Haunting Objects: Show and Tell
ITZAYANA GUTIÉRREZ
Sat. Dec. 3
2:30 — 4:30pm
image: Itzayana Gutiérrez
The main objective of this workshop is to develop and put into practice storytelling strategies for diasporic experiences like migration and relocation. Haunting Objects centers experiences that are often disconnected from classic, hegemonic forms of storytelling like national histories, museums and galleries of history, monuments, and other representations of memory in the public space. In this workshop, we intend to build bridges between the disconnected present of diasporic communities and their remote, complex pasts and points of origin. Attendees are asked to bring one or two objects that speak of, represent, or can be connected to a diasporic experience. This experience can be recent and in first person, or it can be part of a blurred, more remote legacy. In both cases, the experience should be of personal significance to be treated with delicacy by both the storyteller and the listeners. Neither academic experience, nor any background in history is required to participate.
In show-and-tell format, participants of Haunting Objects will animate their chosen object with the story they create during the workshop, linking their own experiences to the other objects and stories told. Although some elements of the workshop dynamic are meant to be negotiated in situ, it is designed to produce a kind of collective diasporic telling. We encourage the use of diverse languages and extensions to support or detonate the attachable histories/stories: maps, words in other languages, comic strips, photos, clips, .gif, sonic landscapes, dancing steps, and drag personas are just some of the possibilities.
Send your hints to itzayana.gutierrez@gmail.com to begin the conversation.
Itzayana Gutiérrez enjoys working at the intersection of visual culture, history, and print culture. In 2015, she began to develop a transracial analysis of comic strips for her PhD in Communication Studies at McGill University. Before arriving to Montreal, she lived in Mexico City, where she was part of the crew of "Return Voyage: The China Galleon and the Barroque in Mexico, 1565-1815" / "Tornaviaje: La nao de China y el Barroco en México, 1565-1815" at Barroco Museo Internacional (BMI). She did her Master's in Art History at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and a BA in Cultural History at Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM).