For Others, For Ourselves

I’m Black, and I did not have a Black art teacher until I was at University. I’m a painter, and I’ve never had a Black artist teach me painting. I knew about artists like Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence because I grew up in a family that values art, and in a city that offered free art galleries like the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn, but I wasn’t told about those artists by my art teachers when I was young. I wasn’t handed those books, and sometimes, I wonder who I could have been if I had. This is something I try to hold clearly in my mind when I feel lost and in despair about academia. I care about teaching Black people art and although I think I’m a good educator and I could be of use to everyone, that does not mean I’m needed. I don’t know where I’m needed often, but I know I’m needed in that space because I needed and still need me. What we do and if we do it for others, or for past, present, or future versions of ourselves, is something that has come up several times in Season Two.

When I interviewed jina valentine on 2 November 2022, valentine introduced Black Lunch Table (which she co-founded in 2005 with Heather Hart) to me as,

… at base an oral history archiving project that was founded by two artists who do not have backgrounds in library sciences or oral history or art history. We're just artists who felt that we didn't see ourselves in, books when we were growing up. I wanted to like, be Pablo Picasso, or maybe, like, Andy Warhol when I was little? Um, because I didn't know! Um, because, you know, Faith Ringgold, for example, should have been part of what we were taught in art history, but not so much. Um, yeah, I could make that list a whole lot longer…[i]

In 2015, Black Lunch Table started their Wikipedia initiative when they were,

… looking at other larger archives and thinking about who was missing and thought, well, you know, Wikipedia is the most used encyclopedia in the world. Surely, we must all be on there. And I am still constantly surprised by who is missing. For example, Fred Moten was missing until 2020... Yeah...Yeah. [LAUGHS] Fred Moten, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Demetrius Oliver, Yashua Klos. I mean, we have a very long list of folks that we have added in the past couple years… Um, we also think about how we are shifting the demographic of editors. The vast majority of them are white. I don’t know, they're like, between 22 and 40. So, like how [LAUGHS] and so how do we, how do we, through focusing on a particular subject matter, invite a different demographic to come and contribute.[ii]

We should have been taught about Faith Ringgold in art history for a number of reasons including to have been given an opportunity to envision ourselves as artists like Ringgold, rather than Picasso or Warhol. Noting the absence of Black artists, art historians, and art workers whose work we have needed to find and read about in Wikipedia, the most used encyclopedia in the world, compelled valentine and Hart to start a project that seeks not only to correct the encyclopedia, but to empower people to intervene in the archive.

This inclination to develop a resource for others is something I noted when I spoke with Dr. Joana Joachim on 7 September 2022. Also in 2015, Dr. Joachim completed an M.A. student group residency at Artexte, “… a library, research centre and exhibition space for contemporary art… [whose] unique print and digital document collection holds over 30,000 documents covering the visual arts from 1965 to the present, with an emphasis on the art of Canada and Québec. Over 80% of the acquisitions stem from donations from the visual arts community.”[iii] This M.A. student group was, “…tasked with finding Black Canadian art in the collection and compiling a bibliography.”[iv] When the group finished the bibliography, Dr. Joachim recalled feeling as though they had,

…only scratched the surface. And so, I knew in the back of my mind that I would eventually come back to it. I didn't know how, I didn't know when, but I knew that I would come back to it.

And then lo and behold, I got hired to work there, um, that same year. And then when I got promoted to the position of Exhibition Coordinator, I knew that that would be one of the things I wanted to curate. So, I started kind of just tinkering around and thinking about it and being like, I just wanna update the bibliography and sort of expand it and see what will happen.

So that was the, the intention. The intention was simply to expand on something that I had contributed to as a student. Um, and so the show is kind of, or was, cause it's closed now, um, a presentation, meditation on, alongside, how Black Canadian art history is witnessed by the Artexte collection.

So Artexte is a contemporary art library, which means that the collection holds only documentation about contemporary art, um, globally, mostly Canadian, mostly Quebecois because of, it's a physical collection, and so, you know, it reflects its community, um, more strongly than other parts of the world because books are heavy and can't be mailed necessarily as easily. And so, I kind of just went through the collection as far back as I could go. So that took me to about the seventies cause it's contemporary art, right. So that only goes back to about the 1960s. And so, I found stuff all the way back to the 1970s and I just started sort of putting it together. Um, and wanting to think through what Black Canadian art looks like, who are the people who are making what or curating what, when and with whom? Um, and just kind of, displaying it and really kind of thinking about what does that look like?

Um, and putting the question out there of how come it's so hard to pin down Black Canadian art history? Um, obviously white supremacy is the answer to that question, but, um, there are other factors as well. And so just kind of posing the question and, and, and, and sitting with it. And, again, basking in resisting, in that resistance to be pinned down and, and sort of accepting the flux.

And so that's, that, that's, that was the show of just kind of like, seeing what the collection had to offer and then reflecting on what it is that the collection could not offer and all the reasons why it did not offer those things.

Right, so the archival process is one that begins with the creation of the document in a lot of cases, right? And so, if there was a show that included a Black artist in the 1970s, but no one thought to create a document to record the fact that that show included a Black artist, then that can't be archived, right? If no one thought to save a copy of that document, then that can't be archived, right? If no one thought to actually put the document in the archive, then that's the end of the story. And so, kind of just... thinking about all the different stages that need to, that need to be passed in order for a catalogue, a poster, a postcard, a document of any kind, a book, to perdure, last, until this time.[v]

When I asked Dr. Joachim about what artists can do to, “… make sure that they are a part of a larger discourse and a larger history especially, like, Black artists. Um, so that, that can be available to them and future generations”[vi]; she responded by giving really valuable advice. Dr. Joachim spoke about making sure your work is legible, when you have an exhibition asking if there will be a catalogue, building a personal archive, and putting your work in a place where people can go and learn about it, like Artexte. How can we actively generate, disseminate, collect, keep, and archive documents to ensure that there is something to reflect on and learn from in the present and in the future?

Speaking to Jessica Gaynelle Moss on 15 September 2021 about the work we do inside of the institution to change it [cue the laugh track], and if the slight needle shift is enough, if it’s worth it, Moss noted that,

These are questions that, that I think we have to ask with each project, right? With each proposal that comes across our desk that asks for our time and labor. How much of myself am I willing to give to this work for just the slightest move, the slightest shift of a needle, you know?

I think in some way, um... I think in some way it's always worth it. Because they're gonna keep whiting no matter what, so at least we can make it a little bit spicy for a little bit, right? Um, in like the slightest way. Because there will be another Kelly that comes to Oxford, and we don't want that Kelly to have the same exact experience, right? And so, it's often like doing the, that slight... it's worth that slight shift for future us, right? Like this is, um, a belief. This is a school of thought. But also fuck them![vii]

I am 100% here for being driven by both a need to make things better for that other version of Kelly, to make sure she doesn’t have the same experiences I had without Faith Ringgold in my art history courses, without Fred Moten in my Wikipedia searches, without countless artists and exhibitions whose work and words people didn’t think it important to save; and also fuck it! And fuck them! Another gift from Moss was the reminder that Predominantly White Institutions (P.W.I.s), “… will just suck you dry… and feel no remorse and no empathy. They will just let you do it to yourself. So, we gotta, I really do believe that we gotta catch each other and that's why we gotta see each other, you know?”[viii]

So how can we see each other so we can catch each other? Moss was speaking specifically as a Black woman in the context of her work within Black communities. I do think that race plays an important role in this question because I have seen how the burden to change our art histories, encyclopedias, archives, and institutions is too often carried by people of colour. I have also seen how it is often carried by women, working-class people, and members of the LGBTQIA community. I would like to bring both Lou Macnamara and Katriona Beales into this discussion because when I interviewed them, they spoke about their work creating resources for others, but in a slightly different way than valentine, Joachim, and Moss. They spoke about how their work not only benefits others, but how it also benefits them.

Lou Macnamara and Samara Addai have run camera trainee workshops since 2021. When I interviewed Macnamara on 1 November 2022, they told me that,

Through being a camera assistant on TV drama features, music videos, commercials. And um, through moving into that world, then like recognising how many barriers to entry there are and um, how un-diverse and un-inclusive it is in our department. So, um, one of the things that me and one of my colleagues, Samara Addai, who's really amazing, and had- or we've both been kind of trying to independently do our like small amount to change, uh, change that, where we had hiring power, or where we could support other people. Um, and we've just formalised that into, over this year, running workshops, and like a subsequent mentor scheme to get trainees who are from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the camera department into our department. Which, again, is like really selfishly motivated cause that's the department I want to be working in in like three years’ time, and not waiting 10- or 20-years’ time for that. So, I'm just trying to speed up the processes. Um, where I have like power or like resources to be able to do that.[ix]

Having co-founded Artists’ Union England, Katriona Beales during our interview on 14 December 2022, reflected on how,

…these hoops you have to jump through to, like, get off the ground, and um, we managed to do it. Um, which I still think is one of the most amazing achievements. I can't, I, just full credit to people who are still involved with the union, like Theresa Easton and you know, people who are like really doing nitty gritty organizing, um, through, through it.

Um, because it's a lot, it's a lot of work. But what we've been able to do as a result is really, I think amazing and, um, I have earned thousands more pounds on a personal level because I've repeatedly- every time I, I, um, get offered a contract, I renegotiate it using the Artist Union Rates of Pay. And every time I get offered more money.

So, I think it's a tool, it's a collective tool, and it's, you use it. If you are part of it and you use it, it has power. Um, but it invo- you need, it needs people to join for it to be powerful.[x]

In our efforts to build resources and tools for others, how can we also build them for our past, present, and future selves? We need to all join in this effort, not just leaving it to a portion of the population. We are all responsible, and we can all do something for others, and for ourselves.

Kelly Lloyd

[i] jina valentine, interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, 2 November 2022, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/podcast/jina-valentine .

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] “About Us” Artexte, 29 April 2023, https://artexte.ca/en/about-us/.

[iv] Dr. Joana Joachim, interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, 7 September 2022, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/podcast/dr-joana-joachim .

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Jessica Gaynelle Moss, interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, 15 September 2021, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/podcast/jessica-gaynelle-moss .

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] 12ø Collective (eva duerden, Kelly Lloyd, Lou Macnamara), interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, 1 November 2022, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/podcast/12o-collective .

[x] Katriona Beales, interview by Kelly Lloyd, This Thing We Call Art, 14 December 2022, https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/podcast/katriona-beales .