Knowledge & Networks III

Methodologies: Specifics, Intersections

Moderator: Johanne Sloan

Johanne Sloan began this session with the observation that “new methodological directions … point to profound structural changes in the field of art history.” The reflections on methodology offered in this session highlighted presenters’ commitments to using thoughtful, care-filled scholarly practices to promote de-colonial, anti-racist, queer and feminist futures for the arts sector and the field of art history. Joanna Joachim’s concept of “tenderness as method” resonated throughout the panel as contributors discussed the emotional, interpersonal, and community responsibilities that come with working as a scholar, curator or creative in the modern Canadian context.

Collaborators Heather Igloliorte (Inuk, Nunatsiavut, Tier 1 University Research Chair in Circumpolar Indigenous Arts and Associate Professor, Art History, Concordia) and Carla Taunton (Associate Professor, Art History and Contemporary Culture, NSCAD) opened this session by reflecting on the social and intellectual currents shaping their new edited collection, The Routledge Companion to Indigenous Art Histories in the United States and Canada (2022). The first compilation of its kind to bring together a body of work on Indigenous art historical methods into one text, the book responds to the necessity, Igloliorte and Taunton argue, of understanding Indigenous art on its own terms. In discussing the dangers of relying on western theory to interpret and contextualise Indigenous art, Igloliorte referred to the work of Métis filmmaker Loretta Todd, who observed that western aesthetic “theories seek to impose a world view, and to assimilate my view into theirs, even while they preach multiplicity.”1 Instead, Igloliorte and Taunton solicited contributions from Indigenous scholars and artists that moved beyond dominant art historical paradigms. As Taunton noted, contributors were asked to consider: “what is your methodology, and how is it grounded in your knowledge, in terms of your indigeneity, but also your practice?” Taunton and Igloliorte also briefly described a number of other projects they are working on, both separately and together, that are furthering the work of decolonising methodology, building capacities for Indigenous students in the arts and culture sectors, and disrupting the perpetuation of “settler futures” in art history, as Taunton put it.

As curator of contemporary art at The Rooms gallery, museum, and archives in St. John’s, Mireille Eagan began her presentation by reflecting on what curatorial practice means to her. Taking inspiration from the Latin origins of the term curate in the verb to care, Eagan described how an ethic of care informs her curatorial practice: “It is my job to tell stories in the gallery space, but it is my job primarily to listen. It is my job to foster and care for the community that has in many ways invited me into this position.” For Eagan, interrogating traditional concepts of authority and expertise, and incorporating the principal of community care into cultural spaces is essential for colonial institutions like The Rooms to be able to tell inclusive – but not conclusive – stories about the province’s art and history. Eagan’s presentation explored how this stance of curatorial humility and an ethic of care informed two recent exhibitions, both titled Future Possible, that brought together diverse individuals in the field of arts and culture to reflect on the ambivalent legacies of the province’s joining with Canada in 1949, which were juxtaposed with premier Joseph Smallwood’s optimistic but exclusionary vision for Newfoundland’s future. Eagan also commented on the Future Possible project’s incarnation in the form of a 2021 monograph of the same name, produced by Eagan, offering a view of the history of art in Newfoundland and Labrador. For Eagan, however, it was important that the book resist the tendency of such compendiums to claim definitional authority or comprehensiveness. The work is intentionally multi-vocal, offering myriad visions of what culture means in Newfoundland and Labrador, in a variety of narrative forms from a range of contributors. For Eagan, the book aims to demonstrate “that culture is a verb, not a static entity, but a dynamic force that fosters and cultivates connections.” Like the book’s title, Eagan’s understanding of art and culture is process- and future-oriented, inviting questions and conversations rather than definitive answers.

Joana Joachim’s (Assistant Professor, Black Studies in Art Education, Art History and Social Justice, Concordia University) presentation explored how Black feminist methodologies undergird her own scholarship and curatorial practices. Joachim’s strategies for deploying Black feminist methodologies include centring Black women, reclaiming narrative through storytelling and alternative epistemologies, as well as acknowledging the social and political impacts of art and visual culture. She also introduced the highly evocative concept of “tenderness as method” as a way for thinking through what Black feminism methods might look like in the field of art history. Joachim went on to discuss how she deployed these methodological strategies in her curatorial work on Blackity (2021), an exhibition at Artexte in Montreal. Through Blackity, Joachim was able to showcase the Artexte’s collection of documents that spoke to Black Canadian art histories from the 1970s onward. Tracing Black women’s work in the Artexte collection, Joachim used innovative strategies of data visualisation (thus reclaiming narrative through alternative ways of knowing) to highlight the highs and lows in the history of Black representation in the Canadian art milieu, and to think about what these peaks and troughs in Black representation meant in real-world terms for artists who were subject to the whims of mercurial and trend-driven funding opportunities.

Erin Morton (Professor, Art History, Dean of Arts at St. Francis Xavier University) discussed methodology in the context of her work as editor for the recently published monograph collection, Unsettling Canadian Art History (2022). Morton pointed to several sources of inspiration for the collection, which examines the visual and material culture of Canada’s multiple colonialisms and histories of enslavement from queer, feminist, diasporic, and racialised positionalities (and their intersections). Morton discussed how Charmaine Nelson’s work, particularly in reference to the “psychological devastation” experienced by racialised scholars working within the field of art history, sparked her interest in interrogating the embeddedness of whiteness and coloniality within the discipline. Morton also noted that her approach to working with contributors to the collection was inspired by Taunton and Igloliorte’s ongoing practices of de-colonial collaboration. Her presentation highlighted that, aside from the final product of the book, she found the collaborative process to be rich and generative in its own right, where de-colonial methods could be deployed in cultivating caring relationships between collaborators.

The possibilities, ethics, and boundaries of community collaborations were explored further in Melanie Zurba’s (Associate Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University) presentation on her work in community-partnered research. At her Community Engaged CoLab at Dalhousie, Zurba specialises in approaching environmental studies from arts-based and artistic perspectives. Referring to the long tradition of academics and researchers extracting knowledge from communities for personal or institutional benefit, Zurba’s presentation emphasised that the priority of community research projects, even when affiliated with academic institutions, should be to serve and benefit the communities involved. Her talk also explored boundary work as a method for setting ethical terms for community collaborations. While “boundary” in this context can refer to defining what lines should not be crossed in the research process (placing limitations on access to sensitive knowledge, for example), Zurba emphasised that boundary work is ultimately intended to facilitate communication and collaboration between researchers and communities across social and political boundaries by establishing common ethical and conceptual ground.

In the discussion period, it was evident that the presenters’ reflections on feminist and de-colonial research methods, particularly as expressed in Joachim’s concept of “tenderness as method,” resonated strongly with the group. The implications of research and collaboration as practices in providing care were explored. Several people spoke to the difficulties they encountered in using care-centred methods in institutional contexts, where the expected pace of work is often out of alignment with the pace of caring for one’s collaborators and research subjects. Jennifer VanderBurgh, for example, spoke to the view, often promoted by ethics boards, that ethical research should be defined in terms of objectivity, and a lack of emotional engagement. She suggested that such ethics processes may actually prompt researchers to behave unethically by withholding tenderness and care from research subjects.