Last Stop Residency (review)

LAST STOP RESI DENCY . NORBERT fl"S CENTRE ipeg, Mani t oba i - Ju n e 2 5 , 2 0 0 2 Sa n d r a Br ew st er , Cool Pose, 2002, char coal o n paper St . Norbert Art s Cent re i n Wi nnipeg recent ly waded i nt o an o n goi ng and st i mul at i ng di al ogue about Canada i n Black art and ult imat ely what const i t ut es t hi s art . The Last St op Residency, it s t it le, is an hist orical reference t o Canada as t he f i nal dest i nat i on on t he Underground Railroad f or f ugi t i ve and freed Af rican Amer i can slaves f rom t he American Sout h. A l ong negl ect ed Canadi an component of Af rican Di aspora i s revealed t hr ough t he works of f ive Af rican Canadian art ist s, Sandra Brewst er, Wayne Dunkley, Gomo George, Yvon Villarceaux and Jan Wade. Curat or i n Resi dence f or Cult ural Diversit y, Gerry At wel l curat es a narrat ive about t he var i ous experiences Af rican Canadians have had i n cont emporary Canadi an soci et y t hat of t en belies t he promise of mul t icul t ural ism. These art ist s use self -represent at i on and sel f -ref erencing, common f eat ures i n t he works of Af rican Canadians, i n addi t i on t o t he diasporic element s of narrat ive and t est i moni al s, t o creat e vi sual di al ogues t hat art iculat e an ant hol ogy of life experiences and soci al realit ies of a cul t ural ly di ver se Af r i can Di aspor a. What i s Canadian about t he art pract ices and ident it ies of t hese art ist s is t hat t hey are f ormed by t he Canadi an l andscape and wi t hi n it , but t heir root s are elsewhere. The works t hat t hese academi cally school ed art ist s have creat ed are a mi cr ocosm of t he realit ies of Af rican Canadian life. From t heir i ndi vi dual narrat ives a collect ive hist ory emerges, creat i ng a di al ogue bet ween t he viewer and t he ar t i st s' experiences i n cont emporary societ y. Wayne Dunkl ey's new media i nst al l at i on t it led t he degradat ion and removal of a/ t he black male (www. sharemyworl d. net ) is an int eract ive work t hat deals wit h t he precarious condi t i ons of bei ng a black man i n Canadian societ y. Described as haunt ingt y beaut if ul , t he elegiac work is part document ary and part public art proj ect . Over a t hree-year period, Dunkl ey placed over 200 phot ocopi ed i mages of himsel f in core areas of downt own Mont real and Toront o. The result is a docYv o n Vi l l ar ceaux , Last St op at Underground RT St at ion, 2002 m i xed m edi a inst al l at ion ument ary of t he int eract ions and percept ions bet ween t he i mages and t he part icipant s. The i ncl usi on of prose and poet ry by Dunkl ey and ot hers makes t he work a revealing and provocat ive l ook at soci et y's at t i t udes t owards Black males, which anni hilat es t he myt h of Canadian pol it esse wit h regard t o race and racism. Toront o art ist Sandra Brewst er...