The First Research-Based Exhibition of Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art in the UK

|| SAVE THE DATE ||

21 - 25 May 2018
Lower Atrium Space, Professor Stuart Hall Building at Goldsmiths, University of London SE14 6NW

30 May - 14 June
The Baldwin Gallery London SE12 8EX

Curated by Biung Ismahasan (Alumni of the MA in Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy at ICCE, Goldsmiths & PhD Candidate in Curating at the University of Essex’s Centre for Curatorial Studies) with Dr Dennison Smith (Creative Director, The Baldwin Gallery)
www.thebaldwingallery.com/about/

|| Curator''s Statement ||

As Indigeneity is a politically enabling construct in the resistance to ongoing colonialisms and expropriations. Performance and installation art are conceived as vital expressions of the emergent, processual and contextual nature of Indigenous culture. Dispossessions: Performative Encounter(s) of Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art defies primitivist and primordial expectations by emphasising the self-made and re-appropriated identities of contemporary artists. As an Indigenous curation from an Austronesian perspective, the exhibition responds to the radical flourishing of Indigenous performance and installation art, despite – and in response to – social and environmental disruption, instability and change.

Inspired by the concept of ‘Performing Indigeneity’, as defined by scholars Laura R. Graham and H. Glenn Penny, Dispossessions considers the continuing struggles of Indigenous peoples to resist erasure, by engaging with the creative entanglement of the homeland, the tribal and the global. Curated by Biung Ismahasan of the Bunun people of Taiwan, Dispossessions participates in the decolonial practice of Indigenous curatorial studies.

Central to the exhibition is the cereal crop millet and its fermentation into traditional millet wine. Although the attribution of Indigenous alcoholism to genetic causes evades the brutal realities of history, there is general acknowledgement of alcohol abuse as a continuing colonial scourge. But while alcoholism has the power to divide through addiction, violence, illness, death and taboo, millet wine heralds cultural resilience and unity through its ritual usages in Taiwanese Indigenous cultures. Enacted in the wake of colonialism, the sharing of millet wine, and its experimental embodiment in Indigenous performance art, resurrects pre-colonial rituals, allowing for celebration and connection.

Cutting edge and contemporary, essentially Indigenous, multiple in its political modes of expression, from painting to live performance to video to live painting, Dispossessions: Performative Encounter(s) of Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art is the first exhibition of Taiwanese Indigenous art in the UK. It is a gathering of artistic activism, showcasing the latest Austronesian performative knowledge from a Taiwanese Indigenous perspective.

|| Further Detail Information Link ||

biungismahasan.weebly.com/indigenous-curation.html

Goldsmiths University of London Event Link:
www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=11480

The Baldwin Gallery Curation:
www.thebaldwingallery.com/exhibition/dispossessionsperformative-encounters-of-taiwanese-indigenous-contemporary-art/

|| Advisory Board ||

Dr Carla Figueira (Director of MA Cultural Policy, Relations & Diplomacy / MA Tourism & Cultural Policy at ICCE, Goldsmiths University of London www.gold.ac.uk/icce/staff/figueira-carla/

Dr Michael Tymkiw (Co-Director of Centre for Curatorial Studies, University of Essex) www.essex.ac.uk/people/TYMKI06202/michael-tymkiw

|| Artists ||

Don Don Hounwn 東冬．侯溫
(co-performer Temu Basaw 鐵目．巴紹)
Eleng Luluan 峨冷．魯魯安
Eval Malinjinnan 依法兒．瑪琳奇那
Hsu-Hung Huang 黃旭宏
Yu-Hsien Hsueh 薛喻鮮
Biung Ismahasan 彼勇．依斯瑪哈單

|| Performers ||

Ayi-yanga First Taiwanese Ethnomusicology Ensemble 艾秧樂集

|| Exhibition Programme ||

May 21 Exhibition Opening and Performance
18.00-21.00
Indigenous Taiwanese Truku ceremony & opening performance by Ayi-yanga musical troupe and Yu-Hsien Hsueh

May 22 Echoes with My Spirit: Taiwanese Indigenous Musical Performance
18.00-21.00
Ayi-yanga First Taiwanese Ethnomusicology Ensemble & Curating dialogue

May 23 ‘Kitchen Table’ Talk: Scholars, Artists & Curator
18.00-21.00
Global Indigeneity of contemporary art and exploring how an Indigenous exhibition can be a form for fostering cultural relations and diplomacy

May 24 Performative Encounters betwixt Northern Sámi (Norway) & Indigenous Taiwanese Truku
18.00-21.00
Performance art exchange by Marita Isobel Solberg and Don Don Hounwn

May 25 Exhibition Closing
18.00-20.00
Closing performance by Ayi-yanga musical troupe & Yu-Hsien Hsueh and Speech by Dr Carla Figueira, Dr Dennison Smith and Curator Biung Ismahasan

May 30 The Baldwin Gallery Private View
18.00-21.00
Dispossessions: Performative Encounter(s) of Taiwanese Indigenous Contemporary Art opens at The Baldwin Gallery, Location: 35 Eltham Rd, SE12 8EX
www.thebaldwingallery.com