Josiah Henson, spiritual leader, author, founder of the Black community settlement at Dawn, Canada West (born 15 June 1789 in Charles County, Maryland; died 5 M...

On March 19, Toronto artist Deanna Bowen presented an artist’s talk at the Museum as a complement to her artwork in the group exhibition This is Me, This is Also Me.

Interdisciplinary artist Deanna Bowen discusses the role archives and video art has played in the making of her personal histories, in addition to the role it plays in her artistic practice. Watch the full video: http://www.koffler.digital/videoandarchives __ Death To/Long Live: THE ARCHIVE is a series of interviews created by Koffler.Digital, exploring role of video art and their archives as a tool for political activism. __ This series of interviews is brought to you by Koffler.Digital, a program of the Koffler Centre of the Arts that provides a virtual space where artists working in the field of New Media/New Genres are able to create, experiment and develop new work; and where conversation and dialogue between artists, activists and creatives is encouraged and documented. Koffler.Digital is committed to the intersection of social justice and artistic practice that is central to the mandate of the Koffler Centre of the Arts. We collaborate with artists, authors and individuals whose work engages issues affecting marginalized communities; who explore injustice and who look to spur constructive change and dialogue in regard to the current socio-political climate. Learn more: http://www.koffler.digital/about/ __ Director/Producer | Letticia Cosbert Director of Photography | Ceecee Lu

Artists Michèle Pearson Clarke and Deanna Bowen discuss the making of Clarke's three-channel video installation Parade of Champions, on view at the RIC June 5–28, 2015. Drawing on the artist’s experience of grieving her own mother’s death, Parade of Champions documents the grief experiences of three black queer individuals whose mothers have also recently died. Employing still video portraits and audio interviews, this immersive three-channel installation invites viewers to bear witness to this black queer grief. Learn more about Parade of Champions: https://bit.ly/2Wh15Hy This event took place on June 10, 2015. © Ryerson Image Centre, Ryerson University No part of this recording may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of Ryerson Image Centre, Ryerson University. Every attempt has been made to attribute the original rights or intellectual property holders of the recorded materials. Errors and omissions can be brought to the attention of the Ryerson Image Centre in writing.

Deanna Bowen and Rachelle Dickenson have a casual conversation about researching/creating/curating against the grain. They will touch on past and recent projects and an ongoing collaborative research project. Deanna Bowen - I am a descendant of the Alabama and Kentucky born Black Prairie pioneers of Amber Valley and Campsie, Alberta. My family history has been the central pivot of my auto-ethnographic interdisciplinary practice since the early 1990s. I am a recipient of a 2020 Governor General Award for Visual and Media Arts Award, a 2018 Canada Council Research and Creation Grant, an Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Grant in 2017, a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and the 2014 William H. Johnson Prize. My writing, interviews and art works have been published in Canadian Art, The Capilano Review, The Black Prairie Archives, and Transition Magazine. I am the editor of the 2019 publication Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada. [Deanna Bowen is a new faculty member at Concordia University, and you can peruse her faculty profile HERE and artist website HERE.] Rachelle Dickenson - I am of British, Irish and Red River Métis ancestry through my paternal Grandfather. Having learned about my Métis ancestry as an adult, I am guided by decolonial and Indigenous methodologies and the arts and academic communities of which I am a part. I am an independent curator, with a PhD from the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University, and was the co-curator of Àbadakone | Continuous Fire | Feu Continuel in the Indigenous Art Department at the National Gallery of Canada. Currently I am developing and teaching online courses in curatorial studies, Indigenous and settler art histories and critical museology at NSCAD University (Fall 2020) and Carleton University (Winter 2021). My research and practice focuses on relationships and distinctions between white settler and Indigenous art histories, pedagogies and curatorial practices in Canadian art exhibition and educational institutions in support of generative Indigenous and white settler arts collaborations.

Season 2, Episode 4: Deanna Bowen

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Please like this video and subscribe to support the arts in Canada. Deanna Bowen is a 2020 winner of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Directed by Raghed Charabaty. Co-production of the Canada Council for the Arts and Kinophile Productions. Presentation of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Independent Media Arts Alliance. The Canada Council for the Arts is a federal, arm’s-length Crown corporation created by an Act of Parliament in 1957 (Canada Council for the Arts Act) “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” For more information, visit ggarts.ca **** Transcript: I’m an interdisciplinary artist living in Toronto. I grew up in Vancouver, in the Downtown Eastside, and I’ve been here for the last twenty-five years. I do work about my family and it’s very much caught up in their history, and telling our story, and honouring the very hard work that we have done to be here. Former slaves, all of them, but also former slaves that built their own towns, built their own schools, built their own churches. The stories that I tell define the shape that the work takes. My family wasn’t particularly interested in talking. They certainly were much more careful about telling their stories in the early years. The absence of those images, the absence of that footage worked out to be the biggest breakthrough of my practice because it obliged me to figure out another way to tell a story. There is a black Canadian audience that also is very hungry and keen to see itself. This experience of trying to be seen in Canada as a black person, I think, is something that is common with many people, and it resonates with a lot of different black peoples, and so they’re in there, too. I make work that makes it very difficult for people to deny the racism that I can see. I feel like there are so many questions that I can’t afford to stop asking questions. I would worry if I wasn’t agitating. I would worry if I became complacent or too comfortable. I will keep doing this for as long as I can so that other people will feel comfortable in asking questions until we get the story right. Connect with us on social media: Canada Council for the Arts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/canada.council/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/canadacouncil Twitter - https://twitter.com/CanadaCouncil LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/canada-council-for-the-arts/ Website - https://canadacouncil.ca/ Art Bank Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/artbank_banquedart/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CCartbank/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9fGIx7hZYk Website - https://artbank.ca/ CCUNESCO - Canadian Commission for UNESCO Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ccunesco/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/CCUNESCO LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/canadian-commission-for-unesco/ Website - https://en.ccunesco.ca/

Growing up, the award-winning artist Deanna Bowen heard dramatic stories of how her ancestors — early Black settlers — tried to build a life on the Canadian Prairies. She shares those stories in a monumental new mural for the National Gallery of Canada, titled “The Black Canadians (after Cooke),” which traces the history of her family and the country itself. Deanna tells guest host Talia Schlanger about her ambitious new mural and the stories within it.

See the artist open an ambitious exhibition on her family history and the rarely-told legacy of Black life in Vancouver on In the Making

Curated by Crystal Mowry For more than twenty years, Deanna Bowen’s practice has evolved from its roots in experimental documentary video into a complex mapping of power as seen in public and private archives. Research and exhibitions are rarely mutually exclusive modes for Bowen, in part because her subjects are capable of revealing new perspectives over time. Whether it is through strategies of re-enactment or dense constellations of archival material, Bowen’s work traces her familial history within a broader narrative of Black survival in Canada and the United States.

In this monumental new work, Deanna Bowen expands her family history into a broader examination of discrimination in North America over the centuries.

Exploring the complex history of colonialism, the trade of enslaved peoples, and Black migration through the lens of the artist’s own family’s experiences, The Black Canadians (after Cooke) restores generations of voices in a thought-provoking commentary on the enduring impact of prevailing cultural norms. Learn more https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/exhibitions-and-galleries/the-black-canadians-after-cooke

Deanna Bowen's Black Drones in the Hive reveals Canada's racist past by re-contextualizing archives, found materials, and photographs.

An intimate artist conversation featuring Deanna Bowen and Paul Seesequasis, hosted by Crystal Mowry. Discover the inspiration and insights behind the work o...

A recent exhibition revealed the early 20th-century social networks whose power shaped cultural production in Canada. But those networks are shifting

On May 18 2021 we hosted a live exhibition tour of Deanna Bowen: Black Drones in the Hive, an interdisciplinary exhibition at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gall...

In our second video on Deanna Bowen's 'Black Drones in the Hive,' KWAG Senior Curator Crystal Mowry focuses on two key works in this exhibition that reflect ...

KWAG Senior Curator Crystal Mowry introduces the ideas and research behind Deanna Bowen's solo exhibition, 'Black Drones in the Hive,' which is on view at th...

Montreal-based artist Deanna Bowen discusses her solo exhibition, Black Drones in the Hive, in conversation with KWAG Senior Curator Crystal Mowry.Deanna Bow...

In conversation with artist Deanna Bowen and curator Crystal Mowry about the project and the challenges they've faced working within Canadian arts institutions.

"Scotiabank Photography Award: Black Drones in the Hive" ran from 14 September to 3 December 2022 at The Image Centre, Toronto.