Friday, 30 November 2012

Library Exhibiton: The Art of Zines, October-December 2012



Stuart Hall Library staff and curator Fliss Collier enjoyed the whole process of thinking, planning and organising The Art of Zines, a display of zines selected from our collection. You can read more about the day on Fliss' blog, but here are some images from the launch event, and of the display:


Assistant Librarian Elena and Fliss

Zines made by Fliss
Zine enthusiasts at the launch event

Zines on display: DIY or don't we? Sugar paper, I'm not waiting, Zine making, Words that soak up life: a reading compilation zine

Doris #23, Electra #2, The Suffragette as Militant Artist, Ungrateful Black-White Girl

Ideas in Pictures #5, Mine: an anthology, Storm in a Teacup, Papakura Post Office, Toothworm

Every brush mark is torn out of my body

The display continues until 21st December.

To donate zines to the Stuart Hall Library, or to access the collection, email library@iniva.org

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Guest blog post: Charlotte Seegers, Stuart Hall Library Volunteer

During my internship at Iniva, I had the opportunity to create a source note (a guide to Stuart Hall Library material for the conduct of research on a particular theme). I chose the subject: "Cultural identity and Politics," because I thought it particularly relevant to understanding the society I am living in. As the beginning of this century is marked by a conservative and parochial interpretation of identity in political discourse, I grew particularly interested in the complexity of globalized identities that challenge the monoculture concept of British art and culture.

With the help of general guidelines, I was independent during my research for this project, free to choose the way and the items I found appropriate. Therefore, I have discovered many artists and authors who have drawn on a wide range of cultural experiences and critical discourse definitions of home, displacement and boundary. When listing the Iniva archive, I discovered panel discussions; emerging artists; audio visual material and also came across periodicals addressing controversial issues, zine collections revealing an underground world, and key cultural theorists and artists.

Combining my own interrogations with the resources found at Stuart Hall Library, I aimed to provide a starting point for discussion about the way the production of new political identities subvert ideas about gender, race and the nation. This source note doesn’t offer simple answers or resolutions but a space for the exchange of ideas.


CULTURAL IDENTITY AND POLITICS


Stuart Hall Library Collections Guide

This guide provides an introduction to resources for studying cultural identity and politics. In addition to contemporary books, pamphlets and periodicals including titles published by Iniva, the collections also contain material on subcultures. Keywords have been included to indicate the subject area of each item. This guide aims to be indicative rather than comprehensive.


CRITICAL & CULTURAL THEORY

Beyond identity politics       ESS LLO
Moya Lloyd
London: Sage, 2005
Examination of the implications of recent theorising on difference, identity and subjectivity for theories on patriarchy and feminist politics.
Gender issues, feminism and identity


Cosmopolitanism                ESS COS
Edited by Carol A. Breckenridge, Sheldon Pollock, Homi K. Bhabha and Dipesh Chakrabarty
London: Duke University Press, 2002
De-centres the history and theory of translocal political aspirations and cultural ideas to areas outside Europe. Contributors include: Sheldon Pollock; Arjun Appadurai; Dipesh Chakrabarty; Mamadou Diouf; T.K. Biaya; Walter D. Mignolo; Wu Hung; Ackbar Abbas.
History, Translocal politics, Cultural identity


Dangerous liaisons: gender, nation and postcolonial perspectives   ESS DAN
Edited by Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, Ella Shohat
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1997
A collection of essays addressing issues of postcolonialism, including nationhood, history, gender, race, identity.
Racial issues, Gender issues, Nationalism, Postcolonialism


Displacements: cultural identities in question   ESS DIS
Angelika Bammer
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994
Examines the impact of the experience of cultural displacement and contemporary notions of cultural identity. The perspectives of anthropology, history, philosophy, literature and psychology are bought to bear on the discussions of identity politics and the question of 'us/them' is explored in our shifting political and conceptual landscape.
Cultural Studies, Identity, Displacement


Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalisation  ESS APP
Arjun Appaddurai
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1996
An examination of globalisation, described as being characterised by the twin forces of mass migration and electronic mediation.
Globalisation, Cultural Studies


Multiculturalism: examining the politics of recognition    ESS MUL
Edited by Charles Taylor and Amy Gutmann
Princeton: NJ, Princeton University Press, 1984
This paperback brings together a wide range of leading philosophers and social scientists to probe the political controversy surrounding multiculturalism. Contributors include Anthony K. Appiah; Jürgen Habermas; Steven C.Rockefeller; Michael Walzer; Susan Wolf.
Politics, Philosophy, Cultural studies


Questions of cultural identity     ESS QUE
Stuart Hall; Paul Gay
London: Sage, 1996
A series of essays interrogate different dimensions of the crisis of identity.
Rather than privileging any one approach to the problem of identity, the book
Opens up a number of significant questions and offers insights into different
Approaches to understanding identity. Contributors include: Stuart Hall;
Zygmunt Bauman; Marilyn Strathern; Homi K. Bhabha; Kevin Robins;
Lawrence Grossberg; Simon Frith; Nikolas Rose; Paul du Gay; James Donald.
Cultural Studies, Identity



Scattered belongings: cultural paradoxes of race, nation and gender   ESS IFE
Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe 
London: Routledge,
Narratives of six women of both continental African / African Caribbean and European parentage, demonstrating how identities are shaped not only by race but also by eth-nicity, gender, class and locality.
Women's Studies, Black Issues, Racial Issues, Identity



Visceral cosmopolitanism: gender, culture and the normalisation of difference
ESS NAV
Mica Nava
Oxford, New York: Berg, 2007
Study of cosmopolitanism that explores English suburban cosmopolitanism and fore-grounds the gendered, imaginative and empathetic aspects of engagement with cultural and racial difference.
Hybridity, Gender, Multiculturalism, Race, Sexuality, Migration



Rethinking multiculturalism: cultural diversity and political theory    ESS PAR
Bhikhu Parekh
Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 2000
An examination of multiculturalism, migration and cultural displacement addressing issues of philosophy, politics, nationalism, gender and religion.
Multiculturalism, Cultural studies



Un/settled multiculturalisms: diasporas, entanglements, 'transruptions'   ESS UNS
Edited by Barnor Hesse
New York: Zed Book, 2000
Analysis of multiculturalism in the West, particularly Britain, including diaspora issues, food, sport, gender, music, the Muslim community in Britain, Black identity, Afro-Caribbean identity in Britain, Chinese in Britain (including analysis of Yeu Lai Mo's video installation); the Asian 'gang'. Contributors include Barnor Hesse; S. Sayyid; Brett St. Louis; David Parker; Claire Alexander; Denise Noble; Roiyah Saltus-Blackwood; Zimitri Erasmus; Stuart Hall.
Racial issues, Masculinity, UK, Multiculturalism, Cultural studies, Diaspora



ART THEORY

Art and otherness: crisis in cultural identity    ESS MCE
Thomas McEvilley
New York: Mcpherson, 1992
The author explores the way in which the presentation of art can determine
its reception, how ‘influence’ can be bi-directional, how ‘otherness’ serves to define ’self’, and how art can be perceived outside concepts of universality.
Art, Cultural identity


Belonging and globalisation: critical essays in contemporary art   ESS BOU
Kamal Boullata
Saqi Books, 2008
Essays exploring art, culture, identity, and globalisation with a focus on the 7th Sharjah Biennial. Featuring essays by Hoor Al Quasimi, Frederick N. Bohrer, Kamal Boullata, Nicolas Bourriaud, Boris Brollo, Jean Fisher, Laymert Garcia Dos Santos. Elias Khoury, Ken Lum, Joseph Massad, Khaled Mattawa, Gerardo Mosquero, Achille Bonito Oliva, Jack Persekian, Nadia Tazi, Tirdad Zolghadr.
Globalisation, Biennials



Changing States: contemporary art and ideas in an era of globalisation   ESS CHA
Tawadros, Gilane
London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 2004
This anthology maps the changing landscape of contemporary art and culture over the past decade in the context of global economics and local politics, seen through the prism of a decade of Iniva's programming.
Art, Globalisation, Cultural identity



Complex entanglements: art, globalisation and cultural difference  ESS COM
Nikos Papastergiadis
London: Rivers Oram Press, 2003
An anthology is based on Globalisation + Art + Cultural difference –
On the Edge of Change, a conference held in Sydney in 2001 exploring the
legacy and the futures of multicultural discourses for the arts, situating the
debates on art, culture and theory in the context of globalisation. Contributors
Include: Ien Ang; Rasheed Araeen; Carlos Capelan; Paul Carter; John Conomos;
Ricardo Dominguez; Jean Fisher; Coco Fusco; Sneja Gunew; Ghassan Hage;
Marcia Langton; Gerardo Mosquera; Hetti Perkins and Fazal Rizvi.
Globalisation, Cultural Studies


Global visions : towards a new internationalism in the visual arts  ESS GLO
Edited by Jean Fisher
London: Kala Press, 1994
Collected papers of the Institute of International Visual Arts symposium, 'A New Internationalism', held at the Tate Gallery in London in April 1994. Contributors include: Rasheed Araeen; Hal Foster; Guillermo Santamarina; Sarat Maharaj; Geeta Kapur; Olu Oguibe; Judith Wilson; Hou Hanru; Everlyn Nicodemus; Gilane Tawadros; Jimmie Durham; Gordon Bennett; Gerardo Mosquera; Raiji Kuroda; Fred Wilson; Elisabeth Sussman.
Art history, Globalisation


Mixed belongings and unspecified destinations   410.111 INI MIX
Nikos Papastergiadis
London: Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), 1996
Volume 1 of the "Annotations" series. Brings together papers delivered during a one-day interdisciplinary conference at the John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, in collaboration with Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), May 1996, to coincide with the exhibition 'Imagined Communities', curated by Richard Hylton. With contributing essays from Kobena Mercer, Graham Crow, Simon Edge, Richard Hylton, Doreen Massey, Lynda Morris, Yinka Shonibare and Tim Rollins, the book explores the different and complex relationships between artists and notions of community.
Identity, Art, Community


Over here: international perspectives on art and culture   ESS OVEGerardo Mosquera, and Jean Fisher
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004
The collection of essays addresses cultural issues arising from displacement and placement; the effects of diaspora, transnational communities, translation and the untranslatable. Contributors include: Lisa Phillips; Jean Fisher; Gerardo Mosquera; Lee Weng Choy; Carlos Vidal; Gabriel Peluffo Linari; Geeta Kapur; Chang Tsong-Zung; Pam Johnston; Rustom Bharucha; Carolina Ponce De Leon; Jose Manuel Valenzuela Arce; Apinan Poshyananda; Jose Luis Brea; John Clark; Marian Pastor Roces; Edouard Glissant; Everlyn Nicodemus; Kathryn Smith; Jalal Toufic; Gustavo Buntinx; Nikos Papastergiadis; Angela Dimitrakaki; Jose Gatti and Victor Tupitsyn.
Art, Cultural Issues, Displacement, Diaspora



SUBCULTURE

Resistance through rituals: youth subcultures in post-war Britain   ESS RES
Stuart Hall, Tony Jefferson
London: Routledge, 1993
A collection of essays first published as a double issue of the working papers of the centre for contemporary cultural studies in 1975, looking in detail at the wide range of post war youth subcultures in Britain, from teds, mods and skinheads to black Rastafarians. Contributors include: John Clarke; Brian Roberts; CCCS mugging group; Dick Hebdige; Paul E. Willis; Howard Becker; Geoffrey Pearson; John Twohig; Colin Webster; Rachel Powell; Iain Chambers; Chas Critcher; Graham Murdock; Robin Mccron; Angela McRobbie; Jenny Garber; Paul Corrigan; Simon Frith; Brian Roberts and Steve Butters.
Cultural studies, Young culture



Riot Grrrl : revolution girl style now!   ESS RIO
Nadine Monem
London: Black Dog Publishing, 2007
Riot Grrrl: Revolution Girl Style Now! is an account of the Riot Grrrl subculture founded as part of third wave feminist cultural activism. The book documents the punk inspired music scene from its inception in Olympia, WA to its international influence. The history of the Riot Grrrl movement is explored through zine cultures, music, fashion and dress, and interrogates ideologies concerning gender, sexualities, race, and class. Contributors include Beth Ditto, Julia Downes, Red Chidgey, Cazz Blase and Suzy Corrigan.


Stuart Hall     ESS PRO
James Procter
London: Routledge, 2004
Placing Stuart Hall's work within its historical contexts, the author provides a clear guide to key ideas and influences, as well as to his critics and his intellectual legacy, covering topics such as popular culture and youth subcultures; cultural studies; media and communication; racism and resistance; postmodernism and post-colonialism; Thatcherism; identity, ethnicity and diaspora.
Cultural Studies, Diaspora, Identity, Racism, Politics, Post Colonialism



Subcultures    REF SUB
Memphis, TN: LLC, 2011
Encyclopedia of popular and alternative subcultures, such as: hippie; goth subculture; new age, skinhead, steampunk; transhumanism, emo; furry fandom; dandy; zine; punk subculture; military brat; mod; national-anarchism; military sociology.
Subculture, Alternative Lifestyle, Nonconformist, Alternative Culture


Subculture: the meaning of style  ESS HEB
Dick Hebidge
London: Routledge, 1997
Exploring subculture in the expressive forms and rituals of subordinary groups from teddy boys to mods and rockers to skinheads to punks who are alternately dismissed, denounced and canonized; treated at different times as threats to public order and as harmless buffoons in post-war Britain.
Social history, cultural studies


EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
  
Afro modern: journeys through the Black Atlantic  410.174 AFR
Edited by Tanya Barson, Peter Gorschlüter
London: Tate Liverpool, 2010
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Afro Modern: journeys through the Black Atlantic at Tate Liverpool 29 January until 25 April 2010. The notion of the Black Atlantic was coined by British academic Paul Gilroy in the early 1990s to descrive the hybrid cultures that have arisen as a result of the dispersal of black peoples. The catalogue also includes a glossary, a comprehensive timeline, and a bibliography focusing on the visual art of African diaspora based on the holdings of the Tate library as well as publications from Iniva's Stuart Hall Library.
Black Atlantic, Diaspora, Black Art



Crossing black waters   410.111 CRO
Allan Desouza, Shaheen Merali
London: Working Press, 1992
Accompanying an exhibition of the same name, this book documents the work of 13 South Asian artists, of which seven are based in Britain. Through essays, interviews and photographs, Crossing Black Waters analyses the artists' handling of the colonial legacy and their attempts to extend and develop a contemporary cultural practice. Artists Include: Said Adrus; Anand Moy Banerji; Arpana Caur; Allan Desouza; Nina Edge; Sushanta Guha; Bhajan Hunjan; Manjeet Lamba; Shaheen Merali; Quddus Mirza; Samena Rana; Anwar Saeed; Sashidharan. Contributors Include: Chopra, Suneet; Wilson, Amrit; Rashid, Ian; Grech, Joyoti; Alexander, Meena; Dutta, Pulak; Gaze, Harriett; Gupta, Sunil; Hashmi, Salima; Merali, Jamila; Minissale, Gregory; Min, Yong Soon.
Asian art, Asian British artists, Colonialism, Representation issues



Entanglement: the ambivalence of identity   410.111 INI ENT
Tessa Jackson
London: Iniva, 2011
Pamphlet to accompany Entanglement: the Ambivalence of Identity, 14 September to 19 November 2011 curated by Iniva at Rivington place. Artists include Simon Fujiwara, Anthony Key, Dave Lewis, Nina Mangalanayagam and Navin Rawanchaikul. Introduction by Tessa Jackson; text by Alice Correira. The exhibition takes a contemporary look at cultural identity in the context of globalisation and cosmopolitanism.
Cultural Identity, Globalisation, Hybridity, Multiculturalism



Global feminisms : new directions in contemporary art  747 GLO
Maura Reilly, Linda Nochlin
New York: Merrel, 2007
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Global Feminisms, organised by the Brooklyn Museum, New York, March 23-July 1 2007.
Feminism, Contemporary art, Painting, Sculpture, Women, Asia, India, Africa, Eastern Europe, Transnational


Sonia Boyce : performance  410.111 INI SON
Mark Crinson
London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1998
Volume 2 from the "Annotations" series. Records and interprets work produced by Sonia Boyce during her residency at the University of Manchester and published on the occasion of the exhibition at Cornerhouse, Manchester, 1998. With essays by Marcus Verhagen, Nikos Papastergiadis, Paul Bayley and Vicky Charnock. The book also includes an interview between the artist, Christine Woods and Andrea Mackean, extracts from a diary of the residency and artist's pages.
UK, Black artists


Steve Ouditt: Creole in-site    410.111 INI STE
Gilane Tawadros
London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1998
Volume 4 of the "Annotations" series. Diary writings originally published as part of "Creole in-site", an online diary commissioned by inIVA for its website, plus other writings documenting the artist's work and a residency at the 198 Gallery, Brixton, in 1997 culminating in the exhibition "Works(on process)".
Trinidad, Artists' writings



The hybrid state  747 HYB
Papo Colo
New York: Exit Art, 1992
Catalogue of the exhibition presented at Exit Art in 1991. Contributors include: Cam-nitzer, Luis; Colo, Papo; Decter, Joshua; Durham, Jimmie; Gómez-Peña, Guillermo; Olalquiaga, Celeste; Niesluchowski, Warren; Wodiczko, Krzysztof. Artists include: Ida Applebroog; Luis Camnitzer; Juan Downey; Jimmie Durham; Ming Fay; Guillermo Gómez-Peña; Nancy Grossman; David Hammons; Jerry Kearns; Juan Sanchez; Anton Van Dalen; Cecilia Vicuña; Ursula Von Rydingsvard; Martin Wong; Krzysztof Wodiczko.


Third Eye: struggle for black and third world cinema   410.111 THI
Fatimah Tobing Rony
Durham: NCGLC Race Equality Unit, 1986
Includes: Part I - Third Eye Symposium (31 October - 4 November 1983); Part II - Black film sector: which way forward. Contributors: Mike Phillips; Miguel Littin; N.V.K. Murthy; Haile Gerima; Segun Oyekunle; Tapan K. Bose; Jose Massip; Black Audio Film Collective (Reece Auguste); Sankofa Film and Video Workshop (Isaac Julien); Penumbra Production (H.O. Nazareth); Retake Film and Video Collective (Mahmood Jamal); Star Productions (Raj Patel); Ceddo Film and Video Workshop (Ujebe Masokoane); Community Cable Productions (Claudine Boothe); Parminder Vir. Topics include: The changing face of Indian cinema; Afro-American cinema; The role of cinema in imperialist culture; Representation of women in Third World Cinema.
Black film studies, Cinema, Film, Imperialism, Third World cinema, Women's issues


Transculture : la biennale di Venezia 1995  450.341 BIE 1995
Fumio Nanjo, Dana Friis-Hansen
Tokyo: Japan Foundation, 1995
The Transculture exhibition was on view in Venice at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin (Fondazione Levi) in conjunction with the 46th Venice Biennale. The exhibition, whose themes were identity and communication between different cultures, presented the work of the following artists: Gordon Bennett; Frédéric Bruly Bouabré; Guo Qiang Cai; Ping Chong; Simryn Gill; Joseph Grigely; Masao Kohmura; Shani Mootoo; Takashi Mu-rakami; Shirin Neshat; Reamillo And Juliet; Technocrat; Adriana Varejão; World Tea Party; Rene Yung. Contributors Include: Guy Brett; Chris Dercon; Paulo Herkenhoff; Kurt Hollander; André Magnin; Fumio Nanjo; Ryuta Imafuku; Ivo Mesquita; Apinan Poshyananda; Joshua Quittner; Dana Friis-Hansen; Shani Mootoo. Country Of Origin Of Artists Includes: Hong Kong; Philippines; Ireland; USA, Brazil; Iran; Japan; Singapore; China; Australia; Canada; Ivory Coast.
Biennials, Multiculturalism, Identity, Venice, Italy



AUDIOVISUAL

Burning an illusion: the story of a black woman's awakening  CD 256
Shabazz Menelik
London: BFI, 1981
Menelik Shabazz's first feature film powerfully evokes the lives of young black londoners in the thatcher era through exploring the growth and transformation of a young couple. Performers include: Cassie McFarlane; Victor Romero.


Changing states: contemporary art and culture in the 21st century  MD 19-20
London: Iniva, 2002
First in the 'Changing States' series recorded in Conway Hall, London on 23 January 2002. This question-style discussion is aimed to chart the state of contemporary art and culture at the beginning of the 21st century. Chaired by Susan Hiller, speakers are Matthew Collings, Adrian Searle, David A. Bailey and Gilane Tawadros. The Changing States series is curated by Niru Ratnam and Gilane Tawadros.


Changing States: Interview with Francesco Bonami  MD 25
London: Iniva, 2002
Gilane Tawadros in conversation with Francesco Bonami, curator of the 2003 Venice Biennale At The CCA (Centre For Contemporary Arts) Glasgow, 19 November 2002. Curated By Niru Ratnam.


Changing states: protest! art and anti-globalisation VD 212
Nils  Norman
London: Iniva, 2002
The third talk in the Changing States series featuring papers from Julian Stallabrass artist Nils Norman. Themes addressed include the appropriation of public space by private interests and the challenge to corporate globalisation by politicised artistic practice and guerilla protest movements. Chaired by Niru Ratnam.


Documenta 11 – Press 2 CD 173
Kassell: Documenta GmbH, 2002
Images, biographical information and press releases of Documenta 11, 2002.


Fatima’s letter VD 202
Alia Syed
1992
Contains 'Fatima's letter' (an account of transcultural experience) and the Watershed' by Alia Syed.


Frantz Fanon: black skin white mask VD 66
Isaac Julien
A film that articulates both the mid-century moment of anti-colonial struggle and the insurgencies and intimacies of our post-colonial position.


I’m British but...
Gurinder Chadha VD 169
London: 1989
Travelling from Manchester to Belfast to the Welsh countryside, the documentary re-flects the diversity of the Asian diaspora in Britain.


Inside and out: Kader Attia and the French Algerian experience CD 202
London: Iniva, 2005
Coinciding with the first UK showing of his work at Sketch Gallery, London in 2005 this conversation explores the work of Algerian-born artist Kader Attia. Contributors are Hélène Hazera and Gilane Tawadros.


Modernity and difference TP 103
London: Iniva , [no date]
Discussion: modernity and difference. It consists of a conversation between Stuart Hall And Sarat Maharaj on modernity, difference and untranslatability, which took place at the Lux Centre, London, at an event organised by the Institute of International Visual Arts.


Paul Gilroy in conversation VD 23
London: ICA, c.2000
Paul Gilroy and Barnor Hesse in conversation. Paul Gilroy presents a synthesis of his arguments against the simplications of Black Nationalism and ethnocentrism and proposes an embracing of more complex alternatives in which routes count for as much roots and displacement is more common than stasis.


Territories VD 90
Isaac Julien, c.2000
An experimental documentary about black culture. Critiques the ways traditional media represent black people and portrays the Notting Hill Carnival as an event about resistance.



PERIODICALS
 

Meridians: feminism, race and transnationalism
Wesleyan University, 2002 to 2012 (incomplete)
A feminist, interdisciplinary journal which make scholarship by and about women of colour central to contemporary definitions of feminisms in the explorations of women's economic conditions, cultures, and sexualities, as well as of the forms and meanings of resistance and activist strategies.


Re-inventing Britain: identity, transnationalism and the arts    410 REI
British Council, 1997
Issue no. 9 of the British Council's international magazine British Studies Now. Includes manifesto for re-inventing Britain by Homi Bhabha and texts by: Naseem Khan; Hou Hanru on Parisien(ne)s; Ghislaine Boddington; Graham Harwood; Keith Khan.


Third text: a critical perspective on contemporary art and culture
Routledge, 1981 to 2012 (incomplete)
Third text is an international scholarly journal providing critical perspectives on art and visual culture. Third text provides a forum for the discussion and reappraisal of the theory and practice of art, art history and criticism, and the work of artists hitherto marginalised through racial, gender, religious and cultural differences.


Transition: an international review
Duke University Press
Holding: 1981 to 2012 (incomplete)
Transition publishes works dealing with race, ethnicity, culture, and politics.
Issue no. 55: “Beyond identity”.


Small axe: a Caribbean journal of criticism
Small axe Collective, 1997 to 2012 (incomplete)
Small axe is an oppositional idiom of criticism that alters the context about sovereignty, self-determination, and ideological forms of possible political futures in the caribbean's modernity. This periodical aim to give a new vocabulary of criticism necessary to understand and address the social, cultural, and political forms of our present




ZINES

Adventures close to home: a zine about the Slits
Melissa Steiner
A zine documenting Melissa's love for the Slits and their influence on music and
Diy feminist communities.


Angry black-white girl
Nia King
A personal account of growing up mixed race in Massachusetts.
Iss 1, 2007


Diy or don't we? A zine about community
Nicki Sabalu
A compilation zine exploring perspectives of community in activism and diy subcul-tures.
Iss 1, 2009


Electra
Sarah Jane
Crtical zines discussing music, popular culture, black issues and feminism.


 

Kiahan (a tale of migration)
Kiahan
Perzine focusing on migration politics and Afghanistan featuring drawings.
2008


No history, no self
Johanna
Perzine with stories on moving to the UK, race, identity, and the problematic definitions of identifying as 'Asian American'.
Iss 1, 2009


Race revolt
Humaira Saeed
Race revolt compiles contributions focusing on race, ethnicity, and identity in queer, feminist, and DIY subcultures. Donated by Humaira Saeed.
Iss 4, 2009 - Iss 5, 2010


Ungrateful black-white girl
Nia King
A perzine examining race and identity and queer gender politics.
Iss 1, 2008


The first 7-inch was better: how I became an ex-punk
Nia King
Perzine by Nia King discussing her personal experiences within the punk scene in terms of class, race, and gender politics.
2009



Charlotte Seegers is an Anthropology graduate from University Bordeaux II in France. Since moving to London two years ago, she has worked as a researcher on two observational documentaries and has completed an internship at Iniva while studying for an MA in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.


'My aim is to merge the Visual with Anthropology to open up a whole range of possibilities for conducting and communicating my research. My subject interests range from the Displacement of Identity to Subcultures and the Deconstruction of commonness in visual representation.
All these themes have influenced the research that I was able to carry out during my time at the Stuart Hall Library'.

Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Stuart Hall Library reading group discussion post, 15 November 2012



Thanks to everyone who attended last Thursday's reading group meeting. A recording of the discussion will soon be available via the library website. You can also listen to recordings of our previous reading group sessions.

We discussed an extract from Andrea Stuart's ‘Sugar in the Blood', in Granta: the Magazine of New Writing, 119 (Spring 2012). The text was chosen as a way of exploring a specific aspect of the historical background to Kimathi Donkor’s paintings from one woman’s personal perspective. This short extract highlights the relationships between Africa, Britain and the Caribbean.

The discussion developed from these starting points:

- Our personal responses to the text.

- An awareness that this text was a short and powerful extract from a much longer, detailed text.

- The knowledge that Stuart has received criticism for writing the book. Some are of the opinion that history should be left, and we should ‘move on’. We debated the need to (re)examine culture, attitudes and behaviours from history.

p.225 Stuart’s earliest known ancestor , George Ashby, can be categorised as an economic ‘migrant’. His and others fortunes were changed by the demand for sugar in the sixteenth century onwards.

Stuart imagines the conditions her ancestors may have endured, involved in the forced migration of enslavement: p.227 ‘Somehow, my unnameable ancestor managed to survive’, in spite of the cruelty that she describes.

Stuart’s family ‘reversed’ the migration of her forebear (George Ashby) by moving to England in 1976: she draws attention to the space-time aspect of migration: Ashby’s long process of migration by sea, in contrast to Stuart’s journey, her life changed in a matter of hours.

p.229 She notices first the climate (the importance of climate to notions of space-place and space-time), as well as the feeling out of place, ‘the interloper’. And also the unfamiliarity of being a racial minority (ie. surrounded by white people).

p.231 Stuart describes being racially abused by Millwall football fans as a young woman, and concludes, ‘Britain had shown me what hate looked like’.

She goes on to describe the practice of ‘hyper-vigilance’ as ‘self-protection’, anticipating hostility in order to try to defect it. Some reading group participants recognised this behaviour in themselves, and noted how little these psychological effects of racism are discussed.

Stuart evokes the influence of class as well as race on her life experience. Her family were ‘affluent, professional, cultured’, which she states was not expected from black people in Britain at that time (and perhaps not even in the present).

p.232 Growing up for her was characterised by ‘displacement’, rather than adjustment or integration, which is what is expected of a migrant by the 'host' nation. Andrea Stuart is candid about her experience and the feelings it evokes, for example, even now,

‘My colour still enters the room before I do…’

Stuart's anger expresses the ‘resentment’ she feels, that her ancestors were good enough to ‘help build the country’, but she is sometimes not seen as ‘not being good enough to be British’.

The reading group participants' responses to the book were informed by personal experience and family histories and, in common with Andrea Stuart's genealogies, deconstructed the ‘invention’ (p.287) of 'black' and 'white' and its resulting racial taxonomy, a primary foundation of and justification for Atlantic slavery. Several of the group were able to identify directly with Stuart's experience; others located themselves differently in the narrative but were still able to make connections between her experience and theirs. A particularly enlightening view came from a participant who, due to her own racial identity, was located outside the black-white binary, and was able to articulate different types of 'othering', displacements and ways of finding a sense of place and self.
All agreed that the text was an important piece of writing, beautifully articulated - a clear and vitally needed explanation of the historical events that connect Africa, Britain and the Caribbean.

It can be argued that the most constructive reaction to racism is resistance: a form of action that motivates people to create and articulate alternative ways of thinking through art, literature or politics. This is one way of thinking of the work of Kimathi Donkor.

Interview with Andrea Stuart by Tricia Wombell of Black Book News 

Join us next month for a special, pre-Christmas meeting:

Review @Stuart Hall Library:

Moving images: dreams, sights and memory
Thursday 13 Dec 2012, 6.30-8
The Library is expanding its text-based reading group to include artworks and film. The Library will be screening Zineb Sedira’s Silent Sight (10 min., 2000) and an extract from Martina Attile’s Dreaming Rivers (32 min.,1998), followed by a discussion. Hosted by Roshini Kempadoo and Sonia Hope.


To book a place, email us: library@iniva.org





Notes from the Stuart Hall Library - 2012: No.4. From: Roshini Kempadoo (Animateur for SH Library)

Food Programme in the Rafah refugee camp. Photograph: Said Khatib / Getty Images

In 1967, Debord proposed that social modern life is being replaced with its representation and is the ‘historical moment at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life.’ 
Debord, Guy (1994) thesis 42.


The Hyper- Image

I have been thinking about Debord’s writings in relation to taking photographs, photographers work, the technology and what I call the hyper-image. Extreme and formulaic compositions, overly dramatic intensities of colour and light, the impetus to take the most spectacular events and scenes. The hyper-image is being sought after, published, commented on and distributed online by those who take them (vanity distribution), those who think they will sell and attract, and those who re-circulate them for being ‘cool’. The intense, dramatic, uncanny, weird, spectacularly beautiful or shocking image is normalised into the everyday visual experience of the world. It is as if photography has become an extreme sport or an extreme game of hunting. Perhaps it is as a result of photographers’ having such overly sophisticated technology in their hands, or simply the response to the hyperrealism of the movies – 3D, 4D, 5D. 

So it is in wonderment and horror that I consume these unrelenting and heightened, fetishised images. Whether the horrifying images of the conflict between Gaza and Israel with dramatic lighting and almost painterly composition, or the quirky imagery of dancers in situ published in our ‘free commuter newspaper’ – reduced somewhat by the banal subtitle A Celebration of Joy In The Everyday.

Speaking of visuals that I consider of a different kind and motivation, over the last few visits to the SH library, I have begun looking through the catalogued material from Iniva audio-visual archive in the three drawers at the back of the room. There are some wonderful historical references to be drawn upon of work that Iniva has instigated, been associated with, been involved in or simply felt that the work needed to be in the archive/library as a resource. Ironically I am distracted by the surface and flickering imagery as I play them. The poor quality VHS tapes is exaggerated on the slick LCD flat screen.

Poor technology aside, the visual works are still stunning and pertinent. Works by Gurinder Chada, Martina Attile, Monika Dutta, Flow Motion amongst others throw up the underlying ongoing concern that motivates my re-visitations to older works and resources of this kind. I can’t help but recall Henry Louis Gates giving the Rivington Place lecture (2010) when he spoke about the importance of institutions, building and legacy. Not only is it the only way to counteract hegemonic tendencies that exclude and marginalise, but also provides no excuse for the next generation not to have sight of such works, efforts, discussions and no excuse for scholars, teachers, educators to be referring to such works in the future.

Reflecting on historical moment and the visual leads me to comment on Obama winning the election. Whatever you might think of what the country stands for, the US folk have been progressive enough to return an African American to the Presidency in this climate and at this moment. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose now. And such an astute speech often championing difference, dignity and compassion over and above the predictable Presidential rhetoric –

How often do politicians remind us that they are thinking beyond their own career to speak of:

‘Arguments we have are a mark of our liberty… open to the dreams of an immigrants daughter… [and] when we accept certain obligations to one another and the future generations…
President Obama’s acceptance speech, Chicago – 6th November 2012. 

And so I reflect on the complexity and interrelationship between social and cultural politics and visual art that is embedded in the SH Library. And some of the great works that still continue to be made as continued works to those I view including: The Unfinished Conversation, at the Liverpool biennial (2012) by John Akomfrah, commissioned by Autograph ABP; I reflect on my meeting yesterday with Alanna Lockward at Rivington Place and her Art Labour Archives as curator, cultural activist and commentator on citizenship, race and Caribbean art. 


And Sonia and I finally manage to finalise a date and a pre-xmas event for a discussion of work by artists Martina Attile and Zineb Sedira. The evening will be based on screening extracts from Dreaming Rivers (1998) and the video artwork Silent Sight (2000) and discussed within the context of writings on Attile and Sedira’s works. 



Check the website and hope you note the date. Moving Images: Dreams, Sights and Memory in SH Library @ Rivington Place, Thursday 13th December 2012 from 6:30.

http://www.iniva.org/publications_prints/voices_on_art_amp_culture/veil

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

School/College/University Librarians: Can You Help Us?




Iniva is undertaking research into the possibility of creating online learning resources from the Stuart Hall Library archive, relating to contemporary visual arts for students. We are gathering information and opinions from librarians working in schools, and in the further and higher education sectors. We would be grateful if you could complete this questionnaire. The information you provide will inform our decisions about this project.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y5GPP32

The questionnaire is compiled by Iniva’s Head of Development, Paddy Chatterton.

The deadline for completion is Wednesday 14 November 2012.

Thank you for your contribution.