Worlding Public Cultures

topographies of a homeplace: wolastokuk

topographies of a homeplace is multimedia work engaging with topographical beadwork to explore counter-cartographic mnemonic narratives. this project began in the form of a book, images of the beaded topographies accompanied by automatic prose divulging into the memories of spaces near and defined by water. since its conception, it has also evolved into a mobile practice of community-building and communal memory-making and sharing.

PROJECTIONS

In cartography, a projection is a transformation of the three-dimensional shape of the planet onto a two-dimensional surface. Mapped projections, by definition, distort the surface to some extent: some of the most accurate projections are less legible due to the lines of division and intersection, whereas some of the most recognizable projections (such as the Mercator projection) distort large portions of the globe by shrinking equatorial regions in comparison to northern landmasses. In psychological terms, projection refers to the impulse to see aspects of oneself — accurately or inaccurately — in others. Between these two definitions of projection lay fertile grounds for considering the land through the lens of both the affective and the political. It underscores the impact of the epistemic violence of misrepresentation: the map becomes a way of understanding the non-Western world and racialized bodies, so that the ‘distorted’ map imposes just as real a set of political restrictions as the ‘accurate’ one. As a point of departure, this project seeks to ask: How do racialized bodies navigate both geographic and social space? How are bodies codified as ‘excessive’ through normative conceptualizations of space and geography? And how is belonging asserted and denied through interactions with the land and its signifiers? By intervening upon images of the map, the border, and the earth, this project seeks to visualize the tension between belonging and rejection, expressing the effects of that tension through the use of animated images that cycle indefinitely and interact variously with the surfaces upon which they are projected. Dislocation — physical, social, and psychic — is made manifest in its different forms through animated work that is tactile and visceral despite its intangibility.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the City of Ottawa, without which this project would not have been possible.

Myth Marks

Myth Marks is a series of six animations that comprise a portion of my graduating MA project in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. In this project, I undertook a research/creation methodology to think through the decolonization of the Canadian cultural institution. Myth Marks critically examines the ways that the ethnographic display of ‘Islamic Art’ (and art that works in didactic relation to Muslim bodies) is used as part of ongoing projects of colonization. These animations consider these questions from an experiential starting point, meditating on my own affective reactions to racializing discourses in the Canadian cultural sphere. I did this as a way of prioritizing the racialized, gendered body as a legitimate starting point for critical discourse, which works alongside the politics and policies that govern institutions and circumscribe the limitations of representation in such a framework. Myth Marks seeks to question the apparently clear-cut dividing lines that demark high art from craft, institutions from communities, professionals from amateurs, ‘legitimate’ voices from illegible ones. By doing so, it works as part of an intersectional approach to decolonization, one that considers the multiplicity of erasures experienced by Queer women of colour from essentializing narratives of Islam and immigration.

Why do I tell you this? 

This artwork is part of a series featured in the exhibition Other Histories. Installed in FOFA's Courtyard, this work is a collaborative project by London-based activist, novelist and writer Tariq Ali and the artist Amin Rehman. The project investigates and questions themes such as violence, conflict and war to highlight the complexities of a global ideology in the context of neo-colonialism and aggressive world capitalization.

Text in red 

if you work together

share your food

look after each other,

as many of our people

did in the early days

then our community

might survive

Text in grey

why do i tell you this ?

because how you decide to live

after your victory will determine

how long you will survive.

if one of you decides to become

the lord of the land and the rest of

you accept then you will not last long 

-Tariq Ali, A sultan in Palermo, 2005.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts through the Explore and Create Visual Arts Grant; Ontario Arts Council through the Visual Arts Grant; and, Toronto Arts Council through the Visual Arts Grant.

Achadiya 

The “achadiya” is the dropcloth that blocks printers lay over their long tables, prior to starting the printing process. The achadiya is usually a heavier cloth that may have imperfections or is recycled and absorbs the excess resist during the printing process. While the artisan-designer, Salemamad Khatri based in Kutch, Gujarat, was printing the panels for my artwork Mobile Palace, I asked him to keep the “achadiya”, which he also uses for printing Ajrakh motifs on dupattas and saris for his ongoing commercial work. These dropcloths have been mordanted and dyed in indigo, revealing an incredible imprinting and layering of my motifs that quote Corbusier’s Mill Owners’ Association Building, and the Ajrakh motifs, which are believed to be from Islamic architecture. With some of the achadiya, I have responded to the imprints with the addition of mirrors, inspired by the use of mirrors in Kutch which appears in their architecture and embroidery on textiles. Simultaneously, master craftswomen in Kutch are doing skillful shiska-kam or mirror-work embroidery, also responding to the imprints. I have treated the process of placing the mirrors similar to how I work with drawing and mark-making. Although I have given the craftswomen this work with general instructions and examples of what I want to achieve, it is up to them to make the decisions about the placement of the mirrors. This series of achadiyas is about bringing to light the things that were never meant to be seen.

Recycled Plastics for Recycled Words

These plastic weavings are made by artisans in Kutch, Gujarat, with instructions that I send regarding the text and colour combinations. The recycling of plastic process involves taking plastic bags out of garbage dumps, sanitizing them, and cutting them into string which is then put on a spool using a charkha, or a spinning wheel. The plastic is then woven on a loom with a nylon warp and weft. The materials range from black and blue plastic carry bags to gold and silver biscuit wrappers. I sent over a series of phrases that I have encountered on exhibition labels or press releases, and these are phrases that are often used to help explain artworks particularly with artists of colour. Phrases like "a nod to", or "in reference to"... it’s always a nod to something we are supposed to know inherently, that being art from the West. The title speaks about the recycling process of plastic in relation to the recycling of these words or phrases.

These works are made with Premji Bhai, a weaver in Kutch, Gujarat.