, first talking to poetry research chair Ed Larrissy, then exploring special collections, where I'll return to this afternoon. After the time at Queens, went to Falls Road to visit the multitude of Republican murals. Most striking was the desire to connect local to global movements; thus, many of the murals are not specific to Northern Ireland, but addressing issues such as Palestine, Cuba, and Iraq in terms of imperialism and militarism. When I asked Prof Larrissy what was happening these days in terms of creative means of social/political engagement, he noted that there was a younger generation of poets who define themselves, their work, their era, as "after the Troubles" and so there is a connection to the (not too distant) history but a recognition that there is a shifting reality. Yesterday, too, George Bush paid a final presidential visit to Belfast, the final stop of his last tour of Europe, which marks a significant shift in global politics. A great deal of anti-Bush sentiment here and in much of Europe, makes me wonder what it might be like should Obama win the election in November. Different times of engagement.

Music@empire

2008-06-15T16:39:00.001-07:00

So Scratch was a scratch - lots of blazing wall lights str8 out of Austin Powers, but no people and no vibe. But down the street at Empire a five-piece band was turning springsteen and chapman and other charters into deep blues & ragtime ala jerry lee. Spectacular keyboards, vocals, guitars, kept the place hopping. So worth the walkabout exploration on a sunday night. Tomorrow, into poet-researchers at Queens + special collections for the day...

Euro 2008

2008-06-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Resituated to the uni district, staying @ the Botanic Lodge B/B while working/researching around the corner at Queens U. Watched the 1st half of the Turkey/Czech game at pubs Botanic and Eg just up the street. Dining@ a noodle takeaway, tho tempted by "Masala Masala," a south & east asian not-quite-fusion place on uni ave. Picture bento boxes featuring assortments of curry, tempura, and nan. Will see how this melds into a northern island cuisine tomorrow. Tonight might experiment with "Scratch," a newish club also round the corner -- its name resonates for a variety of reasons, so worth a looksee...

2008-06-13T10:56:00.002-07:00

Arrived in Belfast yesterday, settling in and adjusting to time lags of various orders. I'll be meeting up with poetry prof and researcher, Ed Larrissy, on Monday, and meanwhile working on a bit of a poetry project that should wrap itself up, under the rules and guidelines of this particular piece, by the time I head off to Derry on Thursday. I'm hoping to meet up with poets and producers of various ilks here in Belfast, hopefully create interest for residencies at CiCAC. Today we went to the Botanical Gardens adjacent to Queens; the photos here are from the rose gardens and general areas and the university.

spent the day at the bray...

2008-06-09T10:11:00.003-07:00

Leisurely morning, walking through the ghost buildings of the Archie Bray. The institute has functioned as a gathering place for ceramics artists since 1951 -- before that, it was the Western Clay Manufacturing Co brickworks. Architecture and evidence from that period is still very present behind tall grass and amidst more than fifty years of art remnants left behind by ceramicists. This morning I spent some strange time inside one of the brickworks domes -- the circular brick walls create an astounding aural effect so that every sound from the centre is magnified, first heard by the crunching volume of feet on sand. The tiny oval opening to the sky creates a luminous effect and I spent some time photographing this phenomenon, exposing first for sky, then for the darkened interior, then playing with strobing to balance both. It was an eerie space, as if sound and light layers from all of history trapped therein. Outside, I spent some time photographing the site and also the various lifesize figures that are scattered around the yard, silent and kiln-fired witnesses to the place itself. Altogether, I cannot get a read on the site, whether it is a calm and reflective space for creativity (which it is to some degree, no doubt) or if its industrial history overwhelms and perhaps dwells in an uncomfortable co-existence...

@ the archie bray

2008-06-08T09:58:00.004-07:00

yes yes yes, back to blog after endless deferrals... I'm at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts (http://www.archiebray.org/), a unique residency programme in Helena, Montana. The director of the Bray, Steve Lee, invited me down to write brief catalogue essays on four long-term residents who will be exhibiting in August. Renee Audette, Jeremy Hatch, Brian Rochefort, and Anne Drew Potter are fellows at the Bray and I am quite excited to talk to them about their diverse work and write something up. Some samples of their work appear below, in the same order as their names above...

where the research comes from, goes to

2008-01-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

Whoops. How the weeks turn into months off blog.... I really do blame the ubiquity of facebook for the absence of this writing. Ironically, of course, there is very little 'writing' to be done on fb; one can post 'notes' or create events, but by and large, it's the purview of a social networking system like fb to reduce things to a one-on-one form of communication, albeit quite public (status updates, walls, and the like). But it does eat up time, and that is my (and a lot of other folks') excuse, I'm sure. That proviso'd, the most pronounced update for the work through CiCAC and my own research/creation was a christmas trip to India. It came about rather suddenly since I hadn't planned to go there to do any research, even though the novel is set at a particular grandparental site that I had wanted to visit, but then I ended up going for a large family wedding. It was important to accompany my dad as he needed some assistance in travel, but it was also important for familial reasons. That said, while I was there (vacation time and 'off the clock' as it were), it seemed opportune to go to Nowgong, which is about a two-hour drive outside of Khajurao, which is itself a day's journey (or, as time was pressing, an hour's flight) from Delhi where we were based. The journey itself was eventful -- we had a car hired from Khajurao and the driver found the distillery site fairly easily, which now also included a brewery. The managers of both distillery and brewery were very welcoming to us, curious about our lives in Canada, and they not only toured us around the facility, but insisted we have lunch with them in the very compound where my mother grew up. Was a strange sense of recapturing history, or if not a recapture, then a type of redux, a mapping of image and video (for we took a fair bit in the hours there) onto and about a site that comes from a certain history. Much more to say about this in terms of the emotional connections, the sense of visitations and revisitations, but shall leave it at that for now. Images that came from Nowgong and the general trip to India are beginning to comprise a part of the installation project, a push off the novel into the sensuality of language and text, but this, too, for another description...

on the rock

2007-10-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Taking the Distillery project out to the east coast, here in a St John's autumn, writing/thinking/meeting with artists and thinking through the various possibilities. I'm giving what I might call a project/projected project talk at the Eastern Edge this saturday, hope to meet with artists/writers who may be interested in participating in this project in some fashion. Meanwhile, exploring spaces like Signal Hill give a chance to breathe in the atlantic air and think about the movement across land masses, between oceans, and the politics of migrancy/migration. Just came back from the Transcanadas conf in Guelph, working through issues of the nation and citizenship and processes of body and mind. Productive time, but brings to mind the need/desire to work through creative means of addressing these same issues...

back on track

2007-10-06T13:17:00.001-07:00

Crazy busy times here, back and forthnesses. Putting in for a couple of grants through CiCAC, this time focussing on the idea of residencies and performance, all the legacy of the cyprus voyages earlier this year. Looking at both SSHRC and the bc-based Arts Partners granting programs, trying to set up complementary projects that would bring in performance artists/performers/writers to cicac for month-long gigs. But have to get these off the rails this wknd, because a month long of travel upcoming. First stop, toronto, where I'll get to see the launch of David Chariandy's first book, _Soucayant_, a marvellous novel that has hit the long list for the giller. Shortlist announced on Tuesday, so we all wait eagerly. Then to the transcanadas conference in guelph next wknd, followed by further research/development on the east coast, looking to bring in some st john's artists into the distillery project. Finally, back through winnipeg in early nov to attend/present at the Art Tomorrow symposium put on by anthony kiendl and the plugin gallery, a rethink of contemporary art institutes in canada. So, not back in the loops for some time, a strange estrangement, trying to work in/at a place, often far too virtually. There, I have a class of graduate students in education, a new pgm for TRU, and it's quite exciting really. They're on their own devices for the next month, the pgm schedule modified to allow for them to develop research projects and take ideas forward toward their final work. Some of them extremely eager and well-placed to do some radical education, so this excites and inspires. Back to the grant mill...

oopsy dates

2007-08-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Still not weaned from facebook, though problematizing that space for sure! Great interactivity, but somehow a lack of 'narrative' possibilities. Maybe it's just that I like to write in uninterrupted fashion! But truth is, to elaborate on CiCAC activities, it's hard to do in the oneline nature of fb. That said, here's where we're at....

Just on the last leg of a multi-city trip that took me to ottawa, montreal, toronto, st john's, meeting with various folks re both the Distillery project and CiCAC in gen. I'm trying to establish a connection with Memorial U that would let me work on the east coast, the 'entry-point' to canada for so many migrants, to stage a version of the Distillery exhibition. Connections in other cities were predicated on meetings with folks who would be visiitng Kamloops soon (Bennett Fu) or had something to do with other CiCAC events. Back to Vancouver tomorrow where I'll be attending/reading at the international Postcolonial conference sponsored by ACLALS (info at http://ocs.sfu.ca/aclals/). Finishing off the edits of the Distillery novel, too, with great hope(!) and getting set to teach (with fab co-instructor Rachel Nash) a grad course in the new M.Ed programme at TRU.

That, in a nutshell, is what's going on CiCACways. A summer of editing/articling and a fall of visiting artists. Onward...

hiatus, fb widow...

2007-07-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

My oh my...More than a month since any postings to CiCAC, though certainly not for lack of activity. Problem is, as will be familiar to many out there, the sudden ubiquity of facebook. The time and resources it takes to maintain a presence on fb is, well, sometimes phenomenal. And it does contribute to a leaving be of other electronic updates, blogging up there among them. But as some friends (no, not just fb friends) have noted, the activity of facebooking is somewhat different, more esoteric and freewheeling, than blogging and, as such, doesn't get to the substance of detail sometimes. That said, I have just started up a CiCAC group on fb, open to all, so those who are coming across this entry and who are themselves unwilling subjects of fb, you might want to search and sign up. Or not...

What has been happening this past month cicac-wise... Well, the Centre is now fully equipped, including the new softwall technology that allows for a very modifiable space. I've put up on the cicac site some bare bones details for residencies that I hope start to happen this fall. The stumbling block here is funding -- I would like this to be a fully-supported rez program, and currently have a few applications in the works to this effect, but at present, don't have funds in place to bring artists in easily. The space itself, however, is avail and will be cost-free to artists who are part of the program, so those whose work fits the mandate of cicac and who have some form of support (sabbatical, cancouncil grants, etc), can take advantage of the program as it stands. I do hope, though, to be able to provide not just full travel.accomm support, but stipends as well, though all remains to be seen.

Otherwise, finished a teaching stint at UBC-Okanagan, co-teaching a graduate seminar in the summer institute of indigenous studies down in Kelowna. Great experience, and kudos to Stephen Foster and Mike Evans for getting that program off the ground. This fall, will be co-teaching another grad course, this to Masters of Education students at TRU, the focus being on development of their thesis/research proposals. Look fwd to this as well, a chance to explore what's out there in critical pedagogy these days.

Planning the guts for fall activities, starting with a visit by Taiwanese scholar Bennett Fu on Sept. 12. Will also try to orchestrate a grand opening of cicac, but will prob look at a mid-fall date for that.

And hopefully the next update shan't be a month down the road, now that i think i have fb somewhat sorted and the dreams of new 'friends' and status updates are no longer as pressing!

Imagining all kindsa places

2007-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Spent the last week at the Imagining Places rez in banff, meeting artists and discussing cicac possibilities. Will return there later this week to do more of the same, and to attend the opening of the "informal architecture" exhibition, curated by Anthony Kiendl. Will prob write something on that show for a site as yet to be determined. For now, am visiting the famed Peter's Drive-in, calgary, where the summer festivities of tearing up roadwork has begun! Glad just to be visiting the city for a couple of days rather than residing here this summer...
_____
CiCAC
Centre for Innovation in
Culture and the Arts in Canada
p. 250.852.6284 w. www.cicac.ca

amateur-crastination

2007-06-14T18:34:00.001-07:00

My oh my, looking on here, see it's been three weeks since my last confession... Talk about putting things on hold. Since that last post, have been huddled down to various bits and pieces of work, some personal, some work-ly, some a combination of both. Currently squatting at the banff centre where i just gave a talk to the artists residing in the "imaginary places" thang. Have been meeting on and off with said artists since then, and buckling down to some book edits. But most of my 'public' and/or virtual spaces have been occupied with my new obsession with facebook, the Next Newest And Best and Brightest thing in our world of communication. So folks can see what i'm up to there, mostly, and how that reflects on cicac. Speaking of which, have just filed my annuals for the crc and the cfi, thinking back on the first 24 months of this enterprise, and realize now that the CiCAC space is all set to flower. Artists will be coming in, utilizing the space, working with other artists and communities, and there should be a vibrancy there from here on in... Meanwhilst, i'll be here in banff for another few days, then after a dropin at calgary, back to parts westward again. In early July, I'll be co-teaching a graduate course called "Diaspors, Peoples, Places" at UBC-O in Kelowna, an intensive fourday course which i look fwd to greatly. Then more time to shipshape things at cicac and do some more writing, as well as a bit of longterm planning... now that cyprus is behind us, want to use that resource as a springboard of sorts to future actions. No telling where that will take us. This blog, however, is bogging down, so will think about how best to utilize, but might return to this space as an on-the-road report from my mobile, which will mean less photos and videos, more shorthand text... will have to see....

Re-centring

2007-05-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

On the tarmac @YYZ now, heading to parts westward after a signif absence. Cyprus behind us, now working on getting vid/photo docs up online. Also came back to the publication of an article written by Rita Wong & me in FUSE, a piece focussing on equity issues in cdn artschools. Just revising that now for pub in a collection ed'd by Smaro Kamboureli and Daniel Coleman, so that shd be good for getting the work circ'd. Some down time to look fwd to, but summer, what with various forms of teaching and art research, will be not so quiet in the long run!
_____
CiCAC
Centre for Innovation in
Culture and the Arts in Canada
p. 250.852.6284 w. www.cicac.ca

Performing images...

2007-05-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's done, the Performing Identity / Crossing Borders symposium is now history. A very hectic schedule and intense time of identities performed, borders (of all kinds) crossed, and enormous amounts of sharing between artists, academics, and audiences. Photos below a mere smattering of some of the symposium and related activities -- performances by Hiromi Goto and David Bateman; by Ann Holloway; and by David Khang (more photos)...

Also side trips to Salomis and Famagusta in the north. Much more to come, including video and audio work, all to be posted at www.cicac.ca.

end of Ledra Street

2007-04-29T00:25:00.000-07:00

Just thinking borders and crossings on the approach of the Performing identity symposium - the photos below show the change in the main promenade, Ledra Street, between last year and this. The first two photos I took in May of 2006, the wall blocking the north/south a bit of a tourist spot complete with observation post; the second photo from a few weeks ago during a press conference at the same site, post-wall. Replacing that and the observation booth is a type of temporary barricade most often seen at the edges of parks during festivals, a rather switch to an informal, obliquely temporary (although such temporariness, as we have seen, can last a great length of time!) impediment to passage...+a

PI/CB venue and hotel

2007-04-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

Below, a few images of where we'll be holding the Performing Identity symposium, fyi. Top left is the Castelli Hotel, where many of you are staying. If you walk about fifty metres down the road, you will come to the symposium venue, the Kasteliotissa. The image top right is of the interior of the space (taken during a saxophone event there today); the remaining images are various exterior shots. If you travel a bit further down the road, not very far, you come to one of the crossing points of the 'green line.'

more nail art

2007-04-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Performing Identity / Crossing Borders: the cyprus symposium is set to begin. Arrived in Nicosia yesterday. Tomorrow a basic checkin day with hotels, venues, other such odds and ends. And, of course, always throw some colour in there to signify an event!

Toronto>Cyprus

2007-04-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

Riding the subway in tee-dot up to finch 2 collect some belongings (my travel stuff distributed about the city, disorderly) before doing lastminute oddenders here as I leave the nation on tuesday. Somehow, all is pulling 2gether for the symposium, may 3-6, Performing Identity / Crossing Borders. Now have all the presentations in (well, mostly) so delegates can read ahead and the symp time will be more discussion than delivery.

Thinking about cultural politics, nationalism, identity & identification - on the subway, a ream of red as fans head to a Raptors game, icons of support temp-tatt'd to arms and cheeks - and what it leads to. On Beverly st yesterday, saw a group of youth sharing a schoolyard court. They were all using the same orangey lowbounce ball. But the group close to me, south asians whom I guessed hailed from south india, practiced their cricket bowling - the other group, all east asian, played street hockey, adorned with standard icehockey gear. Every once in a while, an errant ball went from cricket 2 hockey or versa, and a stick or hand wd return the sphere to rightful team & sport. I stood transfixed by this for some time, not sure why, the game, the history, the nation (however that comes to mean!). And now, shortly, to cyprus. Info, as always, @ www.cicac.ca.

_____
CiCAC
Centre for Innovation in
Culture and the Arts in Canada
p. 250.852.6284 w. www.cicac.ca

I started a joke, video shoot

2007-04-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

A faux fur, a rented PTCruiser, and a dog... all that was needed for a short video shoot on the south hills of Kamloops. We went shooting a short video this past week, produced/directed by David Bateman, inspired by the BeeGees song, "I Started a Joke." Starring David, with Hiromi Goto and Gita as extras. Bill Greene as videographer, Ashok as set photographer... below, contact sheets of the shoot. Video to be released in the next couple of months...

Once Upon an Elephant podcast

2007-03-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Keep forgetting to post this info. CBC radio has posted an excerpt of Once Upon an Elephant, my first novel, as a podcast. The description of the 'cast, which went up on Valentine's Day of this year, was as follows.

Elephants on Parade and Canada Reads
With a nod to Ganesh, the Hindu deity and patron of writers, we hear from elephants today. Readings from Dale Estey´s "The Elephant talks to God", and "Once Upon an Elephant" by Ashok Mathur. Canada Reads feature continues with Barenaked Lady frontman, Steven Page speaking to David Bezmozgis about "Natasha and Other Stories". And an interview with Don Hannah about his latest book, "Ragged Islands." More info on CBC podcasts

Direct link to Once Upon an Elephant podcast

Poetry extravaganza

2007-03-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

A happening weekend. First up, a double launch of poetry books by Jacqueline Turner and David Bateman. Jacqueline is launching her third book; David, his second. As much of JT's family is from the Chase area, and DB just wrappng up another teaching session at TRU, this is a likely locale. We're going to host this event at a local downtown club, Players, and it promises to be a show and a half...

Then, on Saturday, a big opening at the Kamloops Art Gallery. Jimmie Durham's "Knew Urk," curated by Candice Hopkins, is the internationally-acclaimed artist's first solo show in Canada, originally exhibited at the Walter Phillips Gallery in 2005. It's a fascinating exhibit, and quite thrilling that it's coming to the KAG. Also showing will be "Overstepped Boundaries: Powerful Statements by Aboriginal Artists in the Permanent Collection." In this exhibit, three young aboriginal women -- Erika Lakes, Ayla Joe, and Julienne Ignace -- worked with KAG curator, local artists, and educational officers to compile a show from the gallery's collection. It's a challenging move by the KAG and it promises good things in the offing I would think. Of course, there is far more info on the KAG's website.

Related to this double-exhibition is Panel Discussion that I will be facilitating on Sunday. An excellent group of panelists, all with particular expertise in the concept of aboriginal arts education. I see this as a wonderful springboard for possibilities in the arts community here. Below, the official blurb.

Panel Discussion
Stepping Across Boundaries

Sunday, April 1, 1:00 pm

Ken Lepin and Tricia Sellmer Studios

In conjunction with the exhibitions Overstepped Boundaries and Knew Urk, KAG is hosting a special panel discussion. The discussion focuses on the limited Aboriginal content in arts instruction at various levels of education in Kamloops and across Canada, and ways of overcoming such limitations. Join panellists Wendy Chanin, a parent concerned about the absence of Aboriginal cultural content in local elementary schools; Deb Draney, Principal of Aboriginal Education for School District 73, and cofounder of the Interior Aboriginal Artists’ Society; Garry Gottfriedson, a local poet, educator, and activist from the Kamloops Indian Band; Candice Hopkins, curator of Knew Urk; Mary Longman, professional artist, teacher, and Aboriginal education researcher; and Tania Willard, an artist and editor with Redwire Native Youth Media Society. Facilitated by Ashok Mathur, Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry, Thompson Rivers University, the panel looks at ways of crossing the boundaries that limit access to Aboriginal art and developing Aboriginal arts education. Free admission.

more on ceramics

2007-03-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

That's me and Brendan Tang above, and if you look sharply in the back kitchen corner, that's Yuichiro Komatsu. This was taken in Vancouver while Brendan was there for TRU/ECI exchange; Yuichiro was just out here in Kamloops speaking to folks at TRU and having one-to-one sessions with ceramics students. Was really good to get such exchanges going, have the artists spending time together and with interested parties.

Quicktime Movie of Yuichiro's presentation

Now things gearing up for the weekend, which promise to be a host of spinning activities!

Ceramics Instructor exchange

2007-03-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

During the week of March 12, TRU ceramics instructor Brendan Tang visited the Emily Carr Institute as part of an instructional exchange supported by CiCAC. Tang delivered artist talks, worked with students, and was part of a panel on art and craft during a craft show in the Concourse Gallery at ECI (above, Brendan Tang with ECI instructors Paul Mathieu and Deb Koenker). This week, in exchange, ECI ceramics instructor Yuichiro Kamotsu is visiting TRU for a similar program. Images and video of this latter exchange to follow.

2007-03-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

This is a reflection of Glen Lowry and me in Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Millenium Park. That's the Pritzker Pavillion, a Gehry creation, in the background.

Chicago is...

2007-03-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

...a bustle of architecture, a real contemporay babel, city of art+architecture. Here in this windy city for a film/media conf where a group of us - Randy Lee Cutler, Sadira Rodrigues, Glen Lowry, & i - presented a workshop panel on media+sound, its potentials and potential pitfalls in contemporary art practice. A huge conf, a range of materials therein, and as usual, the most productive side was the collegial exchanges. Today, sussed things out at the museum of contemp art, a good show on the past 4 decades of photography. Had a moment of irony, seeing the "no photography" sign inside the photog exhibit! Speaking ironies, very curious scene full of that atop the hancock building (which was, for a brief moment in 1970, the tallest bldg in the world. There is an elaborate "installation" set up there, made to look like the exterior windows of the ob deck. Full of "window-washing" regalia, the onetrick pony concept here is for tourists to pose "as if" they were outside the bldg. To round out the simulacra, and to balance the light, the backdrop of the scene is an evenly-lit city skyline "as if" the scene was actually behind the posing tourists. Of course, this is necessary, photographically-speaking, so that the skyline is "visible" and neither grossly overexposed nor covered in fog/darkness/etc. Still, the ironies abound. Thinking a lot about tourism in various climates of security, economic decline, spectacle, and such. Photos soon to come, both of chicago and the earlier trip to miami - have been offblog for too long now, time to get back at it....The one photo here is of Glen Lowry looking out over the Chicago skyline from the Hancock observatory...

____

Miami visitations

2007-02-28T07:47:00.000-08:00

Arrived @MIA last evening, greeted by friend & colleague, Rita Wong, whose creative writing class at the Uni of Miami I'll be visiting tomorrow. A quiet evening - we picked up Larissa Lai who has been here a few days already. Today we may get to the everglades, or praps to south beach. All in all, a relaxing day before the lecture-visit tomorrow. Etceteras to come...
____
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
office: 250.852.6286
cell: 604.790.4910
web: amathur.ca
blog: http://ashokmathur.blogspot.com/

Trippin' 2 SF

2007-02-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

Heading down to san francisco now, on the tarmac waiting for the green light. Will meet up there with Paula Levine, a wonderful artist i first met when she participated in the IntraNation rez i directed a coupla yrs back now. Paula intersects art w/technology, fusing both with an ascerbic and critical eye toward socio-political engagement. Want to work with her on a future project, just in nascent stages now, but worth meeting with her and colleagues to start ideas flowing. Will also connect with an old colleague, Sky Ward, who works at Berkeley creating possibilities for international students. May be a tenable option for TRU students sometime soon... Will see what she says, then talk to folks at the home institution and see what possibilities exist. A fast trip, just 48 in SF, then back to co-ord upcoming talks at Miami U, Chicago, & Toronto over the next 2 weeks. Will post more on those events soonish. For now, getting my head around the Bay area and how to engage/solicit artist-researchers in the pair of days upcoming...
____
Subject: SanFran, GPS, parrots & more
Time of year when travel & activities are actively juggled - lots of items in the air as we try to bring things into/around CiCAC. Just returned from a very brief visit to san franciso for a couple of equally brief meetings. First off, met with Paula Levine, an artist-researcher i first met when she participated in the IntraNation rez i directed at banff in 2005. Paula teaches at SF state university, working on digital arts and technology. Her work is both technologically savvy and cutting edge and politically astute, so i look fwd to being able to do any sort of project with her. One current interest I'm sharing with others at TRU and elsewhere is the intersection of art + science, a way of integrating such knowledge bases to investigate everything from globalized militarism to alternative sources of energy to expanded media in the arts. If CiCAC can work as a thinktank on such arenas, perhaps developing networks through NSERC and other national/regional funding bodies and f
oundations, there could be something remarkable to build on for graduate students, public intellectuals, and artists from all over. Paula is also working with Henry Tsang and others (including Glen Lowry at ECI, CiCAC, etc) on a project that will look at how Dubai architects are essentially reproducing vancouver's false creek as part of a development plan. Such international approaches (that is, the integrated involvement of artists with critical attention to implications of such issues) is important to theorizing globalization and its variegated effects. More on this as it develops.

Also met with an old colleague, Skye Ward, someone i first encountered back in 1990 at the gay games in vancouver. At the time, she was part of Aché, a black lesbian collective working out of the Bay area. She had just started then at Berkeley and is still there as the summer sessions International Student Services Manager. While mostly we caught up on international engagements (like me, she has an interest in taiwan where she does a fair bit of recruitment) while touring the bay, i want to see what sort of arrangements could be made for tru students who might have an interest in studying for a session at berkeley. Might invite her up to talk to our internat study folks at some time if it's feasible.

The other point of note from SF was our sudden discovery of the wild parrots of telegraph hill. Some folks out there in blogland might have read the book on this subject, though more are prob familiar with the recent feature doc on the parrots. We were descending from the hill when we came upon a flock of very noisy, very green, very active birds, flitting from tree to tree on the leeward side of the hill. Spent some consid time photographing them. Will post images when I'm not settled into an airline seat composing notes on the bberry...

Yes, today off to calg for a brief and non-business visit, back in the 'loops sunday, then to van on monday so i can catch an early early tues flight out to yyz to catch my connector to miami where I'll be doing creative writing class visits for emily carr prof (currently visiting prof at UMiami). Then on the way back through toronto, partaking in a workshop session at an event sponsored by the Metropolis Project folks. Will be speaking to citizenship and artistic intersections. That toronto visit will also give me a chance to followup with folks at the South Asian Visual Arts Collective on future collab projects, so we'll see where that takes us.

More events to tell about as things transpire...

i confess!

2007-02-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

FWIW, the presentation I did at Jacqueline Turner's class on 'blogs, youtube, and confession." Note that these are only notes toward a presentation, so there are lots of gaps and spaces - imagine them filled with all sorts of extemporizing!

"i confess!" notes
Images from powerpoint

Meta blog

2007-02-06T17:18:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, a metaproject of sorts, visiting Jacqueline Turner's social science class on "Blogging, YouTube, and Confession" at the Emily Carr Institute. I've been quite intrigued by the notion of blogging over the past little while, its possibilities and pitfalls, its nuances and newness. As a (one time) journalist, it recalls a type of reportage, a telling-the-world in a particular way, although, of course, its ubiquity means something quite else. There's a quotation attributed to Hemmingway, that journalism was only "literature in a hurry"; if so, then blogging may just be journalism on speedballs, a hurry-up-please-it's-time type of writing that bases itself in 'reality' if sometimes a virtual one. At any rate, tomorrow's talk will be intriguing. I plan on talking a bit about journalism, a bit about how i came (in)to blogging as part of an artistic practice, and a bit about confession (and autobiography in all its myriad forms). Since Jacqueline has her students reading some Augustine and Foucault, might use that as a jumping off point. This will be somewhat of a cross between a formal lecture and a face-to-face blogging encounter, and I'm strategizing was to make this function in just such a manner. One thing I have extolled in the past is the usefulness of working together with other artists to complement our various practices, and this is no different. I more or less volunteered to come speak to Jacqueline's class because we have worked together in the past; she, in turn, will be coming to Kamloops on March 30 to launch her recently-published book of poetry, Seven into Even (ECW Press), a co-launch with David Bateman's new book of poetry, Impersonating Flowers. To that end, I think I'll be incorporating some of DB's work on confession/autobiog into the classblogtalk tomorrow as well, using a clip from his Bravo-distributed short film, The Bather (that's a video-grab from the film to the left). What comes around comes around...Might post a precis of the blog/confession talk, or at least a ppt bit if I decide to go that route...

Failure as aesthetic

2007-01-24T00:56:00.000-08:00

The panel at the Dowsing for Failure installation at Open Space was engaging indeed. The conversations ranged from the curatorial process to the theoretical and conceptual notions of failure in artistic practice. It was a productive time, and hats off to Doug Jarvis and Ted Hiebert who put this complex project together. As for my role, I put together some brief notes toward the topic and link my presentation on failure here as a word file.

Failures

2007-01-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

Flying over the gulf islands on my way to victoria wherean this aft, will give a talk on "failure" at the artist-run centre, Open Space. Curated by Ted Hiebert & Doug Jarvis is an exhibition there, focussed on this very notion: failure and what that means in artistic practice. When i first saw their call for sub's, i wrote to ted+doug, expressing interest in what they were doing and how they were approaching the topic. So when they invited me to speak at a panel regarding the show and its concepts, i jumped at the opportunity. I partic like their insistence that we not (always) look at "failure" as ultimately recuperable, for there are times when it might be best not to see failings as but a way toward success (whatever those terms mean). Will see the show early this aft before the panel, will post my talk (or notes toward such) on this site presently. Meanwhile, sunny skies prevail here on the island, a switch from the wintery 'scape that is kamloops at this moment in climatology!
____
Ashok Mathur
Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry
Thompson Rivers University
office: 250.852.6286
cell: 604.790.4910
web: amathur.ca
blog: http://ashokmathur.blogspot.com/

cicac in the saddle

2007-01-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

Equipment starting to roll into CiCAC now, so the officey space is chockablock with boxes of macs and assorted gear. Will spend the next few getting things set up, fixing places for setups, and doing general interior dec'g. Still lacking furniture (prob stalled somewhere in purchasing or on the rogers' pass!) but have enough to start things up. Will upload photos of the process soon. Meanwhilst, the photo at right clipped from a kamloops webcam - or go to a current view of looking down the valley toward the north shore...

Melbourne: day last

2006-12-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Near the end of a productive visit. Met today with playwright and shortstory writer Chi Vu, whose work with communities in Melbourne sounds quite engaging. After connecting with her, Tom Cho, Paul Carter, Peta Stephenson, and Som Sengmany (all through the vast network that is Tseen Khoo!), I'm certain that there are loads of possibilities with artists and theorists here for CiCAC and such. I picked up Paul's book, Material Thinking after meeting him, and I'm excited by our congruity of ideas around artistic research. One of his central tenets is that creative research "studies complexity and it defends complex systems of communication against over-simplification....Its success cannot be measured in terms of simplification and closure. Exploring the reinvention of social relations at that place does not produce a 'discovery' that can be generalised and patented. It is an imaginative break-through, which announces locally different forms of sociability, environmental interactivity and collective storytelling" (13). He goes on to state that such creative research is all about processes of self reinvention, a very attractive and necessary project, I would suggest. So I close down the Melbourne chapter with some reflections. Up on Lygon Street (thanks to Haema Sivanesan's recommendations, she of the sydney-to-toronto recent migration!), the Italian quarter replete with boyz in sidewalk cafes and pumped bikes and cars racing down the divided boulevard, quite an experience in the summer heat as folks jockey for position at gelato stands. The beach image

is down St Kilda street where the day started at 40-plus, but then the buzz along the stall operators that "the change" was coming at 3 pm. Sure enough, as i sat watching the waves, a wind picked up and blew twenty degrees right off the mercury in less than an hour. Then there was the ubiquity of lane-shopping in the melbourne cbd, this taken from "Hells," just off Degraves. And, afternoon sun does wonders to the design aesthetics that pepper the streets, this silvery array functioning as a footgrip on the corner of Bourke and Exhibition...

Bush fires

2006-12-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

Temperature broke forty degrees today, a hindrance to those fighting bush fires near Melbourne. News reports that what with the severe drought, extreme temperatures, and excessive winds, this inferno has the potential to rival the devestation of 1939 when fires ravaged the region and killed more than 70. Some of the smaller towns are on evacuation alert and firefighters are being brought in from different parts of Australia and different nations to help contain the flames. Yesterday, woke up to a thick fog of smoke over Melbourne, socking in the city and delaying flights as the smoke set off smoke detectors which automatically shut down baggage handling. One of the images below shows the city in the morning smoke; another image shows a NASA photo of what the region looks like from orbit, the smoke clearly forming a distinct weather pattern of its own. Today was a bit clearer (or maybe we're just getting used to the smell) and the temperature dropped a remarkable ten degrees in what seemed to be a few minutes, a welcome relief from the intensity of the heat.

in & around melbourne

2006-12-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

Wandering around the city, abuzz with people and places to see. Some images below, the bright Flinders Station, and below that the much-photographed "3 Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch" sculpture, installed in 1994 by artists Alison Weaver and Paul Quinn. I also like the state library aesthetic, a building contemplating its own ruins in some sort of romanesque reflection. And, of course, the municipal xmas tree standing stall on Swantson St. Have also been meeting with academics doing cool work in Asian-oz and Indigenous art/culture production. Hoping to get back here next June when the Asian-Australianists will be conferencing together. And in my wanderings, getting interested in urban music, found a pretty wild Latin/hiphop group from Melbourne, Labjacd and also here's a sample from an Aboriginal hiphop group, Culture Connect, just recorded on the iPod.

Taipei 2 Melbourne

2006-12-06T15:20:00.000-08:00

A few days off-blog, much of that in transit and down time post-transit... Left Taipei on Dec 3, a connector to HongKong and then the voyage down to Melbourne. The city is not as hot as it often is this time of year, mid20s rather than high30s, so that's pleasant enough. Have spent most of my time here just roaming around, a quiet time after the busyness of the tour in taiwan. Staying at the Quest on Bourke, a tidy apt-hotel that is quite nice and spacious. Central to the main district, so much so that i have yet to explore transit as i've just been en pied for the time here. Meeting with Tseen Khoo in a couple of hours, a mover and shaker of the Asian-Australian scene, and she's set me up with a number of other academics and artists for future CiCAC purposes. Met with Peta Stephenson yesterday, a researcher whose work involves investigating the current movement of Australian Aboriginals toward Islam as well as looking at Indigenous/Asian cross-cultural histories in oz. Good meetup and a good contact for the future. Looking, today, for some Aboriginal hiphop and such, thinking about current and contemporary expressions of globalized artistic currency around racialized communities. Have a line on a few bands. Off to do that now.

National Taiwan Normal Uni

2006-11-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

That's our host, Leonard Reil, Deputy Director/General Relations for the Cdn Trade Office in Taipei, just before our NTNU event, and below that, an image of Hiromi reading to the seminar group at NTU later that day.

We decided to do a bi of a changeup this time starting with context instead of the readings. It's a smaller group, but very engaged, and host Iping Liang, professor of English here, has been as gracious as have all the other hosts. I set things up around the changing landscape of Canlit over the last 20 years, how we're no longer in the (relatively) exclusive domain of writing from the wilderness, so to speak. Hiromi is speaking now, talking of how we can 'imagine' ourselves into our texts, a strong concept that is definitely worth pursuing. As per usual, she is very clean and precise in her articulations, and I can see how the students are thoroughly engaged. (Makes me slightly envious! But this also goes toward how our trio is quite complementary in how we come together and give out different things that the audience seems to be able to draw together.) And now David is up, connecting the dots around autobiographial storytelling. He talks of identity and identity-blurring, again effectively connecting with the students about race and queer politics. What i particularly like about this entire tour is how we've resisted the formality of the occasion, talking "off the cuff," that is, not off the page. We then turned to some readings: i began with the opening gambit of Once Upon an Elephant, a good piece to throw canadian-context into a series like this; Hiromi reads from Hopeful Monsters, a funny bit that covers the transcanada highway, so, again, a good bit for this group; David shows a photo of his costume from the Lotus Blossom Special production, then his Powder Blue video. From there, we went into questions of technology and the body, all within the context of 'crossing borders' and what that means (or meant)....

transnationalisms...

2006-11-30T18:26:00.000-08:00

Transnationalisms: sitting here, last day of the tour, thinking of the whirlwind thus far, cars/buses/airplanes, four universities in three days, and after today, six in four. The cost to the body, weariness of multiple roads and peoples and buildings and foods, leaves one wondering about lasting effects, both good and bad. This city, Taipei, bustles, but not as much as I would have thought. The traffic outside the pale of canadian roads but not the asia I have known in india, for instance (the overwhelming smells of exhaust and the noise, oddly craved with all the sensory surroundings). So, sitting here in a Starbucks, an ode to transnationalisms, listening to Izzy Kamaawiwo’ole, another ode to indigeneity as it performs across borders, perhaps, getting some quiet time but refusing the too-quiet of the xmas-music starbucks so sitting outside with the smokers, listening to traffic and watching the sun break through for real this time it looks like…Met yesterday with Ron MacIntosh, exec director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, himself a newcomer to the country and post as of two months. It’s interesting, as always, to talk to civil servants to see how different interests converge – that is, what are we doing here, I sometimes wonder, and what does this have to do with Canada, international relations, transnationalisms? None of this is querulous or quarrelsome, just an open-ended query… Shot some video yesterday in Xinzhu, will try to post later...Below, that's our host at Xinzhu, Guy Beauregard, walking along with Hiromi at the spectacular campus.

National Sun Yat-sen University (Gaoxing)

2006-11-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

Hosted graciously by Professor Hsinya Huang, this talk took place at a quite beautiful site by the sea. Following a spectacular and humour-filled lunch, we talked to a group of perhaps forty students. DB showed a short DVD bit, "My Powder Blue Room," to start things off after I introduced the general context of "TBS" in terms of border-crossings, metaphorical, theoretical, and physical. DB furthered his discussion on disrupting masculine/feminine binaries as they affect the body, how to play with them, both comically and thought-provoking. We seguéd from there to Hiromi's work, who also talked about gendered constructions, particularly around codes of identity. She read from her wonderful piece, "Tales from the Breast," and this took the students into a great story-listening space. I closed with the first page of my new ms, "A Little Distillery in Nowgong," and talked about interdisciplinarity in the context of art installations and subverting reading conventions.

Below, graduate students Roy and Clara take us on a pre-talk visit to the British Consulate at Takao, a beautiful hillside lookout over the ocean; we later made a quick post-lunch run down to the water, and after the seminar (attended by a good number of students and professors), DB and HG decided to take a swim. Yes, that's DB in his best baywatch pose.

National Cheng-chi University, Taipei

2006-11-27T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here we are, first event of the Transnational Border Shopping Tour. English prof Patricia Ssutu at the National Cheng-chi University in Taipei requested that David Bateman come talk to her class on dramatic oral presentation. It's a small class, perhaps twenty students, and David began with an articulate and brilliant intro to gendered voices. The students seem particularly engaged as he moved into voice and song to illustrate gendered constructions. (And yes, I'm using a present tense because I am, indeed, blogging this up as he delivers his talk, and will upload some audio and still photos when we hit Taizhong this evening). Have to say I'm impressed with how DB is able to let students enter into a world that might be both unfamiliar but liberating for them. Quite an excellent way to start this TBS tour! Next up will be a good two-hour+ van trip to Taizhong where we will present at the National Cheng-hsing University.

Tapei: day one

2006-11-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Photos below: 1) outside our hotel window, 2) street view of Taipei 101, 3) DB gets a real street view of 101

Just arrived in Taipei late Sunday evening, my arrival preceded by colleagues D. Bateman and H. Goto, all of us part of the "Transnational Border Shopping" cdn readers tour of Taiwan that begins on Tuesday. For those who happen to be clocking in from this side of the world, our sched is below...

Travel always interesting. I had to book a different flight from my reading companions because the next leg of my journey takes me to Melbourne and it's one of those difficult triangulated issues that necessitated me taking a different airline. So had to fly through Hong Kong, got in late with barely half an hour to my Taipei flight, but was met at the arrivals gate by a Cathay rep who escorted me and others directly to our flight. This fellow, Alfred, asked what i was doing in Taipei and when i told him about the reading tour, told me he was studying english lit at uni in HK. During our fastpaced walk to the gate, he told me how interested he was in the social and political implications of diverse literatures, and he insisted on getting my information so he could see my books. Quite a commitment from someone who's barely met me, and certainly out of context. Hopefully we can connect on flights back and fro...

Might be of interest to some to take a look at the 2006 New Year's celebrations in Taipei. Featured prominently is the building known as Taipei 101 (no, not a course number, but the tallest building in the world), and could not help but think o the simulacrum brought about by pyrotechnics blowing light and smoke out of said tallest building, how that resonates (or might) with viewers. Giving pause...

Fallow day tomorrow, good for jetlag recov, then full steam into this sched...

Tuesday, November 28th
10:00am-12:00pm National Cheng-chi University - David Bateman (Taipei)
3:00-5:00pm National Chung-hsing University (Taizhong) - Room 502, The Language Center (Wan Nien Hall) - Campus Guards can give directions.
6:00pm Dinner hosted by University
Evening In Taizhong

Wednesday, November 29th
Morning Bus to Gaoxiong
12:00pm Lunch hosted by University
2:00-4:00pm National Sun Yat-sen University (Gaoxiong)
Evening Fly to Taipei

Thursday, November 30th
Morning Travel to Xinzhu (1hr.)
10:30am-12pm National Hsing-hwa University (Xinzhu)
12:30pm Lunch hosted by University
Afternoon Return to Taipei
Evening Dinner with Ron MacIntosh, Head of Mission, and local guests - at Official Residence (to be confirmed)

Friday, December 1st
11:00am Lunch hosted by University
12:30-2:00pm National Taiwan Normal University (Taipei)
3:30-5:00pm National Taiwan University (Taipei)
6:00pm Dinner hosted by University

Whirlwinds and Worlds

2006-11-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Quite an intense return to Vancouver, arrived the day before the "Sexing the Text" conference up at Simon Fraser Uni. Was a runaround day indeed as I did final preps for the keynote I was presenting on the saturday and prep'd my house for visitors including poet and former research assistant Sharanpal Ruprai. The conf itself was a blast -- as the schedule at the above link shows, an eclectic and powerful group of presentations, including a tremendous friday evening series of readings and performances. Woman-about-town Larissa Lai gave an intriguing presentation along with Betsy Warland on the Friday afternoon, all about how we situate ourselves in our contemporary politics, so it set a good tone. I presented my keynote, an awkwardly-overworded title: "Transnational Border Shopping: (Virtual Purchases, Body and Nation): what we all long for when we long for crossing over" that was more a collection of theoretical and sociopolitical concepts all wrapped into literature and contemp climates. It's avail on my now-updated CiCAC website, which can be reached by shortcut at amathur.ca , or for those who want immediate (lack of) gratification, you can go straight to the pdf version of the Transnational Border Shopping paper replete with images.

Today, trying to get the IntraNation issue of WCL off the rails along with intrepid editor Glen Lowry, and also planning for the next couple of weeks of travel, Toronto, Taipei, Melbourne. And all the while trying to remember that there are the day-to-day duties that all too often get second shrift! So back to them. Oh, and a shoutout to Wayde, Karina, David-C for the successful launch of Commodore Books the other day. It's an imprint of WCL, and the focus is the production of Black Canadian literature. Good job to all involved, and to those reading this, look out for these titles!

Lobbytown, canada

2006-10-31T14:46:00.000-08:00

Spent the last 48 meeting & greeting with a plethora of arts bureaucrats, both inside & outside of the capitol, ironically, since I'm physically in ottawa @ the moment. Crossing back over from the Gatineau just now where i was chatting with folks @ Heritage about cicac, cyprus, and sundry. Yesterday, my time was all at 350 Albert, Constitution Sq, home to both the cancouncil & sshrc. And even the prior wknd spent hanging and chatting with various bureaucrats. And then the occasional e- or skype to folks in Taipei to finalize our taiwan plans. Have quite enjoyed these various convos, finding them both productive and informative. Always struck, when talking to civil servants, by two things: first, that the ones i engage tend toward more progressive thought than they are able to present publicly, and second and related, there is so often an acute sense of hierarchies, such that phrases like 'public scrutiny,' 'fiscal responsibility,' 'national interest' tend to pepper the conversations and inflect the directions we end up travelling. Not so much a critique here, but an observation. What it must be like to inhabit the political town of ottawa, rather than being an occasional visitor, entering by VIA, exiting by YOW. We may carry similar passports, but our identities differ according to so many factors. The "equity" question, partly because of my interests and the direction CiCAC is going, is a major yet complex player, whether at cancouncil, sshrc, pch, trade... I think this trip is giving me a wider education in the realm of racialization, within and without the confines of official multiculturalism, for eg. More on this later...

see-en, seeing, somatic

2006-10-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Casting myself in recovery mode after the 'retooling humanities' workshop out in Guelph. Long days and late nights constituted this quite engaging day and a half of full-on discussion on policy, politics, and ways of being politc. That is, how do we, the players in the humanities inside academe, stay the course and do the work amidst changing times and concerns, both from governmental funding bodies and the grassroots of our profession. I came away overwhelmed by the depth of engagement by those present, and I sit/stand in awe of folks like Len and Donna and Smaro and Daniel and a rather impressive list of others who took us forward in marvellous ways. And then, and now, not exactly a switching gears, but maybe switching tracks, back in the bigsmoke for a few days as I double-prong prep for: the 'define indian' panel that will hit the stage at OCAD on thursday eve, and the 'sexing the text' conf at sfu on nov 4 for which i'm pushing together a rather rambly keynote addressing migrancy, citizenship, a politics of (in)security, queer time and space, the literary spinnings of Brand and Malkani, and that body always crossing lines of a variety of forms. So that is what I'm doing, a relative conflagaration of concepts that keeps me looking outside as much as it drives me inside. So I spend time misinterpreting, like applying Beyoncé lyrics from "Ring the Alarm" to an urgent social condition....

People told me 'bout the flames
I couldn't see through the smoke
When I need answers, accusations
What you mean you gon' choke
Oh

...instead of its intended focus on a nice ol' boy-girl backforth thing?

So there i was today, braving the chillwind coming off the lake as i looked for a good spot to score a coffee and a table on which to spread out some theory, ended up down at queen's quay, was thinking of this bit on gender transgressions by Bobby Noble, “where quantitative increments in somatic signifiers of gender along one axis can suddenly appear as qualitative differences on the other" and trying to unravel that when a guy comes by asking if he can use the chair that was then so unglamorously occupied by a computer bag and backpack. I'm there at table with four spare seats and it became apparent that he was looking for seats for two, so i ask him if he can use the already-vacant seats, but that would have meant shifting one of the chairs over (is all i can surmise is where his resistance came from) so there was that odd form of urban interaction where I relented, after all, made no difference, but still, odd. What it did was vector me out of a particular time and space into another, from solitudinous and inner spinning to conversational and interactive. Not much to be said here, just that curious moment of disjunction.

Trace ahead to this evening, taking a break from the revolving door of theory, took myself out for a spin toward queen and spadina, picked up the latest harper's with its oddly placed and tacit critique of rising star of the american left Baraka Obama (is he selling out like all politicians must, comes the querying argument, to the machine of capital that strangleholds american power, or was this a shot from the left over the bow of a leftist figure to foreshorten the predictable hits that are bound to be coming from the right as Obama steers himself, or is steered, toward Pennsylvania Avenue?) and retired to a tiny Jamaican restaurant for a bite and a read. Past dinner but still halfway through the magazine, now an article highlighting the apparent vacuous quality of the student-right movement in contemp politics, a guy walks in and orders a drink, loudly engaging the manager, the server, and, as was my misfortune, other patrons. He is trying to explain to the owner that he is 'part-indian part-jamaican' hence his desire to meet up here with friends -- fair enough, though his monologue peppered with racist undertones about how the people up the street (that would be the heart of chinatown) won't speak english and how they clearly don't like the look of him. The manager politely nods but points out that such is not truly the case, leastwise not across the board. Deciding to look for someone else to similarly engage, he turns to me, the quiet kid intent on reading his harpers, and asks me if i'm a student. No, i respond, no. But that's not enough, so he wants to know where i'm from, focussing in on my 'indianness' quite evidently. Answers of 'vancouver' or 'calgary' are inadequate, and after the third time i give him 'kamloops' in response to 'what, what?' i decide to stick to the west coast. Did i have a girlfriend? he wanted to know -- having earlier expounded to the manager about his girlfriend who was supposed to be there but was late by a couple of hours as usual (making me wonder, was she perpetually tardy or did he just not get the message), he was clearly looking for a particular answer, that being 'yes,' so i give them to him lyingly and it is good enough to let him let me get back to my reading. But, i wonder, how was he reading my body, particularly when he decided to ask me my name in hindi, that interesting multilingual non-response which somehow dissatisfied? Bodies out of sync, in a different place. Somatic presence. How the body reads...

Quite recently, an evening of talk and theory and play, find myself at the end of the day talking with a young south asian woman who needs to know (in order to reach a comfort zone or a definition?) my self-categorization re sexuality, given a lot of talk that night was given over to questions of attraction and desire. Her query was framed around whose body I would draw myself to, given that room, given the presence of the boys and girls therein. An answer, I didn't provide, but had i, i wonder, would that have satisfied the question(er), the answer(er), or that wriggly notion of somatic sensibility?