11.24.14: Decolonizing the White Box II

A follow up to last month's community gathering initiating conversation about structural racism in and around the art world.

We are still defining the shape of this conversation—but this event will have a more traditional structure: we will stage a roundtable conversation with a handful of artists and art-workers, and then open the event up to conversation with the audience. Confirmed panelists: Carolyn Castaño, Amitis Motevalli and Ricardo Abreu Bracho.

We would like to welcome people with a slideshow — send us examples of work that inspires you, work that opens up one's thinking about what it means to develop a decolonial practice, imagine a different future, another world, to mine the past. Work by your spirit guides, work of your own that you would like to share. You can send images to HRLA by emailing us through our website, or by posting to the facebook event page for this event. 

Nearly 200 people showed up for the first of these gatherings exploring the colonialism of the structures and modes of relation that people of color especially encounter in and around the art world. This is more than twice the size of any audience that has attended previous community forums at HRLA—and it meant that the first phase of the event was, for many people, unwieldy. Many left in the first hour, but more stayed. We worked our way toward conversation—and engaged in important listening exercises with each other. People shared powerful stories of exclusion and erasure.

For this session, we will listen to a panel of artists and art-workers with different kinds of practices and experiences, and talk with them. Hopefully, as spaces and collectives continue to program events supporting the exchange of anti-racist perspective and ideas, people can enjoy the sense that each event is part of a larger, ongoing and heterogenous process.

Event photo by Audrey Chan: the audience at the start of October 17th event.