Dissident 4: art activism murmurings

"Whose Public is it Anyway?"

Tania Willard in conversation with Nya Lewis

In April 2023 Artspeak Gallery, partnered with Capture Photo Festival for a public art presentation at Broadway-City Hall station, sparking much discussion concerning the ethics of supporting and commissioning Indigenous artists and the possibilities of bridging public engagement of visual art practices with social movements. In this context, Soloman Chiniquay and jaz whitford collaborative work "Ake Huchimagachach Ena, Ake Huchimagachach Ade" lived as a cultural memorial, vivid snapshots enlivening the cataclysms of colonial condition with colorful markings that re-root Indigenous accounts of place and land. Inside the gallery, the main exhibition presented 22 digital images with pictorial superimposed acrylic, oil, and ink, repositioning common conceptions of land as sedated, static, or commodity to something alive, vocal, and autonomous. The dynamic range of point-and-shoot images makes visible quiet observations, implicating all of us in consideration of environmental racism, framing sites of familiarity, intimacy, grief, longing, and possibility.

In this redacted postscript interview, Artspeak Gallery director/curator Nya Lewis and artist/researcher Tania Williard reflect on the “ask” of public art and future of land-based practices.

Circuit Playground is an interactive sound installation created by Zoma Tochi Maduekwe in collaboration with 1616, a project of Timothy Yanick Hunter and Aaron Jones with a focus on interdisciplinary practice, peer-to-peer collaboration, and material dissemination. The installation, which references logical and algorithmic methods found in electronics design, music theory, and memory, encourages participatory engagement through interaction points that present themselves as familiar playground games. By using logarithmic patterns and frameworks found in childhood games, Maduekwe encourages interactivity that appeals to the most fundamental of our haptic instincts. Visitors are made aware of their physical presence through sensorial activation and encouraged to listen and respond. The resulting composition is adaptive and ever-changing, taking the form of a dialogue between body and machine.

Maduekwe worked closely with Jones and Hunter of 1616 in the development of Circuit Playground and the installation is accompanied by a publication containing a selection of their visual research around the planning and conceptualization of the work. This exhibition is curated through Artspeak’s curatorial residency program with CIR Troy Johnson, and graciously funded by the Audain Foundation.

Machine Bias

Sound Performance October 25, 7pm