Rasheed Araeen’s “A New Beginning: Beyond Postcolonial Cultural Theory and Identity Politics,” as selected by June Pak – NRATI

 

 

As part of the exhibition June Pak @ 26, this salon will feature excerpts from Rasheed Araeen’s A New Beginning: Beyond Postcolonial Cultural Theory and Identity Politics, as selected by June Pak.

 

June Pak in attendance.

 

 

 

As part of the exhibition June Pak @ 26, this salon will feature excerpts from Rasheed Araeen’s A New Beginning: Beyond Postcolonial Cultural Theory and Identity Politics, as selected by June Pak.

 

June Pak in attendance.

 

When discussing the topic of ethnicity in visual arts, visibility is often emphasized: being visibly different from others, presenting one’s difference visibly to others and representing what it means to be different visually. But what if that difference is invisible?
 
Departing from these questions, which are central to Pak’s exhibition, excerpts from Rasheed Araeen’s 2000 essay “A New Beginning” will be read aloud. The founding editor of Third Text, Araeen stirs up the art establishment in this essay by questioning the institutionalization and categorization of ethnicity. His argument on art institutions’  theoretical influence on ethnic art/artists extends Pak’s fundamental query on the concept of visibility.

 

Written in 2010, this essay has renewed resonance: YouTube is changing its user agreement; in the USA, the Federal Communications Commission has proposed sweeping changes to net neutrality; and civil society groups across the world are demanding Internet governance structures incorporate the central tenets of democracy. Departing from Liang’s article, this salon will map the local impact of these tendencies, considering how the changing nature of the Internet affects the practices of individual artists and art institutions.

  

This meeting of No Reading After the Internet (Toronto) is supported by the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT). Special thanks to 26 for hosting this salon.

 

 

Saturday 9 August 2014 –

Non-members: Free
Members: Free

Location:
26 
26 Mackenzie Crescent 
Toronto ON Canada