Place listening, exploring material narratives

Throughout human history there has been a perpetual presence of visual culture, resulting in the need for documentation, records of events and physical memorabilia. With colonialism’s dependency on visual repertoire and the appropriation of cultural artefacts informing the basis of art history, a linear narrative is projected onto information to omit certain voices.

Drawing on the concept of placemaking within contemporary landscapes, this conference aims to discuss the dynamic relationships between materiality, architecture, overlapping historical narratives and involuntary memory to open a discourse for reconciliation. With a vast colonial history, material facets of everyday interactions in Turtle Island (Canada) can act as reminders and triggers of violent pasts.

Power distribution ties into notions of nationhood, calling to mind the idea of a conditioned gaze that influence the way we move through space, and raises questions about the limitations of one's mobility.

As topics concerning immigration and citizenship become more prominent today, the ninth annual Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History Conference aims to look into the ways in which various power structures continue to be at play within the art world and begin challenging these narratives of exclusion.

Itinerary

10:30 a.m.
Introductory remarks by Vania Djelani

10:45 a.m.
Professional panel
Elaine Speight on the ontology and embodiment of place listening

11:15 p.m.
Student panel
Place listening in a Canadian setting with Hannah Deskin and Diane Wong

12 p.m.
Professional panel
Melissa Patel and Nalini Mohabir on memories of migration

1 p.m.
Lunch (provided) 

2 p.m.
Student panel
Disturbing material memory with Ariel St-Louis, Aurelie Bezacier and Alyse Tunnell

3 p.m.
Ethnocultural Art Histories Research in Media (EAHR) panel
Waterways: Asian Indigenous relations in contemporary art

4 p.m.
Coffee break

4:30 p.m.
Professional curatorial panel
Eunice Belidor and Sandra Brewster on forming narratives in an institutional setting

5:30 p.m.
Puppet making workshop

6:30 p.m.
Finissage and EAHR publication launch at 4TH SPACE