“There is nothing poetic about falling for Montreal” (2023)
based of the poetry work “a fine African head” by Faith Paré
ARTIST STATEMENT BY FAITH PARÉ
“a fine African head” charts the hauntings of colonial education in Canada and the Caribbean. At the center is my personal and inevitably one-sided connection with a young Black woman student activist from the Bahamas who lived in 1960s Montreal. CJH was among the 97 arrested for participating in the Sir George Williams Computer Centre Occupation in 1969, a historic two-week sit-in against racism at the university. At one time, the only public information on CJH was a claim that she had died following a head injury sustained from the violent police crackdown on the occupation. My grief for this fellow Black woman, and the enclosure that her memory was relegated to in the official record, serves as the departure point for envisioning what her life might have been like in this understatedly critical city to Black Power struggle. The book unfolds as a temporal diptych between this period of upheaval and the 2020s, when the mental, physical, and historical burdens of institutional education on Black people still loom large, long after the student uprising in 1969.
Collage et découpe laser sur papier aquarelle 300mg
45,7 x 61cm
“We never talked about [...]” (2023)
Acrylique sur gravure sur bois (plywood) et découpe laser
7.3 x 7.3cm
“Chipped at the plywood across boarded-up storefronts with my fingernails and snack on the splinters” (2023)
Collage et découpe laser sur papier aquarelle 300mg
46 x 52cm
(FR) DEMARCHE ARTISTIQUE PAR AWA :
“There is nothing poetic about falling for Montreal” est une série d’oeuvres mixed-media inspiré par le receuil de poésie “a fine African head” par Faith Paré.
L’ensemble du projet en alliant, la poésie à l’art visuel cherche à développer une approche transdisciplinaire sur le thème des expériences politiques des Montréalais.e.s Afrodescendant.e.s et racisé.e.s mettant en parallèle les enjeux sociaux-historique de notre époque à ceux des années 60. Dans une esthétique semi-figurative, les collages de cette séries tentes de confondre les deux périodes afin de mettre en exergues les similtutes du Montréal contemporain et celui des années 60 en prenant pour point de référence l’experience de l’espace ubrain montrealais qu’entretenait une femme Noire impliquée dans la vie politique et communautaire Noires montréalaise. La série explore entre autre les thèmes de la gentrification, les révoltes étudiantes, les luttes anti-colonial transnational et les répressions et violences policière.
(ENG) ARTIST STATEMENT BY AWA :
“There is nothing poetic about falling for Montreal” is a mixed-media series inspired by the poetry collection “a fine African head” by Faith Paré.
The entire project, combining poetry with visual art, seeks to develop a transdisciplinary approach to the theme of the political experiences of Afro-descendant and racialized Montrealers, paralleling the socio-historical issues of our time with those of the 1960s. In a semi-figurative aesthetic, the collages in this series attempt to blur the lines between the two periods to highlight the similarities between contemporary Montreal and that of the 1960s, using as a reference point the experience of urban Montreal by a Black woman involved in the political and community life of Black Montrealers. The series explores, among other things, themes of gentrification, student uprisings, transnational anti-colonial struggles, and police repression and violence.
“There is nothing poetic about falling for Montreal” est une série d’oeuvres mixed-media inspiré par le receuil de poésie “a fine African head” par Faith Paré.
L’ensemble du projet en alliant, la poésie à l’art visuel cherche à développer une approche transdisciplinaire sur le thème des expériences politiques des Montréalais.e.s Afrodescendant.e.s et racisé.e.s mettant en parallèle les enjeux sociaux-historique de notre époque à ceux des années 60. Dans une esthétique semi-figurative, les collages de cette séries tentes de confondre les deux périodes afin de mettre en exergues les similtutes du Montréal contemporain et celui des années 60 en prenant pour point de référence l’experience de l’espace ubrain montrealais qu’entretenait une femme Noire impliquée dans la vie politique et communautaire Noires montréalaise. La série explore entre autre les thèmes de la gentrification, les révoltes étudiantes, les luttes anti-colonial transnational et les répressions et violences policière.
(ENG) ARTIST STATEMENT BY AWA :
“There is nothing poetic about falling for Montreal” is a mixed-media series inspired by the poetry collection “a fine African head” by Faith Paré.
The entire project, combining poetry with visual art, seeks to develop a transdisciplinary approach to the theme of the political experiences of Afro-descendant and racialized Montrealers, paralleling the socio-historical issues of our time with those of the 1960s. In a semi-figurative aesthetic, the collages in this series attempt to blur the lines between the two periods to highlight the similarities between contemporary Montreal and that of the 1960s, using as a reference point the experience of urban Montreal by a Black woman involved in the political and community life of Black Montrealers. The series explores, among other things, themes of gentrification, student uprisings, transnational anti-colonial struggles, and police repression and violence.