(Left) Kim Nguyen, (Right) Divya Mehra. Images courtesy the artists.
The Visual Arts Lecture Series presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators and academics. Join Divya Mehra, guest faculty for Banff Artist in Residence Emerging, and Kim Nguyen, guest faculty for Winter Banff Artists in Residence, for this talk.
As a public experiment and ongoing private conversation, artist Divya Mehra (Scorpio), curator Kim Nguyen (Cancer), continue their series of public readings that trace their respective, and at times, overlapping experiences of the contemporary art world. Specifically, Mehra’s performative lecture explores race, neutrality, death, and the value of POC labour in a series of non-linear short stories and poetics. The performance, as well as her overall practice, often asks “how do we exist within the crushing indifference of our day-to-day?” In her narrative reading, Nguyen reflects on the absurdity and alienation of navigating white art institutions. Addressing the complex power dynamics that perpetuate whiteness in these spaces, Nguyen highlights the constant performance of class tourism and privilege that continues to divide art from the real.