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Charmaine A. Nelson , et.al. (Ed.)
Captus Press,
ISBN
978-1-55322-365-8
(2018)
Towards
an African Canadian Art History: Art, Memory, and Resistance, is the first book to consolidate the
field of African Canadian Art History. Despite the centuries-long presence of
Africans in Canada, black Canadian artistic and cultural production has been
summarily neglected. Canadian participation in transatlantic slavery resulted
in a repository of images of black subjects that are often stereotypical and
parallel those of other Western nations, and Canada’s artistic investments in
colonial ideals of blackness have yet to be fully examined or challenged. Drawing
from the established fields of “African American Art History”, “Race and
Representation”, and the “Visual Culture of Slavery”, Charmaine A. Nelson and
her colleagues — a group of established and up-and-coming artists, scholars,
and cultural critics — argue for an African Canadian Art History that can
simultaneously examine the artistic contributions of black Canadian artists
within their unique historical contexts, critique the colonial representation
of black subjects by white artists, and contest the customary racial
homogeneity of Canadian Art History. The
book examines art, artists, and visual and material culture from the eighteenth
century to the present. Posing a conscious challenge to the boundaries of
traditional art historical understandings of artistic value and worth, this
groundbreaking book explores “high,” “low,” and popular art across various
media, including caricature, conceptual art, dolls, dress, advertisements,
genre studies, landscapes, and portraiture. Towards an African Canadian Art
History points us in a new direction — encouraging movement towards
artistic, scholarly, and art historical futures that are more inclusive, while
calling for the acknowledgement of black artists and subjects in their unique
Canadian-ness as well as their shared African and Black Diasporic histories. For an insightful review of the significance of Towards An African Canadian Art History and its impact on the perception of race in Canadian art, history and culture, click here.
Introduction: Towards an African Canadian Art History Part 1 Memory, Nostalgia, and Spectacle Chapter 1 “Just
Imported and To Be Sold”: Creolization and the Slave–Master Relationship in Eighteenth-Century
Nova Scotia Aditi Ohri Chapter 2 Exerting
and Cultivating Selves: Nineteenth-Century Photography and the Black Subject in
Southern Ontario Julie Crooks Chapter 3 “History
Could be Taught by Means of Dolls ...”: Race, Doll-Play, and the History of
Black Female Slavery in Canada Alexandra Kelebay Chapter 4 “Come
One, Come All”: Blackface Minstrelsy as a Canadian Tradition and Early Form of Popular
Culture Cheryl Thompson Part 2 Resistance and Cultural Preservation Chapter 5 “The
Canadian Inhabitants are Remarkably Fond of Dancing”: Reading the African Musicians
in George Heriot’s Minuets of the Canadians (1807) Charmaine A. Nelson Chapter 6 The
Likeness of Fugitivity: Transatlantic Considerations of a Canadian Photograph Emilie Boone Chapter 7
Invisible Empires Deanna Bowen Chapter 8 Spiritual
Baptist Ritual Garments in Church and in Community Carol B. Duncan Part 3 Institutional Practice Chapter 9 From
Portrait of a Negro Slave to Portrait of a Haitian Woman: The Racial Politics
of Renaming Art in Canadian Museum Practice Charmaine A. Nelson Chapter 10 Cricket
in Montreal: Visualizing Race, Masculinity, and Community in Nineteenth- and Twentieth
Century Canada Mercelie Dionne-Petit Chapter 11 Visualities
of “Difference”: De-Constructing Gendered “Third World” Subjects in Representations
of Canadian International Aid Christiana Abraham Part 4 Historiography Chapter 12
Authoring Belonging: Early African Canadian Fine Artists George H. McCarthy
(1860–1906) and Edith H. McDonald (c.1880–1954) Adrienne R. Johnson Chapter 13 Beyond
Parochialism: Telling Tales about Black Activism and Conceptual Art Krys Verrall Chapter 14 Articulating
Spaces of Representation: Contemporary Black Women Artists in Canada Alice Ming Wai Jim Chapter 15 Claiming
Space: The Development of Black Canadian Cultural Activism of the 1980s and
1990s Andrea Fatona Contributors
Christiana Abraham is currently an Assistant
Professor Communications Studies at Concordia University (Montreal). Since
obtaining her PhD in Communication Studies from McGill University, Abraham’s
teaching and research have focused on race ethnicity and the media, development
communication, visualities, postcoloniality and global media issues. She holds
extensive field experience in development communication and media in Canada and
the Caribbean and has taught at the University of the West Indies, St.
Augustine Campus (Trinidad and Tobago). Emilie Boone As an Assistant Professor of Art History
at CUNY New York City College of Technology, Emilie Boone specializes in the
art of the African Diaspora with particular research interests in African
American and Caribbean photography. During the 2018–2019 academic year, she
will serve as the Chester Dale Fellow in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s
Department of Photographs. Her current book project on James Van Der Zee’s
photographs considers the shifting values and uses of his photographs
throughout the twentieth century. Her honours include a Smithsonian Fellowship
at the National Portrait Gallery, a Fulbright Fellowship at McGill University
and the Notman Photographic Archives, and a Terra Foundation Summer Residency.
At CUNY, she leads courses on African American, Caribbean, and African art. Her
appointment at CUNY followed a Mellon Post-Doctoral fellowship at the Williams
College Museum of Art and the completion of her PhD in Northwestern
University’s Department of Art History. Deanna Bowen makes use of a repertoire of artistic
gestures in order to define the Black body and trace its presence and movement
in place and time. In recent years, her work has involved rigorous examination
of her family lineage and their connections to the Black Prairie pioneers of
Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Creek Negroes and All-Black towns of Oklahoma,
the extended Kentucky/Kansas Exoduster migrations, and the Ku Klux Klan. The
artistic products of this research were presented at the Banff Centre for Arts
and Creativity, Mercer Union, a centre for Contemporary Art, The Kitchener
Waterloo Art Gallery, the Royal Ontario Museum of Art, Toronto (2017), the Art
Museum at the University of Toronto (2016), the Institute of Contemporary Art
at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (2015), McMaster Museum of Art,
Hamilton (2014–2015), and the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2013).
Her works and interventionist practice have garnered significant critical
regard internationally. She has received several awards in support of her
artistic practice including a Canada Council New Chapter Grant (2017), Ontario
Arts Council Media Arts Grant (2017), John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Fellowship (2016), and the William H. Johnson Prize (2014). She was part of a
contingent of invited Canadian presenters in the Creative Time Summit at the
56th Venice Biennale in 2015 and her writings and artworks have appeared in
numerous publications including The Capilano Review, Canadian Art, Transition
Magazine, The Black Prairie Archives: An Anthology, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of
Cultural Studies, PUBLIC Journal, North: New African Canadian Writing — West
Coast Line, and FRONT Magazine. Julie Crooks received a PhD in the Department of
History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), University of London, U.K. The title of her dissertation is Alphonso
Lisk-Carew and Early Photography in Sierra Leone. Julie’s research focuses on
vernacular photography in Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Black Diaspora.
Julie has taught numerous courses in these fields at the Art Gallery of Ontario
(Toronto), as well as Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU,
Toronto), University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario),
and York University (Toronto). From 2014 to 2016 she was a Rebanks
Post-Doctoral Fellow at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and has published
articles in African Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and exhibition
catalogue essays for Wedge Curatorial Projects. Julie has curated several
photography-based shows for BAND (Black Artists Networks in Dialogue). Since
2013, she has been the co-curator for the ROM’s Of Africa project, a three-year
multi-platform project aimed to support a sustained and long term promotion of
the cultural and creative diversity of the African Diaspora through engagement
with the museum’s collections and in dialogue with contemporary artists. In
2017, she was the curator of Free Black North at the AGO which invited viewers
to explore tintype portraits of descendants of the black refugee communities
who escaped enslavement in the Southern United States and came to Canada in the
early to mid-nineteenth century. In 2018, she was the co-curator of the ROM
exhibition, Here We are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art (2018). Julie is
Assistant Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Mercelie Dionne-Petit Holding an MA degree in Art
History from the Department of Art History and Communication Studies of McGill
University, Mercelie Dionne-Petit is an independent scholar specializing in the
visual representation of black subjects in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries in Canada, with an emphasis on gender and sports culture. Her MA
thesis, entitled “Cricket in Montreal: Visualizing Race, Masculinity, and
Community in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century,” explored the British game
of cricket and the intersection of race, gender, and sports culture in visual
imagery. Dionne-Petit chose to merge her interests in the visual arts and her
professional skills in order to pursue a career in arts management and
marketing in Montreal. Carol B. Duncan Having been Visiting Associate
Professor at the Harvard Divinity School and holder of a Women’s Studies in
Religion Fellowship (2006–2007), Carol B. Duncan became Chair of the Department
of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada,
where she is now Professor. Her research focuses on Caribbean religions in
transnational contexts, the African Diaspora, religion and popular culture, and
women’s and gender studies. She is a recipient of a 3M National Teaching
Fellowship. She is the author of This Spot of Ground: Spiritual Baptists in
Toronto, co-author of Black Church Studies: An Introduction, and contributing
editor to The Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions. She is co-editor of Womanist
and Black Feminist Responses to Tyler Perry’s Productions. Her latest
publication is The Black Church Studies Reader, co-edited with Alton B. Pollard
III. In addition to scholarly presentations, Professor Duncan is a public
intellectual whose contributions as a lecturer, panellist, and commentator have
appeared in a variety of media, including print media, television, documentary
film, and radio. Andrea Fatona is an Associate Professor and is
currently the Director of the Criticism and Curatorial Practice Graduate
Program at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD). She is an
independent curator and was formerly Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa
Art Gallery. She has worked as the Programme Director at Video In (Vancouver),
Co-Director of Artspeak Gallery (Vancouver), and Artistic Director of Artspace
Gallery (Peterborough). She is the primary investigator of the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council-funded State of Blackness: From Production and
Presentation conference project. Fatona has also contributed to the development
of pedagogical materials for the classroom and community organizations. She is
a member of the editorial committees of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural
Studies and C Magazine. Alice Ming Wai Jim is Professor and Concordia
University Research Chair in Ethnocultural Art Histories, Montreal, Canada. She
is founding co-editor-in-chief of the international journal Asian Diasporic
Visual Cultures and the Americas and is on the College Art Association Board of
Directors. Jim’s research on diasporic art in Canada and contemporary Asian art
has generated new dialogues within and between the fields of ethnocultural and
global art histories, critical race theory, media arts, and curatorial studies.
Her publications include chapter contributions to Narratives Unfolding:
National Art Histories in an Unfinished World (MQUP, 2017); Desire Change: Contemporary
Feminist Art in Canada (MQUP, 2017); Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the
Twenty-First Century (MIT Press, 2015); Triennial City: Localising Asian Art
(Asia Triennial Manchester, 2014), and Negotiations in a Vacant Lot: Studying
the Visual in Canada (MQUP, 2014). Recent exhibitions include Animate: Diyan
Achjadi and Alisi Telengut (CUAG, Ottawa, 2017) and Yen-Chao Lin: DIY Haunt
(Oboro, Montreal, 2017). Adrienne R. Johnson An independent art historian and
scholar, Adrienne Johnson holds an MA in Art History from Concordia University,
Montreal (2015) and is currently a PhD student in Art History at McGill
University, Montreal. A passionate and long-time contributor to Montreal’s
indie art scene, Johnson’s current research is focused on African Canadian
landscape painting from the late nineteenth century as it relates to the
exploration of African Canadian presence, creative authorship,
(mis)representation, and the formation of identity. In addition to contributing
to the Canadian Women’s Art Historical Initiative (CWAHI), she is a co-founder
of Ethnocultural Art Histories Research (EAHR), a student-driven research
community based in Concordia University’s Art History Department. Launched in
2011 with Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, EAHR facilitates opportunities for exchange
and creation in the examination of, and engagement with, issues of ethnic and
cultural representation within the visual arts in Canada. Alexandra Kelebay Byzantine art is Kelebay’s
specialization, with a specific focus on cross-cultural exchange and
interaction throughout the medieval Mediterranean. Her dissertation explores
the active agency of portable objects in mediating diplomatic relationships and
constructing images of imperium. Seeking to merge her interests in art history,
anthropology, and visual and material culture studies, her research considers
the ways in which visual and material objects are not mere passive reflections
of, but active participants in, the production of social, cultural,
ideological, and historical narratives. To this end, she has coordinated an
exhibition on book culture of the medieval Mediterranean at McGill’s Rare Books
and Special Collections Library, as well as cocurated an exhibition on the
visual and material history of the nurse’s uniform in Canada (c. 1890–present)
at the McGill University Health Centre’s Glen site. Charmaine A. Nelson Charmaine A. Nelson’s research
and teaching interests include postcolonial and black feminist scholarship,
Transatlantic Slavery Studies, and Black Diaspora Studies. She has made
groundbreaking contributions to the fields of the Visual Culture of Slavery,
Race and Representation, and Black Canadian Studies. Nelson has authored six
books, including the edited book Ebony Roots, Northern Soil: Perspectives on
Blackness in Canada (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010),
and the single-authored books The Color of Stone: Sculpting the Black Female
Subject in Nineteenth-Century America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 2007) and Slavery, Geography, and Empire in Nineteenth-Century Marine
Landscapes of Montreal and Jamaica (London: Routledge/Taylor Francis, 2016).
Nelson’s passion for connecting with the lay public is demonstrated in her
active media presence which includes work with The Montreal Gazette, The
Toronto Star, CTV News, the BBC, and CBC Radio. She has also written for The
Walrus and blogs for Huffington Post Canada. Nelson has held several
prestigious fellowships and appointments, including a Caird Senior Research
Fellowship, National Maritime Museum, UK (2007), a Fulbright Visiting Research
Chair (2010), University of California-Santa Barbara, and a Visiting
Professorship in the Department of Africology at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2011). In 2016, she was named as a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists and in
2017–18 she was the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian
Studies at Harvard University. Aditi Ohri A recent graduate from the MA program in
Art History at Concordia University (Montreal), Aditi Ohri is an artist, art
historian, and diasporic subject of South Asian origin. Her academic research
interests include decolonization, settler-colonialism, and cultural
appropriation. Her MA thesis considers the historical relationship of the
Canadian Guild of Crafts to Indigenous artisans, with a focus on the Guild’s
treatment of Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) artists. In her artistic practice, she
interrogates the intersections of diaspora, spirituality, and the consumer
culture of late capitalism. Her writing has been published in the journals
Synoptique, Planning Forum, Relations, and the online art magazine Art Asia
Pacific. Her artwork has been featured in group exhibitions at Le Labo and
Xspace in Tkaronto (Toronto). Cheryl Thompson is an Assistant Professor in the
School of Creative Industries, Faculty of Communication and Design, Ryerson
University (Toronto). She held a Banting Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2016–18) at
the University of Toronto and the University of Toronto Mississauga in the
Department of English and Drama. Her project, “Visualizing Blackface Minstrelsy
in Canada: Seeing Race, Negotiating Identities, 1890–1959,” aimed to elucidate
the system of meaning in blackface minstrelsy’s theatrical playbills,
portraits, photographs, illustrations, and visual ephemera. Her forthcoming
book, Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture,
will be published with Wilfrid Laurier Press in 2019. It represents one of the
first in-depth examinations of not only black beauty culture in Canada, but
also the transnational, global flow of products, beauty imagery, and services.
Thompson has published articles in the Journal of Canadian Studies, the
Canadian Journal of History, and Feminist Media Studies. Krys Verrall Since being awarded her PhD in Sociology
and Equity Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (2007), Krys
Verrall has been a researcher, artist, and educator who now teaches at York
University (Toronto) in the Department of Humanities. As artist/ researcher
with Big Pond Small Fish Laboratory, she has produced collaborative librettos
with students in Canada and Australia for the Dogs and Boats and Airplanes
Experimental Choir. These works have been presented at performance and video
festivals or as radio works in Buenos Aires, Montreal, and London, UK. Her most
recent collaborative libretto, The Great Chorus, was performed by the Dogs and
Boats and Airplanes Experimental Choir at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto
(2016). She is a research collaborator with Mammalian Diving Reflex, a
Toronto-based youth theatre company (2009–present) and has presented her work
on the arts and cultural movements in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the UK and
USA. Her publications have appeared in Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural
Studies (Toronto), Canadian Journal of Communication Studies (Montreal), and
Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures (Winnipeg).
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