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Laiwan | |
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| Born | 1961 (age 62–63) |
| Education | Emily Carr University of Art and Design Simon Fraser University |
| Occupation(s) | Artist, writer, educator, curator, gallerist |
| Known for | Cultural criticism, activism, participatory projects |
| Website | http://www.laiwanette.net/ |
Laiwan (born 1961) is a Zimbabwean interdisciplinary artist, art critic, gallerist, writer, curator and educator. Her wide-ranging practice is based in poetics and philosophy. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Laiwan was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1961.[ citation needed ] Her family emigrated to Canada in 1977 to leave the war in Rhodesia. [1]
She graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1983. [2] In 1999, she received an MFA from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. [3] [4]
She is an interdisciplinary artist interested in poetics and philosophy. [5] [6] Laiwan has won several prizes, such as the 2021 Emily Award from Emily Carr University. [7] She founded the Or Gallery in 1983, [8] where her intent was to dispel myths about the impossibility of founding and operating a gallery, particularly for women. [9] She was chair of the grunt gallery board of directors from 2010 to 2014. [10] [11]
Laiwan teaches in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College in Washington State. [12]
Laiwan investigates embodiment through performativity, writing, music, and audio works, in a variety of media. Her practice unravels and engages in the idea of presence by way of bodily and emotional intelligence. Her work is held in Vancouver Art Gallery collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Collection, [13] [14] [15] [16] and other private collections, and her time-based work is available from VIVO Media Arts Centre in Vancouver, [17] [18] and V-Tape in Toronto. [19]
In Laiwan's 1986 slide sequence work, The Mesmerization of Language: The Language of Mesmerization, she deals with language as a structure which has a life independent of its conveyed meaning. [20] There are three parts to this artwork. [21] Part One, titled "OBSESSION : POSSESSION" shows the poem Sappho 31 in both the original Greek and as an English translation. Part Two is titled "SPELL", wherein Laiwan translates the Christian prayer Our Father from sign language into words, deconstructing and breaking apart the text, phrase by phrase, word by word, and letter by letter. "Untitled", which is Part Three of the project, moves from language into images of landscapes. [22]
In the exhibition catalogue for Political Landscapes I (1989) at Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery, Stephen Hogbin describes Laiwan as an artist who examines the political relationship of geography and identity. [23]
In 2016 as part of the City of Vancouver's Public Art Program, the Coastal City series, Laiwan displayed Barnacle City, which was projected on various buildings throughout downtown Vancouver. [47] In 2018, Laiwan started the Mobile Barnacle City Live/Work Studio, an installation created in the SiteFactory bus, which was a part of Emily Carr University's Living Labs Ten Different Things project series. Mobile Barnacle City was installed in various locations around Chinatown in Vancouver. The project also involved T’uy’tanat-Cease Wyss and Anne Riley. [48] [49]
In 2014, Laiwan curated Queering the International, an exhibition part of the Queer Arts Festival, which took place at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. The exhibition examined issues of sexual identity. [50]
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