Description du projet
« Changemakers » est une collaboration artistique qui expose de femmes noires de Montréal qui travaillent afin de créer des changements positifs dans leurs communautés. Cette collaborationintègre deux styles distincts mais complémentaire de deux artistes de Montréal, Shanna Strauss, une artiste multidisciplinaire qui utilise la peinture acrylique et le mixtes médias aux photographies de Kevin Calixte. L'exposition, présenté au MAI (Montréal, art, Interculturel) , a fait partie de l'édition 2016 du Forum Social Mondial.
De par leurs sexes et leurs minorités raciales, les femmes noires sont souvent sous-représentées dans de nombreux aspects de la vie socio-économique et politique. Pour celles qui se livrent à une implication communautaire, cette réalité est encore plus vraie car leurs efforts sont souvent non soulignés et récompensés. En dépit de cette réalité, ses femmes continuent d'effectuer une pression pour un changement social positif.
La cinéaste émergente et animatrice Noncedo Odecnon Khumalo, a créé ce court documentaire pour CBC Art consignation ‘Changemakers’.
Vue d'exposition à la galerie du MAI, Montréal, Canada 2016
Annick, 2016
Transfert photo, acrylique, tissu, Combustion de bois recyclé, gravure sur bois recyclé 22″ x 33”
On change making:« The beauty about change is that it is constant and inevitable but also malleable. We can change apart, we can change without direction or we can choose to change together. Changing together takes effort, time, de vision, understanding, and trust but it’s impact is like no other. That’s the change I’m building towards ».
Annick MF
Patricia, 2016
Transfert photo, acrylique, tissu sur bois recyclé
27″ X 34″
On change making:« People don’t always understand how hard black lgbt community building can be. We were hurt and we are still hurt. Keeping these communities alive is a question of survival. So let’s give ourselves a chance. A chance to heal, a chance to find ourselves, a chance to love ourselves, a chance to love each other, a chance to trust each other and a chance to thrive »
Patricia M Jean
Shanice, 2016
Transfert photo, acrylique sur bois recyclé
24″ X 29″
On change making:« My voice is what I value most about myself and the Black womanhood I know and love. Navigating this world as Black women and femmes means always having to fight to use our voices. Systems of violence like misogynoir – the intersection of misogyny and Blackness – continue to strip us of our power, and so, it is revolutionary every time we speak up and speak back. I will always use my voice, and I will always fight to ensure that all Black women and femmes can use theirs regardless of what their revolution looks like. We will not be silenced because Black womanhood is divine. And within its divinity lives beauty and pain and resilience and joy and wisdom and love and fire. All of these elements are essential for our survival, and we are survivors; we have always been survivors. But surviving is not enough. It has never been enough. My life and my work centres Black womanhood because this world never will. I do not want us to have to survive in this sea of violence. I want us to thrive in a sea of peace. I want us to taste freedom. I want the world to unwrap its hands from around our necks so that we can breathe. So that we can rise ».
Shanice Nicole