Surrey Art Gallery presents Roots of Resilience media arts symposium, November 23
Event addresses the history of Lower Mainland farmworking with expert presentations, plant-bioelectricity music, poetry readings, and eco-printing
SPONSORED POST BY Surrey Art Gallery
Field worker harvesting cauliflower with a machete in Abbotsford, B.C., October 1983. Photo by Craig Berggold
Surrey Art Gallery is hosting the media-arts symposium Roots of Resilience on November 23 from 1 pm to 4:30 pm. This free event will speak to the history of farmworker movements, labour conditions of migrant workers, and sustainable practices in the face of climate change in the Lower Mainland from the 1970s to present.
The afternoon will begin with presentations by University of the Fraser Valley’s director of South Asian studies Satwinder Bains and media artist Craig Berggold. Bains will share the importance of preserving stories through the South Asian Canadian Digital Archive, and will also speak to activist struggles within South Asian Canadian labour history. Berggold worked as an artist-in-residence with the Canadian Farmworkers Union and will share his photographs used to campaign against discriminatory health and safety laws excluding farmworkers.
Tarun Nayar of Modern Biology. Photo by Mark Vonesch
Local artist Tarun Nayar of Modern Biology will perform plant music using analog equipment and the natural vibrations of time and place through plant bioelectricity. Trained from childhood in Indian classical music, he uses the system of Indian raga to mold his musical choices for time of day and season. His performances bring listeners into the present moment through vibration, space, and connection.
Rounding out the event will be a conversation and poetry performance by Mercedes Eng and Cecily Nicholson. Eng is the author of four books, including cop city swagger, a threat assessment of Vancouver’s police, and Prison Industrial Complex Explodes, winner of the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Nicholson, a 2018 recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry, has authored five books, including Harrowings, a study in Black rurality stemming from her experience growing up on a farm. The authors will speak to their recent years volunteering with an agricultural social enterprise that employs survivors, victims, ex-offenders, and offenders in the Fraser Valley.
Tansy (bitter buttons) plant at UBC Botanical Gardens. Photo by Justine Redila
Throughout the day, participants can also create flower eco-prints—an ancient Japanese technique also known as tatakizome—with Justine Redila.
South Asian Studies Institute at UFV and Indian Summer Festival are community partners for this event curated by Surrey Art Gallery associate curator Suvi Bains.
Learn more through Surrey Art Gallery.
Post sponsored by Surrey Art Gallery.
Related Articles
Featured
