Decolonizing Public Space
Decolonizing Public Space, Insurgent Public Art and Design
Instructor: Honoure Black
“The nature of the public art domain is a collaborative, built on multiple expertise and working between the disciplines to create new interdisciplinary connections. “With public art, boundaries of the traditional disciplines of art, architecture, design, and landscape architecture have dissolved, allowing professionals in these areas to cross over artificial academic borders and create compelling, unique, and cutting-edge public art that draws from elements in each of these disciplines.” (J.T. Young, University of Washington, https://www.washington.edu/change/proposals/public.html, March 1st 2021)
This course explored decolonial contemporary public art and design found in the Canadian urban landscape. Works of public art along with their respective social, political and historical implications were examined. Western theories coupled with Non-Western philosophies and Indigenous Worldviews were discussed. Through this process, students gained an awareness of artists, architects and designers who are contributing to the field as well as scholars who write about public art and design. Upon the completion of the course, students were able to discuss the interdisciplinary nature and insurgent possibility of public art and design.
Final Project Description:
Local/Insurgent Public Art Final Project
For this assignment students created a multi-part design proposal for a work of public art. Most proposal are situated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, although some students created work rooted to their homeland or familial journey. The final project included a written proposal, infographic poster, 3D model, and presentation.
Instructor Acknowledgement:
As I finish this course after its seminal term, I am elated, hopeful, and motivated by the designs and research my students have produced this term. It has been a gift to work with them, listen, engage, and learn during our critical readings and discussions. We only started to unpack concepts of race, gender, sexuality, settler colonialism, decolonization and ways to move forward in a good way—in public space. Conversations were difficult at times, but always respectful and full of imagination. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to this course, I am proud of all of you.
Aaron
Bomback
Madeleine
Dafoe
Marika
Dewar-Norosky
Paul
Hanbury
Chukwuebuka
Stephen Idafum
Bilal
Khan
Aaron Bomback
Aaron Bomback is an MLA Graduate student in the Department of Landscape Architecture.
Railside at the Forks: A Proposal to (Re)frame the Stories Buried and Unearthed
This proposal will be a public art installation for the proposed Railside Lands redevelopment plan. The design is inspired by the centuries of Indigenous history buried over time by varying vegetation, flooding events, and more recently, the (re)development that has unearthed archeological artifacts of Indigenous campsites and hearths at the Forks and East Rail Yards dating to A.D. 1285. By (re)framing the use of railway tracks to display Indigenous culture and make a statement about Indigenous land rights and presence in Winnipeg’s downtown, the proposed public art dismantles colonial mnemonic devices and manufactured memories about colonial development to rewrite and educate the public about the perceived and lived memories of the Railside Lands.
Marika Dewar-Norosky
Touch
Touch is a work of art giving space to the Queer community. The base hand represents queer elders, the work that has been done for visibility and queer rights, and the resilience shown. The upper hand represents the work that is currently being done to give queer people spaces and the ability to live secure, joy-filled lives. Each fingernail is painted by a local artist sharing their own intersectional story. The blank nail is for all those not represented,
Feel free to climb up onto the sculpture and be embraced and supported by these hands. Feel free to touch
Paul Hanbury
Paul Hanbury is a student returning to complete his Masters of Architecture in the 2021-2022 year. After moving from Guelph where he completed a Bachelors degree in Political Science, Paul has worked as a builder in the Kenora area for the past 6 years.
Sheltering Hands
The work Sheltering Hands reaches from the ground seek to provide shelter. This movement serves to highlight the issue of inadequate housing in Kenora, as well as in remote communities and reserves across Canada. The artwork, like the struggle for adequate housing is intricately connected to themes of community action. The use of recycled material from lake-house demolitions and renovations also calls out the resource and power imbalance between the homeless and owners of property. Lastly the work of art ties these themes back to the land from which it emerges. This work will reach many audiences. It will bring to light real issues that tourists often are able to ignore and hopefully create some discussion about their role in relation to local economies and resource use. The structures will also speak to the local population to encourage community action with regards to uplifting each other. Lastly the structures will be a sign of attention, aspiration and hope that shows solidarity with all people who suffer from inadequate housing.
Chukwuebuka
Stephen Idafum
Chukwuebuka Stephen Idafum is an Interior Design Graduate from the University.
Àwón ìbèjì
The increased demand for an insurgent public design within the community of Makoko has facilitated the search for new insurgent public design intended to be a voice for the rather marginalized aquatic settlement. Àwón ìbèjì intends to capture the quintessential narrative of what it means to live in and around this shantytown in a way that embodies the resilience of the average Makoko resident in its entirety. It aims to transform a slum-themed space into an embodiment of the designer’s ethos of socio-political and cultural change from within society. Idafum’s Àwón ìbèjì is pertinent to the Makoko community, grounded in the expression of the predominant source of income which is fishing. When installed, Àwón ìbèjì will influence the public environs of Lagos Mainland and Island byways of its reference to its local identity as well shifting the dominant paradigm defining public spaces in Lagos, Nigeria.
Bilal Khan
I am a second and final year Interior Design Masters Student. I am working towards finishing my graduate degree and practicum thesis. I finished my undergraduate degree in Environmental Design in year 2020. I am passionate about the art of storytelling through using Architecture and design as my primary medium. I believe design and art can be a way of communication and ARCG 7070, taught me how public art can be a way of finding your own perspective on tough topics such as insurgent art and decolonization, racism, and topics of similar importance.
Society’s Building Blocks
Purpose: The way ‘Society’s Building Blocks’ will attempt to work as a piece for activism is instilled in its visual representation and the concept. The two-layered systems will be to show the strength of acceptance and embracing the differences of living in a diverse society through the bottom-colored layer of cubes. In contrast, the top patina layer will serve as a metaphorical blockade in the form of racism, hate, discrimination, and lack of acceptance, hindering the growth and emergence in communities such as, Black, Asian, indigenous, Immigrant, and other minority groups (BIPOC). The two layers are a metaphorical and conceptual representation of a constant struggle that exists in most western societies, keeping those minority groups from reaching their full potential.
Construction: The art piece will comprise twenty building cubes, with each cube with a dimension of 1.5×1.5×1.5 feet. The choice of materials for the cubes will be scrap metal. They will be installed directly on the existing pavement and come together to create a unified shape of a pyramid, representing a conceptual figure comprised of all the minority groups in the city of Winnipeg and the country of Canada. Each cube will have an assigned color, representing the many aspects of multiculturism, such as mixed culture, multiple communities and languages, sexual identities, races, and genders. In addition to the bottom layer of colors, the cubes will also be covered by a layer of patina, representing all the hate, bigotry, and discrimination those said communities have to face. cubes. In contrast, the top patina layer will serve as a metaphorical blockade in the form of racism, hate, discrimination, and lack of acceptance, hindering the growth and emergence of each of the said minority groups.
End Goal: The end goal for ‘Society’s Building Blocks’ will be to highlight and encourage its audience to engage in active dialogue that includes crucial issues of hate, racism, and discrimination inside Winnipeg and Canada as a whole. The art will serve as a point of self-reflection and hopefully generate the kind of dialogue that we need to fight against all the injustice, inequality, and discrimination for BIPOC.
Madeleine Dafoe
Madeleine is a master’s student who has just complete her first year of Landscape Architecture.
Society’s Building Blocks
Located along the west axis of the Manitoba legislative grounds, An Extracted Apology appropriates the words of Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology to residential school survivors on behalf of the Canadian government and reframes them as a celebration of Indigenous power. An extracted apology is a call to action for the work left to be done in fixing a broken system, a celebration of Indigenous strength, and a recognition that we all have an individual responsibility in building a just society rooted in Indigenous sovereignty for future generations.