Locating Feminism Symposium

A MAWA SYMPOSIUM

As we hover on the threshold of this new century we invite you to join us in examining contemporary feminismâs relevancy for cultural producers.

Presentations by:

KC Adams
Lori Blondeau
Jennifer Fisher
Sheryl N. Hamilton
Ann Newdigate
Mireille Perron
Performances and videos by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan

Curated by Vera Lemecha

Feminism at the beginning of the 21st century is difficult to pin down - there is no central authority, no core of truth to which we subscribe, no orthodoxy against which we measure our commitment. It is a hybrid that we embrace to the extent that it encompasses many feminist voices, positions, theories and practices. Feminism as ãa movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppressionä (bell hooks) has had its own troubling prejudices revealed and consequently called to task. We recognize that there is no place for a feminism that duplicates the power imbalances invested in class and race relations. Neither is there room for a pure feminism that attempts to speak to or for all women in a world where womenâs circumstances differ so vastly.
Feminismâs viability lies in its efforts to speak to women across differences of age, race, class and sexuality - to women who grapple with a broad range of concerns extending from employment equity to issues around literacy, poverty and violence. However, while we may be heartened in having various feminisms from which to choose, we are, at the same time, curious about the conditions that would produce a situation in which women can be indifferent to any association with feminism. As we hover on the threshold of this new century we invite you to join us in examining contemporary feminismâs relevancy for cultural producers. We ask:

Have either the social or the art world conditions that affect the production or exhibition of womenâs work - including those marginalized because of their race, class or other factors - altered significantly in the last three frenetic decades?
Have university art departments and art colleges caught up? Are feminist theories and the histories of womenâs art practices - that have had an unequivocal impact on the broader art world been integrated into the educational systems?
What are the on-going effects of the 80s feminist theorizing around representation, language and sexuality?
What are the conditions affecting womenâs involvements in the new communication technologies? What are the initiatives being developed by cyberfeminists to create a feminist environment on the Net?

Watch this site for monthly updates and registration information!

Participants' Bios

KC Adams is an emerging Winnipeg artist combining diverse mediums such as clay, electronics, and computer interfaces to create physical and virtual installations. www.kcart.ca

Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux , Saskatoon-based artist currently working on her MFA at the University of Saskatchewan whose work includes performance, sculpture, and new media. Her work explores the influence of popular media (contemporary and historical) and culture on Aboriginal self-identity, self-image, and self-definition. She is currently exploring the impact of colonization on traditional and contemporary roles and lifestyles of aboriginal peoples.

Jennifer Fisher is a Montreal based independent curator, art critic and academic. Her current research focuses on revisionist aesthetics and the performative enactment of exhibitions. She is co-organizer of Museopathy an exhibtion of site specific museum interventions which will be staged in Kingston this summer.

Sheryl N. Hamilton is an assistant professor in communications in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. She researches and teaches in the domains of gender and technology, cyberculture studies, and law and culture. Believing that feminist practice and analysis should happen both within the university and outside of it, she is also a founding member of a womenâs digital technology arts centre in Montreal, Studio XX. As well, she has a regular radio column on CBC Radio 1 in Montreal exploring issues of technology and culture.

Ann Newdigate, currently a resident of Hornby Island, B.C., is an exhibiting artist dealing with notions of value and authority by moving through digital, textile, and manual processes as a strategy for conveying contradictions. Her work has been included in solo and curated group exhibitions in Canada, USA, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, England, Scotland and Poland. Her professional practice includes writing, teaching, lecturing and editing.

Mireille Perron was born in Montréal, Québec. Perron's installation works use embodied storytelling and explore the connections between feminism, culture, art and its histories, technology and science. She is presently Academic Head of Liberal Studies at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary.

Performances and Videos by:

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan create performances, films, videos, artists' books and public art projects. They are infamous for pieces such as We're Talking Vulva, A Day in The Life of A Bull-Dyke, and Lesbian National Parks and Services. This duo tours extensively, nationally and abroad, but Winnipeg is their chosen home.

Curated by:

Vera Lemecha is an independent curator resident in Winnipeg whose research interests are primarily in the areas of feminism, gender and technology. Her recent curatorial practice has included co-curating the symposium: The Multiple and Mutable Subject, on subjectivity and the Internet (St. Norbert Arts Centre) and co-editing the anthology of the same title, and editing inVersions: The Female Grotesque (MAWA). She is currently working towards producing a website that will examine cyberfeminism and representation on the net.