Decolonization | OCAD U

Photo by Marianna Lupina

Photo

When I stood inside this ARC, it bore my reflection. I can never get away from that reality, and the responsibility to do what is the next right thing, in this journey to change.

Photo by Eugenia PorechenskayaPatty Bowman Kingsley

Oluseye Ogunlesi, EXODUS 1792 is the single most haunting art piece I saw during this experience

Reflections Power

We need to sit in our learning with its disquiet and discovery, long enough to know we need a change of heart and an expansion of our mind and soul.

Patty Bowman Kingsley

Learning over time, building understanding through relationships that transcend our learned experience.

This is what my experience within the COIL International Learning opportunity at OCAD U deposited on me. It was a sacred learning exchange through lived experiences A gift that brought our divergent backgrounds together within the learning framework. The first experience disquieted and undid my inner person it unsettled this settler and left my heart and mind in a place of unlearning and unbecoming A wonderful starting place for the second decolonization learning opportunity

Photo by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Ilene Sova

John B. Aird Gallery

The layered use of colour and form within this exhibition provided a nostalgic, refreshing, entry point for the viewer. At the same time, we learned from Sova’s shared stories and visual voice, of the oppression within the historical context of her family. The familial points of history, joy, and pain were poignantly expressed in beauty.

The layers of colonial oppression embedded in these works released a clear clarion call to the viewer, while the vibrant and refreshing colour palette and video imagery reinforced the courage of those displayed within this historic and present-day context. It is generous to present the horror of the past upon a gentle ocean breeze and waving palm branches.

Gordon Shadrach Spadina House

Shadrach provided an extraordinary narrative through the life of Mrs. Pipkin, the historic laundress at the Spadina House in Canada and six Raptors players portrayed as abolitionists in Toronto during that historic time https://www.gordonshadra ch.com/media

It was deeply moving to realize the desecration of

the human spirit through the historic portrayal of black, indigenous, people of colour within Canada.

Seeing the photo frames turned to the wall to express the absence of black and indigenous history – as a model of erasure was compelling and informative to me

Seeing the elevation of Mrs. Pipkin from laundress to homeowner, amidst her story of loss and suffering was inspiring and at the same time, deeply sobering

Graffiti Alley Tour Adrian Hayles

This tour afforded us a personalized glimpse into how Graffiti Alley has developed over time, as well as a greater understanding of graffiti culture, and the exceptional talent of those who are freehand creating within Toronto and other cities, as well as some of the barriers they face in creating + monetizing their work

Photos by Patty Bowman Kinglsey

Photos by Patty Bowman Kinglsey

Portraits of Our Hearts

The experience of being together, outside, seeing artwork that lives on the edge creating an ephemeral expression of extraordinary messages and materiality, released a joy in each of us that transferred to our faces There is nothing like a visual culture that wraps you up in its beauty and voicing

The smiles and engagement of our hearts increased every day. It showed up in the studio, with compliments, interest, and encouragement in each other’s work

Photo by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Womb Vessel II

Remix continued with a focus on the base and stability

Womb Vessel III Adding coloured aluminum and doubling the thickness of the hammered aluminum

Photos by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Learning about sacred spaces within the environment, and what is contained within the symbol, meaning, and signal systems of Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island within this area, affected and enriched me

Often, it takes reflecting on the depth of our foundations within Turtle Island to begin to appreciate the sacred nature of our lives here

Photo by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Home in Toronto Again

Liz Osawamick Peterborough Petroglyphs

Seeing Gio and Steven in their studio, and learning about their process and experiences was a rare gift. The decolonization experience in Toronto was up close and personal with so many artists that the history and present day learning about decolonization was a dynamic experience.

Photos by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Gio Swaby and Steven Schmid College Park Studio

Antonius Roberts

It was a privilege to hear the heart of Antonius Roberts and to better appreciate his passion for his creativity in both his art and his passion for people and his understanding of the sacred

Always deeply impactful, there was treasure exchanged between each instructor/leader within this experience

Photo by Patty Bowman Kingsley

Graffiti Alley impacted me and I am drawn back to images captured in that experience. Yet others were deeply impactful. It may simply be the open air and the accessible colourful images. Every day worked something new into me. The University of the Bahamas students touched me with the warmth of their hearts, and Nicole Collins, Gio Swaby, and Steven Schmid with the generosity of their spirits and the transparency of their lives and practice. I now have had an experience created beyond my own life choices that I will forever refer to as ‘before’ and ‘after’ these learning opportunities I am not joking this changed me and I hope the change is forever.

This historic picture illustrates in some measure what these Decolonization experiences have been for me. In 2007, a young person walked by a live painting

I was doing and asked me if she could paint on my canvass I said yes and encouraged her to pick out her brush and the colour she wanted to apply she did. The challenge came when she reached for the canvass to apply the paint, she could not put the paint onto the canvass. She tried again, and then she stepped back and tried again, but could not do it. She then tried to hand the paintbrush back to me. I asked her if she knew what hand-over-hand learning was, and she did not I explained that I would wrap my hand around hers as she picked up the paintbrush or she could put her hand on mine, and we would create together. She chose the latter, and the trajectory of my `live` creating was forever changed because I was changed -- I had experienced collaborative learning.

In 2007, I was the one giving safety and care to one who had possibly never painted before This year, these learning programs and the students of the University of the Bahamas, Project ICE, and OCAD U let me rest my hand on theirs, as they held the paintbrush that provided me the privilege of what I would call heart-with-heart learning.

And so it begins…

With all my heart and mind and effort…I trust that what has been deposited in me will continue to grow, as my unlearning, and unbecoming turns toward the power to become someone I have never been before. That the ‘power’ over model dies, and the ‘power’ with model becomes my default pattern of becoming

Photo by nancy