Artists explore what isn't in city archives
Three artists are working to animate the City of Edmonton Archives through different art that explores what is — and isn't — in those archives.
"(There isn't) a positive, abundant narrative of Asian diaspora contribution to economy, to culture, to political wellness in Edmonton as a whole," Soni Dasmohapatra, who is also an assistant professor in the arts and cultural management department in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications at MacEwan University, told Taproot. "I think that is really sad, and it was really a point of grief for me … How long does it have to be before there's full inclusion of the Asian community and the recognition of the gifts that we've brought here?"
Dasmohapatra, Jia Jia Yong (who is also the City of Edmonton's first community archivist), and Jeannine Naboye Kroening are the three participating artists in the Animating Archives Through Arts-Based Research project. It culminated on May 12 at the city archives with a site visit from participants of the C2UExpo.
During the C2UExpo event, each of them performed new works, spoke on a panel, and distributed a project zine called Animating Archives: Exploring what we did not find, which notes gaps in representation and the presence of racist materials in archives. The zine was designed by Quip Creative, and it includes photography by Jordon Hon, the project's documentarian.
With the Animating Archives project, Yong said the work was deeply personal. Her cultural background is Chinese, Dasmohapatra's is South Asian, and Naboye Kroening's is Filipino. Each looked for reflections of themselves and their communities in the archives, Yong said.
"Each of us in our piece really explore these topics, these silences, and what they mean for us personally," Yong told Taproot. "(We looked) into the archives and (asked) what stories are there about us, about our community, about what we relate to, about someone that looks like us, and what they have done, and how people have seen them?"
Yong's work as the community archivist for the City of Edmonton is increasing the diversity of records in the collection, which includes the city's own records and ones donated or gathered from citizens. Part of her role is outreach to attain new records, and she has done so with several Asian community groups and individuals. She has also worked to preserve Edmonton's queer history, among other things.
Yong said the artists may perform their new works again one day, perhaps with additional collaborators. Dasmohapatra's two pieces, From Earth to Rhythm: An Exploration, the healing arts of story and form and The Unseen Journey: Racism, Whiteness, and the Wounds Carried, combine dance and ceramics. Yong's piece is a harp composition presented with lanterns called I was Homesick for a Home I Never Knew. Naboye Kroening's piece is a dance work featuring live drums called To Be Seen.
Looking ahead, the artists said they hope others will try out some version of mixing artistic practice and archival exploration based on the records that they have created.
"Hopefully people are interested in actually picking up this methodology and creating their own sort of Animating Archives project," Dasmohapatra said. "There's a lot of room for creativity, a lot of room for cooperation, and a lot of room for expression and documentation."
