{"id":52274,"date":"2018-07-16T11:12:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T15:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=52274"},"modified":"2018-07-16T11:12:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T15:12:31","slug":"exploring-family-history-through-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/07\/exploring-family-history-through-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring family history through art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Old family photos were given new life during a special Brock workshop held last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifteen young artists from St. Catharines spent the week working with Visual Arts Professor Amy Friend to explore their family history and create new works of art.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the workshop organized by Rodman Hall Art Centre, participants used camera-less photography techniques on their familial documents as they conceptualized, planned and executed their artwork.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe program takes key ideas from Rodman Hall\u2019s summer exhibition <\/span>Carry Forward<\/span><\/a>, such as how social and political biases get carried forward into how history is recorded, into the everyday lives of youth living in Niagara,\u201d says Elizabeth Chitty, Rodman Hall Programming Officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chitty worked with community organizations and teachers to invite young artists from culturally diverse backgrounds to participate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students spent several days at Rodman Hall exploring the ideas presented in Carry Forward, such as the complex history of documentation and power relations, engaging with colonialism, propaganda and authenticity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants were asked to consider how Rodman Hall itself is an archive, Friend says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents were encouraged to think about what an archive is, what it means to look at documents related to their own lives and how to use the archive as an art form to explore histories not well known.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Working in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts darkroom as well as outside, the young artists used cyanotypes, silver gelatin prints and mixed media to engage with their own histories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ness Griffin never met her grandparents or her extended family. Her family\u2019s connection with their Haudenosaunee culture was cut in the Sixties Scoop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working with reproductions of family photos that she made during the workshop, Griffin scratches out faces to represent her loss of connections with extended family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a hard decision to make to cut up the photograph because it is deeply personal,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chimera Onyegbule also worked with photos of family she never met. Her great grandfather was born to a British father and Nigerian mother in the colonial era in Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI call this piece The White Flag,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s like the white flag in a war between two sides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grade 11 student at Holy Cross Catholic High School recently visited an aunt in London, England, where she learned more about her great grandfather.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to know more about my family history,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s important to keep stuff like this alive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The pieces created through the special program will be featured during a public exhibition that will run until Sept. 2 in <\/span>The Film House<\/span><\/a> lobby of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

The public is invited to attend the exhibition\u2019s opening on Tuesday, July 17 from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carry Forward is on at Rodman Hall Art Centre until Sept. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old family photos were given new life during a special Brock workshop held last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":52275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,37,1,4],"tags":[2941,30,1330],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52274"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52285,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52274\/revisions\/52285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}