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18 Jan 2022

Laiwan: Resources for Research

BY BAHAR MOHAZABNIA, Jacqueline morrisseau-Addison, eileen wu, hannah moore, emma chen, aurora sun and ece Asitanelioğlu.

 

The following are resources related to the artists in Laiwan: Traces, Erasures, Resists. This list is not exhaustive, but rather comprised of suggested readings compiled by researchers at the Belkin. These readings are intended to provide additional context for the exhibition and act as springboards for further research or questions stemming from the exhibition, artist and works involved. Following the introduction, resources are arranged along the themes of traces, erases and resists as explored through and adjacently to Laiwan’s work. This compilation is an evolving and growing list, so check back in the future for more additions.

Traces

This section explores the vocabularies of recorded material – whether archival, archeological or collective – as an area of interest in Laiwan’s work. Through these records, documentation of collective action appears in small-scale zines and publications, ruins of societal epicentres are visually reimagined and the effect of poetic language reexamines how, and who, this language touches. Following these traces through to the present, the sources below touch on the longer trajectories of Laiwan’s career and practice as it has changed over time.

The following are additional resources on Traces.
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The following are additional resources on Traces.  

Suggested Further Reading

Fatona, Andrea. “Distance of Distinct Vision/Point Eloigne de Vision Claire.” Diaspora Magazine 1, Fall 1993.

Laiwan. “Notes against difference: in search of a functional practice in (re)cognition of evolving idenity in culture(s).” Parallelogramme. Summer 1993.

Laiwan. “So many pixels… So little time! Notes on Tools.” Millenium Messages. Canadian Studies Centre, University of Washington, 1997.

Laiwan. Tender. Vancouver: Talonbooks Press, 2020.

Lee, Tara. “Potent Textuality.” in Asian Canadian Writing Beyond Autoethnography, edited by Eleanor Ty, 201-224. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2008.

Lai, Larissa. Slanting I, Imagining We: Asian Canadian Literary Production in the 1980s and 1990s. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2014.

Zhang, Benzi. “The Politics of Re-Homing: Asian Diaspora Poetry in Canada.” in College Literature, no. 1 (2004): 103-25.

Erasures

This category widely broaches historic and contemporary erasures of social movements, individuals and collectives from historical and art canons addressed in the wide scope of Laiwan’s artistic practice. Through tracing the historical and contemporary implications of colonialism and colonial ideologies into so-called Vancouver’s art worlds, the resources below provide a brief contextual “jumping off point” to explore the larger implications of systemic erasures and to reveal a potential of liberation and radical resistance. It also highlights the work that has been done by artists and cultural workers to rectify these erasures.

The following are additional resources on Erasures.
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The following are additional resources on Erasures.  

Suggested Further Reading
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998

Fouquet, Monique. “Contemporary art/contemporary Pedagogy: Interrupting Mastery as Paradigm for Art School Education.” University of British Columbia, 2

Laiwan. “Illogical Thoughts About Translation: A Science Fiction.” Front Magazine. March 1998.

Li, Xiaoping. Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007.

Millward, Liz. Making a Scene: Lesbians and Community across Canada, 1964-84. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016.

Robertson, Clive. “Artist-run culture: locating a history of the present” in Policy Matters: Administrations of Art and Culture. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2006.

Forbear, Katherine. “In Order for You to Love Something, You Need to Have Memories: Exploring Feelings of Being In and Out of Place in Vancouver, BC.” in BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly, No. 206: Summer 2020. https://doi.org/10.14288/bcs.v0i206.189498

Resists
This section explores historical and contemporary acts of resistance in so-called Vancouver and across Canada more broadly to provide insight into movements and organizations contributing to the liberation of marginalized communities. Laiwan’s practice recognizes deconstruction and resistance as acts that nurture new potentials for life and wellbeing, particularly in the face of ongoing oppressive and violent policies. The sources below highlight the multi-faceted aspects of resistance, notably acts of resistance by Asian and Queer communities.

The following are additional resources on Resists.
MORE...
The following are additional resources on Resists.  

Suggested Further Reading
Bird, Kate and Charles Demers. City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes. Berkeley; Vancouver; Greystone Books, 2017.

Brochu-Ingram, Gordon Brent. “Building Queer Infrastructure: Trajectories of Activism and Organizational Development in Decolonizing Vancouver.” in Queer Mobilizations: Pan-Canadian Perspectives on Activism and Public Policy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 227-249.

Cronin, J. Keri. Imagining Resistance: Visual Culture and Activism in Canada. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2011.

Laiwan. “improvising what is to come.” ESSE 53. 2005.

Lin, Hui Ling. “Putting Identities in Questions: A Brief Introduction of Queer Asian Filmmakers in Vancouver.” in West Coast Line. Summer 2008, 140-146, 159.

Warner, Tom. Never going back: a history of queer activism in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002.

Image (above): Laiwan, African Notes Parts 1 and 2, 1983/2020

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