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Modern Fuel Sept

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MOCA Toronto Sept

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Art Museum Sep 1

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**Jac Renée Bruneau** is a writer, editor and organizer based in Toronto. She is currently the editor of _C Magazine_.

Editor

Maandeeq Mohamed is a writer and researcher. Engaging Black Studies and related cultural production, her writing is featured in _Real Life_, _C Magazine_, and _Canadian Art_. 

Reviews Editor

Designer

Publisher

By now we understand extraction as the political-ontological basis for the circulation of resources under neoliberal capitalism—and that agents of such appropriation scarcely do enough to respect, heal, and replenish their sources. From sex work and old-growth forests to ghost towns and lost languages, this issue explores artistic and activist practices that interrogate an array of extractive efforts and attempt to demarcate non-extractive modalities. 

Extraction

Review

Abedar Kamgari is an emerging artist, curator, and arts worker based in Hamilton and Toronto. 

Exhibited on Koffler.Digital’s website, “زبان مادری من داغ لهجه تبعید دارد.” / “My mother tongue is burdened by the accent of exile” (2020) consists of video, sound, and text presented in a slick, long-scrolling format. In the project, curated by Letticia Cosbert Miller, Golboo Amani and their collaborators take up retellings of Ahmad Shamlu’s poem “Pariya” (1953) as a starting point to unpack narratives of displacement and belonging shaped through language. 

 “Pariya” tells the story of three _pari_—beautiful, otherworldly beings with long, blacker-than-black hair—huddled together in the desert weeping uncontrollably. From the outset, the mysterious _pariya_ are positioned within a liminal space—before them on the horizon lies the city of the downtrodden while behind them stands the cold, dark fortress of legends. Yet they, the poor and vulnerable figures of myth, are landlocked, neither there nor here. Perched unsteadily between city and fortress, reality and fantasy, the _pariya_ occupy a treacherous borderland between past and future. The poem’s narrator, an optimistic hero whose people have just risen up to defeat the evil _deeb_ and free themselves and their city, attempts to console the _pariya_ to no effect. The _pariya_ just go on crying.  

As the project highlights, Golboo’s parents—first-generation immigrants anxiously aware that their children were losing their mother tongue and, with it, access to their ancestral culture—began using poetry to teach their children Farsi. Poetry is deeply embedded in Persian culture and has long served an integral role in philosophy, history, and education. Shamlu’s poetry, and “Pariya” in particular, is well known among most Iranians; but Golboo tells me that growing up, the poem felt like a treasured gift that belonged to them alone. Revisited years later, the vivid imagery and revolutionary overtones of “Pariya” now set the stage for Golboo’s likewise poetic reckoning with their linguistic and cultural inheritance.  

The work opens with a short video of Maryam Hafizirad, situated against various urban settings, signing “Pariya” in Iranian Sign Language, accompanied by Golboo’s voice-over and bold Farsi captions. Shamlu’s poem is thus translated in fragments by an out-of-sync chorus: Golboo’s halting Farsi, the written captions, moving and still images on screen, and Maryam’s grounded presence mouthing and signing. The short videos are interspersed with excerpts of recorded and transcribed conversations between Golboo and their parents, Ahmad and Mahshid Amani, in a hybrid combination of Farsi and English. These conversations emphasize diasporic parents’ role not only as keepers of a cultural knowledge, but as its interpreters, translators, and educators, too. For children born or raised in diaspora, parents often become the central link to the worlds of their kin. Golboo deftly builds on a methodological lineage of diasporic artists who rely on their parents as formal and informal collaborators. As Maryam notes, she too had to consult with mentors to understand the complexities of “Pariya,” since poetry was not taught to Deaf students in school. The contributions of Golboo’s parents and Maryam allude to the hegemonic function of language in constructing borders that keep migrant and Deaf peoples (and many others) barred at the gates. 

“Pariya” reflects Shamlu’s interests in diverse forms of language and literature, borrowing figures from Persian myths, nursery rhymes, Zoroastrian customs, and widely recognized oral storytelling conventions. As the poem’s captivating tale unfolds in verse, it simultaneously enacts a rich intertextuality that demands a degree of cultural fluency from its readers. In addition to its formal approach, the metaphors for oppression, injustice, and collective power in “Pariya” remain poignant today, even though they were likely inspired by the 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup d’état in Iran.   

The intertextual threads of Shamlu’s writing are mirrored in the layering effect produced by Golboo’s chorus of contributors. The videos, directed by Mohammad Rezaei, incorporate moving and still images in collage-like interpretations of “Pariya.” Shamlu’s downtrodden city on the horizon becomes rows of construction cranes against the Toronto sky, the fortress of legend a colonial mansion, and the unforgiving desert snakes a pink garden hose slithering across a sidewalk. Also of note is the blue and yellow _gabbeh_ hanging behind Maryam in many of the shots. Maryam’s positioning in front of the _gabbeh_ recalls the tradition of _pardeh khani_ —a form of street performance wherein a _pardeh khan_ would tell religious or mythic tales with help from visuals painted on a large fabric curtain. The rectangular pattern of the _gabbeh_ frames Maryam like a doorway, as though she were standing at the threshold of a _darvazeh_, and in the shots where it is strewn on the ground behind her gesture to a symbolic breaking down of gates.  

Although the work engages with the politics of cultural translation, “زبان مادری من داغ لهجه تبعید دارد.” / “My mother tongue is burdened by the accent of exile” offers little of its satisfying complexity to non-Farsi speakers. When I asked about the lack of translation, Golboo explained that faced with the impossibility of truly translating “Pariya” and the unexpected linguistic qualities that emerged during the artistic process, they realized the work was intended for diasporic Farsi-speakers all along. Golboo’s astute decision to not provide English subtitles highlights the importance of spaces where diasporic peoples can exist without the constant pressure to translate their lived experiences for others. Writing this text, I too wrestled with the contradictions of writing in English about an exhibition not intended for English speakers for an English-language magazine. I called my baba at the last minute to help me troubleshoot how not to become a translator. To my surprise, he observed a different connection altogether.  

When I was nine years old, my father wrote a play foreseeing our imminent emigration. The play, entitled   / ماهیِ با قلاب گریخته _The Fish That Escaped With the Hook_ (2003), tells the story of an immigrant father who recounts “Pariya” to his young child who, despite poor fluency in her mother tongue, seems to know the poem by heart. The father and child speak to each other from either side of a locked door and since the child is heard but never seen, baba recorded my voice for the role of my imagined double.  

Here’s to generations of parents and children who find themselves on opposing linguistic borders, and continue pushing against the gates nonetheless. 

Writer

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“My mother tongue is burdened by the accent of exile” was released November 2020 on Koffler.Digital.

“My mother tongue is burdened by the accent of exile” — Golboo Amani in collaboration with Maryam Hafizirad and Mohammad Rezaei 

Column

Cason Sharpe is a writer currently based in Toronto. His first collection of stories, _Our Lady of Perpetual Realness_, was released by Metatron Press in 2017.

I’ve been watching _Old Enough!_, the Japanese reality show in which toddlers are tasked with simple errands such as buying a short list of groceries or delivering a package to a neighbour down the road. Geared toward an adult audience, the show derives its humour through a distortion in perspective: here is our big, bad world seen through the eyes of a small, innocent thing, one with only a cursory grasp of language, social cues, spatial awareness, memory, or any of the other skills needed to autonomously navigate the everyday. As I made my way through the series, I began to identify with the show’s knee-high heroes; I too find the world to be a difficult and disorienting place, so much so that the idea of having to interface with it on a daily basis is enough to make me drop to my knees and wail like a baby. 

I’m completely overwhelmed even writing this column, and just like the toddlers of _Old Enough!_, I'm prone to distraction and plagued by self-doubt. The task at hand, no more difficult than buying groceries or delivering a package, is to review contemporary artist books, but I’m at a loss for how to begin. I could discuss how a book has been printed or bound, its concept or even its method of argumentation. If the book features images, I could discuss those images using the framework of art criticism. If the book features text, I could discuss that text through the lens of art theory, philosophy, or literature. And what exactly is an artist book anyway? I’ve been in contact, whether personally, professionally, or artistically, with a number of these books, as well as the people who make them, their publishers, their distributors, and their enthusiasts. If you asked any of these people to define the medium of the artist book, each one would tell you something different. I’ve been told that it’s a certain type of book, but it certainly isn’t every book. Is the artist book an exhibition catalogue? Not exactly, but maybe. Is it a monograph? It could be, but not necessarily. Is it a picture book? Not really, but it may contain pictures.  

My working definition is deceptively simple: an artist book is a book made by an artist. I’ll add a caveat borrowed from Johanna Drucker, who argues in _The Century of Artists’ Books_ (1995) that “an artist’s book has to have some conviction, some soul, some reason to be and to be a book in order to succeed.” [1] In other words, an artist book is a book made by an artist in which the form of the book is an inextricable component of the work. Informed by the Dadaists of the early 20th century and the Fluxus movement of the ’60s, this particular definition of an artist book is both object and practice, a vessel that floats somewhere between contemporary art and contemporary publishing, without existing wholly in either field.  

 

Perhaps an example would make things clearer: every week my mailbox swells with a selection of promotional flyers from credit card companies and meal kit services, none of which I would consider to be artist books. The other day, however, I found among my weekly stack a small brown envelope, inside of which sat a wallet-sized booklet, its cover sporting a grainy photograph of a hand reaching into a wall-mounted mailbox. Made by the artist Garrett Lockhart and published by Parker Kay and the Centre for Experiential Research, the free mailer edition is one component of “RELAY” (2022), Lockhart’s multipronged exploration of the Canadian postal service, where the artist moonlights as a letter carrier. (The other prongs included a series of photographs, etchings, sculptures, and videos displayed in a rotating three-part exhibition at Toronto’s Pumice Raft this past spring.) The understated, four-page booklet, printed on cardstock in a muted greyscale and saddle stitched with black thread, stands in opposition to the flashy, colourful flyers it takes as its subject.  

 

“Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year on the pursuit of what is known as ‘direct marketing,’” Lockhart tells us on the edition’s first page. “Junk mail,” he continues, “comprises an entire industry of consumption that begins with resource extraction and ends with the possibility of a commercial transaction and the certainty of ending up in a landfill.” If Lockhart identifies junk mail as an issue, he’s quick to provide a solution: paperclipped into the middle of the booklet is a circular sticker no bigger than a sand dollar, its centre printed with a squiggly drawing of a six-pointed star. Around the perimeter of the sticker reads “PLEASE, NO FLYERS / PAS DE PUB S.V.P.” “Once the letter carrier sees one of these stickers,” the booklet explains, “they are obligated to make a permanent change to their route—one less house, one less set of flyers.”  

 

Following this brief introduction is the edition’s centrefold: a photograph of a mailbag slouched on a patch of grass, its carrier’s hand suspended in motion as it reaches to retrieve a fistful of letters. Etched lightly into the corners of the photo like shimmering sunspots are two six-pointed stars. Is this the start of our carrier’s shift? The back half of the booklet offers photographic speculation on what that shift might look like: NO FLYERS scrawled in pen above a closed letter slot; NO FLYERS written across a piece of tape pressed into the upper lip of a graffitied mailbox; NO FLYERS printed on a label and delicately affixed to a locked postbox. The repetition of these images evokes the rhythm of a delivery route, the same markings passed every day like legs in a relay race. Together, these photographs form a sketch of the neighbourhood, one similar to the hand-drawn maps that the parents of Old Enough! tuck into the pockets of their children before sending them off into a difficult and disorienting world.  

 

Lockhart’s effort recalls the mail art movement, a Fluxus offshoot integral to the development of contemporary artist books. Appropriating the postal service as a method of distribution, the movement began as a means to circulate art outside the rarefied and market-driven contexts of the gallery, museum, or fair. Defined by dissemination rather than formal qualities, mail art takes many shapes: audio and video materials, flyers, broadsides, pamphlets, books, and an assortment of uncategorizable ephemera, all of which are delivered to audiences directly through the post. Unlike junk mail, which is designed to sell a product or service, works of mail art are not marketing tools, but works of art in their own right, designed to titillate, inform, critique, or explore. With _RELAY_, Lockhart uses the medium of mail art to redirect focus toward the form’s unwitting intermediary, upon whose labour the movement depends.  

“This is an effort to lighten the load,” Lockhart informs us, “on both the letter carrier and the environment.” As I thumbed through _RELAY_, I thought about the parents, neighbours, and kindly shopkeepers who band together to help the children of _Old Enough_! smoothly and safely complete their delegated tasks. What if we extended that thoughtfulness to each other on the job, not in the patronizing manner one might approach a toddler, but in a way that recognized our shared dignity? What simple gestures, like a message on a mail slot, could make someone else’s workday a little less gruelling? As I stuck Lockhart’s NO FLYERS sticker onto my postbox, I considered adding an addendum: “But art is always welcome.”  

 

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In this first entry of his Art Book Roundup column, Cason Sharpe writes on Garrett Lockhart's _RELAY_ (2022), published by Parker Kay and the Centre for Experiential Research.

May Contain Pictures: RELAY by Garrett Lockhart  

The Eramosa River was carved out as a glacial spillway over 20,000 years ago. It flows through the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the ancestral territory of the Chonnonton (known to some as Attawandaron). Fed by underground springs, it flows along the course of a bedrock moraine south-west into the city of Guelph where it meets the Speed River. Together they flow into the Grand River and the Haldimand Tract treaty lands, the territory of the Haudenosaunee.[^1] The impacts of colonization, industrialization, and capitalist growth are evident along the riverbanks. In the first 100 years of settler colonization in the area, dams, levees, and ponds were constructed along the Eramosa to contain its flow, and many of the surrounding wetlands were drained for farming. Before this, the river was substantially wider, surrounded by low-lying marshy areas that were home to _manoomin_ [^2] and other important wetland species like cattail and native willows. As it winds into Guelph, the Eramosa flows through St. Patrick’s Ward, an industrial and working-class immigrant neighborhood that was once a floodplain. From as early as the 19th century, the riverbanks here were used as a holding place for industry and domestic refuse, and were designated as an official city landfill from 1935 to 1958.                                                                                                       

>###### _A holding place for_
glass, cinders, porcelain, fly ash, fibreglass, domestic refuse, lumber, charred wood, wire, brick, ash, fabric, metals, inorganics, petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants (PHCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)[^3]

The Eramosa’s history as a landfill is currently unmarked and relatively unknown. In the early ’60s, the City covered the landfilled riverbanks in soil which began a process of rewilding that continues today. Through the decades, they have become botanized by plants, shrubs, and trees which root within their soil. Tree plantings happen yearly, organized by the City and local conservation groups. Many other species arrive in the curious ways that they travel: seeds dispersed by birds, animals, water, and wind, planted by neighbours, or by other means we don’t fully comprehend. If you look closely, fragments of waste are visible in parts of worn footpaths and entwined into the root systems of fallen trees—evidence of its historical and continued [^4] contamination.

Even more subtly, if you walk along the river, you will notice that while less disturbed areas remain home to indigenous plant communities, the landfilled areas are marked by the proliferation of plants from other places that are able to thrive in the poor and contaminated soil. These plants were transplanted to this continent as familiar food, medicine, agricultural aids, “exotic” garden plants, and escaped stowaways. They show up year after year, at times sprayed or injected with herbicides by City staff to slow their spread. Conservationists know these species have real consequences—for instance, without natural predators, they often reduce native biodiversity, growing into coarse monocultures in already disturbed areas—but their distinctive contributions exist alongside these consequences. Many of these plants decompose into new, nutrient-rich layers of soil, support the microbes and fungi in their work underground, and have root systems engaged in the important labour of holding the waste in place, preventing it and its toxins from leaching into the waterway.
                                

>###### _Holding in place_
European buckthorn, white willow, Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, common plantain, Manitoba maple, ground elder, mullein, ragweed, black swallow-wort, periwinkle

Conservation science’s view of these plants as alien and invasive—in need of control and eradication—reproduces colonial binaries that echo xenophobic and militaristic responses to “foreign” or deviant human bodies. It also espouses a moral agency, an attitude of conquest, to beings that are surviving and reproducing as they were meant to. Resisting this perspective, we propose the term “transplant” for these species, as a way to consider connections between plant and human bodies beyond colonial categorization. Transplant thinking provides a shift in orientation that invites us to think about the interconnections between: plants that have migrated without agency; human bodies that have been transplanted against their will through displacement and enslavement; and cyborgian transfeminist ethics that offer pathways toward radical queer and anti-capitalist futures. While it is necessary to attend to the negative impacts transplant species have on biodiversity and ecosystem health, making kin [^5] with transplants allows us to sit with disturbance, providing modes with which to understand the unique ways we all require each other. [^6]

The two of us met in the summer of 2021, [^7] engaging in conversations in a virtual doc that acted as a repository for ideas, questions, research, and poetic musings. Transplant thinking emerged from these collaborative writings, which were accompanied by on-site relational and material experiments including walking, listening, foraging pigments, and creating decomposing biomaterial offerings. On a cool night just after the equinox, we invited a small group to gather along the Eramosa to share stories and build alliances with transplants. We harvested buckthorn berries to make into ink, considered the medicinal gifts of Japanese knotweed, observed the way the violets had recently arrived within a patch of garlic mustard, and reflected on how the presence of periwinkle has guided researchers to abandoned gravesites of enslaved Black communities. We sat in the dark quiet, around the light of hag’s tapers [^8] dipped in beeswax and lit like torches, and offered gifts. These practices of imagining speculative futures and enacting smallscale forms of remediation have productively complicated our relationships with disturbed sites. 


>###### _Offerings_
elderberry and swamp rose mallow plantings, zinnia and calendula flowers, a poem, blue vervain leaves, beeswax-dipped mullein stems, silence, an ear of corn, hulled walnuts, hair, a blank page, breath, joe-pye weed, evening primrose seeds [^9]

In the midst of climate catastrophe, there lies a strong desire to hold tightly onto the precious things that are left, which might disappear indefinitely within our lifetimes. Changing our relationships with transplant species requires us to contemplate adaptive solutions to such disappearances beyond belligerent eradication, and within deeper time frames. [^10] It asks us not only to build relationships that hold us accountable to the complex histories of degraded lands, but also to think dynamically about what they are becoming as a result. This shift in perspective invites speculative imaginations that further kinships between human and more-than-human neighbours—kinships that allow us to collaborate, heal, and continue on.

[^1]: In 2020–2021, land defenders occupying a site referred to as 1492 Land Back Lane protested a housing development in Caledonia on unceded Six Nations territory as part of long-standing resistance to settler and government land theft in the area. The development was officially canceled in July 2021.
[^2]: Anishnaabemowin: wild rice. This knowledge comes to Christina from a story told to her by Anishnaabekwe nookomis Waabanokwe N’dodem Aijijaak Zhashagi.
[^3]: Waste and contaminants found in Eramosa River Park in recent site testing. MMM Group Limited, _York Road and Eramosa River Parks Site Characterization Report for City of Guelph_, October 2015, https://guelph.ca/wpcontent/uploads/YorkRdEramosaRiverParks_SiteReport.pdf 
[^4]: In 2016, concerns were raised when the Guelph Polymer Distribution Inc. company was found responsible for spilling from rail cars thousands of plastic pellets, which entered the river through storm drains. Also, in 2019, over 4.4 million litres of raw sewage spilled into the Eramosa where the City was installing a new sewer line.
[^5]: From a 2020 talk by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Learning the Grammar of Animacy: Subject and Object,” we accept Kimmerer’s invitation to use the word kin, a variation of the Anishinaabe aki, meaning “Earthly being” as a foundational perspective of care and respect when writing about land and relational work.
[^6]: Paraphrased from Donna Haraway, _Staying with the Trouble_ (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016): “Staying with the trouble requires making odd kin; that is, we require each other in unexpected collaborations and combinations, in hot compost piles.”
[^7]: Our collaboration began on a Zoom call initiated by curators Vince Rozario and Mitra Fakhrashrafi for the “Collective Offerings” exhibition at the Art Gallery of Guelph. 
[^8]: A folk name for dried stems of common mullein, _Verbascum thapsus_.
[^9]: "01 Afterwords - Collective Offerings, 2021," updated February 15, 2022, https:// meechboakye.com/Collective-Offerings
[^10]: For instance, garlic mustard is labeled an invasive plant because it releases sinigrin into the soil that inhibits the growth of mycorrhizal fungi and native plant species. However, recent research has found that as populations of garlic mustard age, sinigrin production is reduced until it eventually stops, allowing these native species to move back in. These findings suggest that this plant is actually self-regulating over a longer timeline. Jeffrey A. Evans, Richard A. Lankau, Adam S. Davis, S. Raghu, Douglas A. Landis, “Soil-Mediated Eco-evolutionary Feedbacks in the Invasive Plant _Alliaria petiolata_,” _Functional Ecology_ 30, no. 7 (July 2016): 1053–61.



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Environment

Meech Boakye and Christina Kingsbury discuss how their shared work around the former landfill on the Eramosa River in Guelph led them to interrogate the perceived binary between native and so-called invasive species. 



Composition: Transplant Collaborations

Mahdi Chowdhury is a researcher, writer, and artist based between Toronto, Canada, and Cambridge, USA.

“Should I translate?” asks the figure on the bed, lying at the feet of the camera operator, in reference to the Hindi song playing on her phone. In this opening scene from Sharlene Bamboat’s _If From Every Tongue it Drips_, this innocuous question serves as a road map of what is to come: a film whose documentary medium is intimacy itself and whose axis of rotation is so often a lover’s translation. Traversing an epic ambit of themes—from the 1857 rebellion in India, to the erasure of queer desire in Urdu poetry, to quantum physics—it is notable that for all its reflections on politics, history, and identity, this is also a deeply _amorous_ film.

This is partly a result of its production. Set in Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, Bamboat’s film is based on the relationship and participant-recordings of two Tamil feminist activists and intellectuals: Chennai-born Ponni Arasu, who serves as our spoken guide; and island-born Sarala Emmanuel, who is our camera operator. Through Emmanuel’s gaze, we feel just how captivated she is with her subject. We see the choreography of a long-lived relationship—but also, the spritely bubbles of the crush between them. She records their domestic lives, their thoughts on history and poetry, and the space of air between them which constitutes a lifeworld in itself— one imbued with the affects of birdsong, the sound of waves, Nazia Hassan’s “techno femme voice,” marigold-wreathed Ambedkar portraits, and smartphones filled with poetry.

The result of this triangulation is a film that is intersubjective in its construction and capacious in terms of structure, perspective, and time. Its deconstructed and roving form is consciously underscored, for instance, in Bamboat’s directorial audio notes left in the film and its painterly, hyper-descriptive use of subtitles. Formal hybridity is seen too in the different moving-image forms incorporated: glitched cassette performances of Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanum singing on Instagram Live, the reappropriation of a filmi song from fetishistic spectacle to video exorcism.

Urdu poetry is a cohering metaphor in _If From Every Tongue it Drips_. Herein, Arasu traces the genre of _rekhta_ to its literal meaning: “mixing or stirring something.” She draws an analogy between the “macaronic” blending of Persian and Hindavi that is characteristic of _rekhta_ and the way she herself mixes Tamil, English, Urdu, and Hindi. As a translational form, _rekhta_ is “structured in its non-structure,” an ethos of creolization, and a form of devotion and play. Not only is _rekhta_ thus a metaphor for the film’s aesthetics, it is also illustrative of the film’s theory of identity formation and being-in-the-world. But it is _rekhti_, its feminized namesake, that constitutes an important problematic in this film. As a 19th-century genre in which queer and lesbian desire occupied an active poetic role, _rekhti_ was a cause of moral panic: its poets, it is suggested, came to be removed from the canon, while its linguistic queerness and carnal desires came to be “purified.”

In a memorable scene, Arasu gives a historical narrative connecting colonialism in South Asia to this censoring of queer desire in the arts. Following the “pacification” of the 1857 rebellion, India became a Crown colony of the British Empire. This, in Arasu’s account, led to a two-pronged intervention in culture and sociality. While British administrators criminalized homo- sexuality, a countervailing Indian nationalism was itself dominated by the assumptions of largely upper-caste Indian men with English educations. This moment in which gender and sexuality norms were produced, policed, and pressurized is epitomized, for instance, in the _sati_ debates, on which Arasu paraphrases the historian Lata Mani’s argument: “Women were neither the subject, nor the object, but the grounds upon which these debates occurred.” In this milieu, _rekhti_’s queer poetics came to be effaced as a nationalist cultural canon cohered.

Anchored in such reflections, Bamboat’s film is sensitive but bound to the tensions of “South Asia” as an imaginative geography and narratological space. Viewing Sri Lanka, there is a long discursive tradition of seeing the island as a Platonic _elsewhere_, a place of utopic fabulation from European orientalists, to Malay exiles, to Arab philosopher-poets, to Indian nationalists, to the cruel deluge of slave merchants, plantation agriculturalists, and white tourists that heeded _The New York Times_ suggestion to vacation at a time of genocide. Within this _elsewhere_, Tamils constitute a national “Other,” an anachronistic presence, an index of _elsewhere_ further still in the imagination of a Sinhalese majoritarian state. There is one direct allusion to this sense of political difference and particularity: a scene in which Arasu translates the words of the late activist-lawyer Priya Thangarajah. “Peace sucks,” provokes Thangarajah, arguing that the war, for all its holocausts, was still a time of imagination, of “hope and aspiration.” Now, it seems, the state has subsumed all: the success of the state is the success of “giving you things to fight on a daily basis [such] that the larger aspirations that you had have [gone] inside it.” Her words shimmer with the added meaning of the contemporaneous protests.

Dissatisfied with how both the war and the “terrible peace” that ensued have been instruments of deferment—things one must _wait out_ before raising the questions of gender and sexuality—Thangarajah concludes that “we cannot break one chain and then break the next.” One should not aspire to break just one, but to “break it all together.” In this view of political struggle as synchronous in nature, we find its reflection in aesthetic and metaphysical terms in Bamboat’s film. Despite a referential world from 1857 to Shaheen Bagh, what keeps this film from falling into the centrism of a particular domain of historical experience—and its idioms of activism—are the sustained waves of translation, enfoldment, and melange, as seen in Arasu’s translation of “Hum Dekhenge,” which is brought to the streets. In Bamboat’s _If From Every Tongue It Drips_, we thus feel an ardent sense and grasping toward a common, non-nationalist universalism crafted, in part, through the work of constant, entangling, and amorous translation.



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_If From Every Tongue it Drips_ was released in 2021.


If From Every Tongue it Drips – Sharlene Bamboat 

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Feature

###### The following text accompanies seven pages of research in graphical form visualizing the impacts of relationships between extractive industries and the cultural sector in Canada.

###### Project by Maggie Flynn
###### Design by Krishna Balakrishnan

A quick reading of this work might induce scorn toward certain entities. But mining, oil, and gas companies work within the system offered to them by the government of Canada. And when companies are caught stepping out of bounds of the law, the resulting fines pale in comparison to their profits. In other words, every piece of bad news in this work is enabled by this nation’s legal and regulatory environment.

With this in mind, how do the choices made by Canadian museums, galleries, and art festivals to partner with extractive industries shape culture in Canada? How do the relationships between cultural institutions, extractive industries, Indigenous communities, workers, and ecosystems contribute to belief systems that influence economic choices, political will, and legislation?

Corporate sponsorships are mutually beneficial agreements between non-profits and corporations. When cultural institutions partner with a mining or oil company, they promote a hospitable environment for extractive industries. Agreements require deliverables from the non-profit, usually leveraging their audiences as targets for the sponsor’s messaging. When the sponsor is a soap company, they’re trying to sell more soap. When the sponsor is a petroleum company, though, I don’t believe they are trying to get consumers to use more gas or plastic. I think they need the average voter to see the company as a friendly face whose projects don’t need to be scrutinized, in an industry that doesn’t need to be too closely regulated.

I’m not suggesting conspiratorial motives coming from behind closed doors; I’m describing very mainstream ways that philanthropy functions in Canada. There’s a national organization, Business / Arts, whose mission is to “build strong lasting partnerships between the arts, business and government in Canada.”[^1] This mission could theoretically be fulfilled without artwashing the activities of irresponsible companies. But having completed the two levels of training by Business / Arts, I can confirm there were no resources (even when I asked for them) to help arts professionals determine the appropriateness of lending the sway of their institution to the reputation repair of a given corporation. Non-profit board members and staff need to assess whether a sponsorship is worth the revenue if it damages the esteem given to the institution by their audience. This is difficult to do, especially when, for example, a C-suite executive of the sponsoring corporation is on the board.

It is not a realistic objective for cultural institutions to say there is no dirty
money in their budget. I can’t even say there is no dirty money in my pocket. In a country where historical and contemporary colonialism has been financed by all of the national banks, uncontaminated dollars are scarce.

Rather, I’d propose that cultural institutions choose not to assist companies in obscuring their records of environmental and human rights abuses by offering them positive brand association. In particular, it seems important for cultural institutions attempting reconciliation with Indigenous communities not to partner with companies that are, for example, waging legal battles against Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights.

Cultural institutions have the power to establish new norms, but we need to make changes rather than carry on with dated fundraising strategies. Such changes may include accepting that the bottom line must shift in order to prioritize institutional integrity. However, we can also hold space for the possibility that by reallocating the energy dedicated to cultivating and stewarding certain corporate relationships, institutions might actually find a stronger return on investment elsewhere. A few propositions for practices to adopt:



- Redirect the time of fundraising staff to seek sponsorship from companies who pay living wages, who take responsibility for their supply chains, and whose business models don’t depend on displacing Indigenous people or the irreversible destruction of ecosystems.
- Create institutional policies that outline criteria for when a corporate sponsor is considered in conflict with the institution’s vision. Make space for Indigenous staff, board members, and community stakeholders to shape such policies, be part of decision-making, and receive appropriate compensation for their knowledge and labour.
- Shift philanthropy norms away from expectations of acclaim. Make it gauche to name a role, project, gallery, or building after a corporation or wealthy person. Make it exciting to involve diverse stakeholders in establishing a meaningful name, and/or more dignified forms of exchange. Celebrate anonymous donors loudly.
- When a non-profit board member is also a corporate director or a high-level executive, ensure that the registration summary of their company’s in-house and consultant lobbyists is provided to fellow board members, to consider whether the member’s impartiality may be compromised on certain subjects.                   




There is enough brilliance in the arts community—among cultural workers, artists, audiences—to imagine many more ways to cultivate better practices in fundraising and board governance. But leadership needs the will to listen and enact change. In the meantime, cultural institutions that have no standards for their corporate sponsors should expect scrutiny.

**Notes on Process: ** Every relationship represented in this flow chart is more complex than could be contained in these pages. As a settler making work about an industry that disproportionately impacts Indigenous communities, I prioritized information coming directly from leadership or grassroots groups of affected communities. While many instances noted in this work involve clear damage caused by extractive industries, not all examples are meant to be cast in the same light. In particular, I felt it important not to ignore Impact Benefit Agreements between Indigenous nations and extractive companies when they came up in my research. I have no value judgement on such agreements, because I support Indigenous self-determination, full stop. As within any community, contrasting opinions may exist, even when such agreements are in place. To understand the perspectives of those on the ground, a deeper engagement is required.

[^1]“Our Story,” Business / Arts, http://www.businessandarts.org/our-story/.        

                                                                                 


###### The following citations correspond to the annotations in Trickle Down, by Maggie Flynn.         



1\. Edith Argüelles, “Tribunal federal ordena a Semarnat anular permiso a Minera San Xavier,” La Jornada, October 30, 2009, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2009/10/30/index.php?section=estados&article=035n1est.

2\. Frente Amplio Opositor, “Mexico to Shut Down New Gold’s Cerro de San Pedro Mine – Canadian Parliamentarians and Mexican Congress members urge company to comply with the law,” MiningWatch Canada, November 12, 2009, https://miningwatch.ca/news/2009/11/12/mexico-shut-down-new-gold-s-cerro-de-san-pedro-mine-canadian-parliamentarians-and.

3\. Darcy Tetreault, “Resistance to Canadian Mining Projects in Mexico: Lessons From the Lifecycle of the San Xavier Mine in San Luis Potosí,” Journal of Political Ecology 26, no. 1 (February 2019), 96, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331284665_Resistance_to_Canadian_mining_projects_in_Mexico_lessons_from_the_lifecycle_of_the_San_Xavier_Mine_in_San_Luis_Potosi.

4\. Vicente Juárez, “Trece intoxicados por contaminación causada por Minera San Xavier en SLP,” La Jornada, May 29, 2014, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2014/05/29/estados/033n1est.

5\. “Appendix E 2017 Public Consultation Table,” New Gold, May 2021, https://sustainability.newgold.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2017-AppendixE-Public-Consultation-Record.pdf.

6\. “Who We Are,” World Gold Council, accessed March 8, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20210121203455/https://www.gold.org/who-we-are.

7\. “Home”, Franco Nevada, accessed March 4, 2021, https://www.franco-nevada.com/Home/default.aspx.

8\. Pierre Lassonde, “Pierre Lassonde Increases Ownership in Prime Mining Corp.,” Newswire, February 1, 2021, https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/pierre-lassonde-increases-ownership-in-prime-mining-corp--876680290.html.

9\. “Los Reyes Project,” Prime Mining Corp, accessed June 13, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20211213213357/https://primeminingcorp.ca/project/los-reyes-project.

10\. “The Musées Expansion,” Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, accessed June 13, 2022, http://web.archive.org/web/20210508130210/http://www.mnbaq.org/a-propos/agrandissement-du-musee.

11\. “Fine Arts Patron Pierre Lassonde Makes $5 Million Gift to Mount Allison University’s Fine Arts Program,” Mount Allison University, February 25, 2021, https://mta.ca/about/news/fine-arts-patron-pierre-lassonde-makes-5-million-gift-mount-allison-universitys-fine.

12\. Dom Phillips, “Brazil Dam Disaster: Firm Knew of Potential Impact Months in Advance,” The Guardian, March 21, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/28/brazil-dam-collapse-samarco-fundao-mining.

13\. Samantha Pearson, Luciana Magalhaes, and Patricia Kowsmann, “Brazil’s Vale Vowed ‘Never Again.’ Then Another Dam Collapsed,” The Wall Street Journal, December 31, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/brazils-vale-vowed-never-another-dam-collapse-then-an-even-worse-one-11577809114.

14\. “Sudbury,” Vale, accessed June 13, 2022, http://www.vale.com/canada/EN/aboutvale/communities/sudbury/Pages/default.aspx.

15\. Susan Manitowabi, Historical and Contemporary Realities: Movement Towards Reconciliation, (eCampusOntario), 21, https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/movementtowardsreconciliation/chapter/the-greater-sudbury-area-atikamesksheng-anishnawbek/

16\. “B.C. Judge Issues $3.4M Fine to Teck Mining for Polluting the Columbia River,” CBC News, March 1, 2016, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mining-teck-fine-pollution-1.3470277.

17\. Sean Kolenko, “Teck Metals Fined $210,000 for Releasing Sodium Hydroxide in Columbia River,” Business in Vancouver, November 5, 2013, https://biv.com/article/2013/11/teck-metals-fined-210000-for-releasing-sodium-hydr.

18\. Darcy Wintonyk, “Mining Company Fined $115,000 for Chemical Spill,” CTV News, December 3, 2009, https://bc.ctvnews.ca/mining-company-fined-115-000-for-chemical-spill-1.460911.

19\. Judith Lavoie, “Teck Resources Pegged With $8 Million Fine for Toxic Smelter Pollution of Columbia River,” The Narwhal, September 21, 2018, https://thenarwhal.ca/teck-resources-pegged-with-8-million-fine-for-toxic-smelter-pollution-of-columbia-river/.

20\. Ainslie Cruickshank, “Teck Fined $60 Million for Water Pollution in B.C.’s Elk Valley,” The Narwhal, March 26, 2021, https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-teck-fined-60-million-selenium-fisheries-act/.

21\. “Ktunaxa Nation Council Statement on Fisheries Act Charges Against Teck Coal Limited,” Ktunaxa Nation, March 26, 2021, https://www.ktunaxa.org/wp-content/uploads/Elk-Valley-Media-Release.pdf.

22\. Above Ground and Justiça Global, Swept Aside: An Investigation into Human Rights Abuse at Kinross Gold’s Morro do Ouro Mine (Above Ground and Justiça Global, 2017), 2, https://www.global.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Swept-Aside.pdf.

23\. Above Ground and Justiça Global, 15.

24\. “Passion to Perform,” Call for Entry, accessed June 13, 2022, https://artist.callforentry.org/festivals_unique_info.php?ID=1635.

25\. Yamana Gold, Yamana Annual Report 2019, (Toronto, ON: Yamana Gold, 2019), 49, https://s28.q4cdn.com/334653565/files/doc_financials/2018/ar/Yamana-AR19_FINAL-for-website_24-03-20.pdf.

26\. Julián Raso, “Dieciocho años de lucha: un pueblo que hace historia,” No a la Mina, December 2, 2020, https://noalamina.org/argentina/chubut/item/44603-dieciocho-anos-de-lucha-un-pueblo-que-hace-historia.

27\. Yamana Gold, 49.

28\. “Chubut Governor Repeals Mining Law, Vows Public Vote After Days of Protests,” Buenos Aires Times, December 12, 2021, https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/chubut-governor-repeals-mining-law-vows-public-vote-after-days-of-protests.phtml.

29\. “Exploration,” Yamana Gold, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.yamana.com/English/portfolio/exploration/default.aspx.

30\. “Advancing Projects,” Yamana Gold, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.yamana.com/English/portfolio/advancing-projects/Wasamac/default.aspx.

31\. “Mining project MARA, Argentina,” Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, https://ejatlas.org/print/agua-rica-andalgala-catamarca-argentina.

32\. “Contaminación: la Justicia suspendió la Actividad en la mina Bajo La Alumbrera,” El Federal, July 18, 2017, http://web.archive.org/web/20220122074954/https://www.elfederal.com.ar/contaminacion-la-justicia-suspendio-la-actividad-en-la-mina-bajo-la-alumbrera/.

33\. Cole Robertson, “Alumbrera, Producer of Riches, Poison and Corruption,” The Tyee, September 18, 2009, https://thetyee.ca/News/2009/09/18/Alumbrera/.

34\. “El contrabando minero de una sola empresa es de 8.267 millones de dólares al año,” Conclusion, February 22, 2021, https://www.conclusion.com.ar/politica/economia/el-contrabando-minero-de-una-sola-empresa-es-de-8-267-millones-de-dolares-al-ano/02/2021/.

35\. Darío Aranda, “Un stop a la megaminería,” Página 12, September 12, 2016, https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-309169-2016-09-12.html.

36\. “Andalgalá: alerta corte selectivo contra Agua Rica,” No a la Mina, March 24, 2021, https://noalamina.org/argentina/catamarca/item/45152-andalgala-alerta-y-corte-selectivo-contra-agua-rica.

37\. Caroline Desbiens and Bastien Sepúlveda, “Pekedamkam: Frontierism and the Unearthing of Indigenous Landscapes in Val-d’Or, Canada,” Journal of Historical Geography 65 (July 2019), 59–60, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305748817301342.

38\. “Malartic, Quebec,” Native Land, accessed June 13, 2022, https://native-land.ca/.

39\. “Largest Gold Mine in Canada Settles With Affected Citizens Out of Court,” MiningWatch Canada, October 15, 2019, https://miningwatch.ca/news/2019/10/15/largest-gold-mine-canada-settles-affected-citizens-out-court.

40\. “INV Metals’ Loma Larga Project Acquired by Canadian Company With Toxic Environmental Record in Eastern Europe and Africa,” MiningWatch Canada, August 6, 2021, https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2021/8/6/inv-metals-loma-larga-project-acquired-canadian-company-toxic-environmental-record.

41\. “Overwhelming ‘No’ Vote in Southern Ecuador Referendum Targets INV Metals Project,” MiningWatch Canada, April 3, 2019, https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2019/4/3/overwhelming-no-vote-southern-ecuador-referendum-targets-inv-metals-project.

42\. “Ecuadorian Communities Welcome IAMGOLD’s Retreat, Warn INV Metals There’s No Social Licence for Quimsacocha,” MiningWatch Canada, June 22, 2012, https://miningwatch.ca/news/2012/6/22/ecuadorian-communities-welcome-iamgold-s-retreat-warn-inv-metals-there-s-no-social.

43\. “Overwhelming Vote in Southern Ecuador Sends Strong Message to Mining Companies,” MiningWatch Canada, February 11, 2021, https://miningwatch.ca/blog/2021/2/11/overwhelming-vote-southern-ecuador-sends-strong-message-mining-companies.

44\. “IAMGOLD Announces Filing of Early Warning Report in Connection with Dundee Precious Metals’ Proposed Acquisition of INV Metals,” IAMGOLD, May 31, 2021, https://www.iamgold.com/English/investors/news-releases/news-releases-details/2021/IAMGOLD-Announces-Filing-of-Early-Warning-Report-in-Connection-with-Dundee-Precious-Metals-Proposed-Acquisition-of-INV-Metals/default.aspx.

45\. “Operations,” IAMGOLD, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.iamgold.com/English/operations/guidance/default.aspx.

46\. Caroline Desbiens and Bastien Sepúlveda, “Pekedamkam”

47\. “Malartic, Quebec,” Native Land, https://native-land.ca/

48\. “IAMGOLD to Proceed with Construction of the Côté Gold Project in Ontario, Canada,” IAMGOLD, July 21, 2020, https://www.iamgold.com/English/investors/news-releases/news-releases-details/2020/IAMGOLD-to-Proceed-with-Construction-of-the-Ct-Gold-Project-in-Ontario-Canada/default.aspx.

49\. Business / Arts, La Placa Cohen, and Nanos, Culture Track: Canada, (Toronto, ON: Business / Arts, 2018), 42, http://www.businessandarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CT-Canada-Report.pdf.

50\. Danielle Kaeding, “‘This Valve Had Been Known to Leak’: Documents Show Superior Oil Refinery Knew About Equipment Issues Years Before 2018 Explosion,” Wisconsin Public Radio, May 3, 2022, https://www.wpr.org/valve-had-been-known-leak-documents-show-superior-oil-refinery-knew-about-equipment-issues-years.

51\. Danielle Kaeding, “Superior Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against Husky Energy,” MPR News, September 4, 2018, https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/09/04/wpr-superior-residents-file-class-action-lawsuit-against-husky-energy-after-explosion.

52\. “Land Acknowledgement,” The Wisconsin Union, https://union.wisc.edu/about/land-acknowledgement/

53\. Lee Wilson, “First Nations in B.C. fighting Rio Tinto to Save Nechako River and Fishery,” APTN News, June 25, 2020, https://www.aptnnews.ca/featured/first-nations-in-b-c-fighting-rio-tinto-to-save-nechako-river-and-fishery/.

54\. Betsy Trumpener, “B.C. First Nation Chief Wants Alcan to Take Down the Kenney Dam,” CBC News, November 18, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/rio-tinto-alcan-sued-by-indigenous-bands-over-nechako-river-dam-1.5363820.

55\. “Saik’uz and Stellat’en First Nations Back in Court to Save the Nechako River and Its Fisheries,” Saik’uz First Nation, October 16, 2019, https://www.saikuz.com/events/newspress-releases/saikuz-stellaten-first-nations-v-rio-tinto-alcan-inc-british-columbia-canada.

56\. Jason Proctor, “Court Rejects First Nations’ Bid to Change Flow of River to Alleviate Damage Caused by Northern B.C. Dam,” CBC News, January 9, 2022, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/first-nations-nechako-rio-tinto-1.6308025.

57\. Kelly House, “Michigan Drops One Lawsuit, Revisits Another in Enbridge Line 5 Fight,” Bridge Michigan, November 30, 2021, https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-drops-one-lawsuit-revisits-another-enbridge-line-5-fight.

58\. Mary Annette Pember, “Michigan Tribe Banishes Enbridge Line 5 Pipeline,” Indian Country Today, May 11, 2021, https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/michigan-tribe-banishes-enbridge-line-5-pipeline.

59\. Tara Jeffrey, “Aamjiwnaang Based Group Concerned About Enbridge Plan,” The Observer, December 10, 2021, https://www.theobserver.ca/2012/12/10/aamjiwnaang-based-group-concerned-about-enbridge-plan.

60\. Colin Graf, “Gray Charges Dropped in Court,” Anishinabek News, January 16, 2017, https://anishinabeknews.ca/2017/01/16/gray-charges-dropped-in-court/.

61\. Mike De Souza, “Pipeline Watchdog Hid Evidence of Secret Enbridge Reports,” Canada’s National Observer, May 2, 2016, https://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/05/02/news/heres-how-enbridge-edited-federal-pipeline-audit.

62\. Mary Annette Pember, “Enbridge Takes the Gloves Off in Line 5 Battle,” Indian Country Today, May 9, 2022, https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/enbridge-takes-the-gloves-off-in-line-5-battle.

63\. “Westmoreland Coal Company v. Government of Canada,” Global Affairs Canada, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/topics-domaines/disp-diff/westmoreland-02.aspx?lang=eng.

64\. Keyera Corporation, Annual Information Form, (Calgary, AB: Keyera Corporation, 2022), 35, https://www.keyera.com/assets/Attachments/Annual-Information-Form-2021.pdf.

65\. “Pipeline Leak Near Grizzly Protection Area,” Windspeaker, June 14, 2016, https://windspeaker.com/news/alberta-news-in-brief-for-june-15.  
 
66\. “Who Are the Aseniwuche Winewak,” Aseniwuche Winewak Nation, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.aseniwuche.ca/.

67\. “Our Story,” Mountain Métis Centre, accessed June 13, 2022, https://mountainmetis.com/.

68\. Lincoln Brown, “ConocoPhillips Pipeline Leak Threatens Wildlife Area in Alberta,” Pipeline & Gas Journal, June 17, 2016, https://pgjonline.com/news/2016/06/conocophillips-pipeline-leak-threatens-wildlife-area-in-alberta.

69\. The Canadian Press, “ConocoPhillips fined $180K for 2016 pipeline leak in northwest Alberta,” Global News, May 31, 2018, https://globalnews.ca/news/4245462/conocophillips-fine-2016-pipeline-leak-northwest-alberta/.

70\. “Exploration and Production,” Repsol Canada, accessed June 27, 2022, https://www.repsol.ca/en/index.cshtml.

71\. “Corporate Sponsorship: Impact and Benefits,” Arts Commons, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.artscommons.ca/support-us/corporate-sponsorship/impact-benefits.

72\. KJ Dakin and Trina Moyles, “Indigenous Farmers Confront Canada’s Goldcorp,” Briarpatch, September 1, 2014, https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/indigenous-farmers-confront-canadas-goldcorp.

73\. Miles Howe, “Been to Jail for justice?,” Halifax Media Co-op, June 11, 2015, https://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/been-jail-justice/33648.

74\. Dakin and Moyles, “Indigenous Farmers Confront Canada’s Goldcorp.”

75\. Ibid.

76\. “Hudbay Minerals Inc.: Form 40-F,” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 28, 2022, https://sec.report/Document/0001062993-22-008763/.

77\. Klippensteins, Barristers and Solicitors, “About,” Choc Versus Hudbay, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.chocversushudbay.com/.

78\. “Court Bulletin: Crude Oil Refinery Operator Fined $475,000 for Environmental Protection Act Violations,” Ontario Newsroom, December 22, 2022, https://news.ontario.ca/en/court/59815/crude-oil-refinery-operator-fined-475000-for-environmental-protection-act-violations.

79\. “Updates on Spills,” Aamjiwnaang Solidarity Against Chemical Valley, accessed June 13, 2022, https://aamjiwnaangsolidarity.org/updates-on-spills/.

80\. “Our Donors & Supporters,” Canada West Foundation, accessed June 13, 2022, https://cwf.ca/support-us/donors-supporters/.

81\. “‘It’s a disgrace’: A Year After Ontario Promised Change, Toxic Emissions Still Spilling Into Sarnia,” Global News, November 14, 2018, https://globalnews.ca/news/4659040/toxic-emissions-spilling-into-sarnia-year-after-ontario-promised-change/.

82\. “Sponsorship,” National Gallery of Canada, accessed June 13, 2022, https://www.gallery.ca/support/sponsorship.

83\. “Our Company,” Touchstone Exploration Inc., accessed June 13, 2022, https://touchstoneexploration.com/our-company/.

84\. Steven Mufson, “Exxon Mobil Pipeline Leaks ‘A Few Thousand’ Barrels of Crude Oil in Arkansas,” The Washington Post, March 31, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/exxon-mobil-pipeline-leaks-a-few-thousand-barrels-of-crude-oil-in-arkansas/2013/03/31/6868d6f6-9a2e-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html.

85\. “Chevron Becomes First Organization to Be Appointed a Fellow of the Glenbow,” Chevron Canada, accessed June 13, 2022, https://canada.chevron.com/news/2018/chevron-canada-makes-history-with-glenbow.

86\. “Our Businesses: Oil Sands,” Chevron Canada, accessed June 13, 2022, https://canada.chevron.com/our-businesses/oil-sands.

87\. Global Witness, “Chevron, Stop Funding Racism,” Global Witness, July 23, 2020, https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/oil-gas-and-mining/chevron-stop-funding-racism/.    

88\. Connell Smith, “Canaport LNG Pleads Guilty in Bird Kill Case,” CBC News, November 5, 2015, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-canaport-bird-kill-plea-1.3305351\        

89\. Rachel Cave, “‘You Could See the Carnage Everywhere’: First Responder Remembers 2013 Bird Die-Off,” CBC News, Nov 12, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bird-kill-canaport-lng-saint-john-2013-1.5353502\.    

90\. “Enforcement Notifications: Death of 7500 Migratory Birds Results in $750,000 Penalty to Canaport LNG Limited Partnership,” Government of Canada, November 24, 2015, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-enforcement/notifications/death-migratory-birds-canaport-partnership.html.   

91\. “Repsol Completes Acquisition of Canaport LNG Terminal,” Europétrole, November 16, 2021, https://www.euro-petrole.com/repsol-completes-acquisition-of-canaport-lng-terminal-n-i-23017\. 

92\. Robert Jones, “Irving Made Millions Off Deal to Slash Taxes on LNG Property,” CBC News, June 12, 2015, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/irving-made-millions-off-deal-to-slash-taxes-on-lng-property-1.3111816\. 

93\. “Sponsorship Packages,” Beaverbrook Art Gallery, accessed June 13, 2022, https://beaverbrookartgallery.org/support/sponsorship/. 

94\. Richard Valdmanis, “Irving Oil Quietly Changed Climate Change Policy, Scrapping Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions,” Global News, December 20, 2019, https://globalnews.ca/news/6321681/irving-oil-carbon-emissions-cut/.

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Maggie Flynn’s _Trickle Down_ visualizes a substantial network of impacts; years of research allow us to consider connections between corporations, art institutions, and Indigenous communities impacted by extractive intervention. 

Trickle Down

Nadine Khalil is an independent arts writer, editor, researcher,  
and curator. After a decade-long stint in art publishing, she is currently advising art institutions such as the Ishara Art Foundation and Goethe-Institut on programming and editorial  
strategy. She is former editor of Dubai-based contemporary art magazine Canvas (2017–2020) and her writing can be found in art-agenda, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, ArtReview Asia, Artsy, Broadcast, The Brooklyn Rail, FT Arts, Ocula, and the Women’s Review of Books.

Ebb and Flow / Moving Through Mourning

You’re invited to submit a letter in response to C Magazine Issue 152 “Extraction” by OCTOBER 25.

Selected letters will be published in C153 (Winter 2023).

The Letters column features a selection of 100-400 word letters to our editors, contributors and readers, and is printed at the front of every issue. A $100 honorarium is paid to each writer whose letter is selected for print. Published letters may be edited lightly for length and clarity.

Letters should engage the previous issue—its theme, articles, images—and related things beyond the magazine’s pages. They may be informal, informative, creative, inquisitive, speculative, critical, or any other number of things imaginable in the epistolary form. The column is intended to create space for dialogue on and around contemporary art and to continue conversations between issues, themes and writers.

Read the [Call for Pitches](https://cmagazine.com/events/call-for-pitches-for-extraction) for this issue.

**Send letters to [pitch@cmagazine.com](mailto:pitch@cmagazine.com) with LETTERS in the subject line.**

Call for Letters: Extraction

Call

The Letters column features a selection of 100-400 word letters to our editors, contributors and readers, and is printed at the front of every issue.

C The Visual Arts Foundation, publisher of _C Magazine_, is seeking dynamic and devoted Board members to lead and represent the organization. C’s Board of Directors hires leadership staff, approves strategic direction and goals, organizational policies, and operating budgets. As a board member, you will practice collective leadership to facilitate the work of C Magazine, its staff and contributors.

C is committed to transparency and principles of anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, and inclusion and puts these principles into practice at all levels of the organization. Please see our [Equity and Accessibility policies](http://equity.cmagazine.com) for more information on our commitments. 

We welcome applicants of any age or background and encourage applications from energetic and committed individuals (with or without prior Board experience) who have a deep interest in or are contributors to the visual arts community in Canada and C Magazine. 

**IMPORTANT NOTES**   
Board membership is voluntary. Board members do not receive financial compensation or another benefit. According to their means, board members support the organization and maintain a subscription to _C Magazine_ during their tenure. Board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interest of C and must declare any potential conflict of interest as they arise.

**QUALIFICATIONS**   
Prospective Board members should have a passion for contemporary visual art and culture, and several of the following general qualifications:   
▪ Capacity to contribute time and resources to _C Magazine’s_ mission and its Board  
▪ Excellent communication and collaborative skills  
▪ Fundraising abilities, connections to sources of private or public support   
▪ Leadership in the non-profit sector  
▪ Strategic thinking and planning skills   
▪ Strong community ties

C is seeking Board members with one or more of the following areas of expertise:   
▪ Accessibility, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion  
▪ Accounting and Financial Management  
▪ Artist in practice  
▪ Arts Administration, Publishing  
▪ Arts Writing, Curation, Editorial   
▪ Community Building, Stewardship   
▪ Governance, Human Resource and Legal   
▪ Marketing and Communications  
▪ Sponsorship and Fundraising

**RESPONSIBILITIES**   
With a view to anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, access and inclusivity   
▪ Serve a 3-year term, sitting on committees  
▪ Attend up to 8 meetings per year in person or virtually  
▪ Attend and support _C Magazine_ events   
▪ Oversee the financial and health of the organization   
▪ Steward C’s mandate, governance and supporters  
▪ Support and mentor staff and fellow Board members  
▪ Work with staff to develop and implement policies   
▪ Activate personal and professional networks   
▪ Participate in fundraising, including facilitation of sponsorships and donations  
▪ Facilitate community and local partnerships   
▪ Represent and support C’s mandate and vision in diverse communities across the GTA, Canada and internationally 

For more information, please see the FAQ below.

C is an equal opportunity employer that uses an Affirmative Action Program to actively increase the representation of equity-seeking groups in the art sector, with current priority given to Indigenous, Black, Persons of Colour, deaf, mad and disabled and 2SLGBTQIAP persons. If you identify as a member of one of these groups, you may voluntarily self-identify using the self-identification form found at [self-id.cmagazine.com](https://cmagazine.com/files/c%5Fself%5Fidentification.pdf); only those who self-identify can benefit from the C Affirmative Action Procedures. All applicants are assessed based on their merits; Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

_C Magazine_ is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment and providing accommodation for those who require it. Please let us know of any accommodation we may provide at any point during the application or selection process. If contacted for an interview, please communicate if you require accommodation.

**TO APPLY**   
Please send a confidential statement of interest along with your CV to [info@cmagazine.com](mailto:info@cmagazine.com) 

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**ABOUT**   
_C Magazine_, established in 1984, is a contemporary art and criticism periodical that functions as a forum for significant ideas in art and its contexts. Each issue explores a theme that is singularly engaged with emerging and prevailing perspectives through original art writing, criticism and artists’ projects. Our content focuses on the activities of contemporary art practitioners residing in Canada and Canadian practitioners living abroad—with an emphasis on those from Black, Indigenous, diasporic and other equity-seeking communities—as well as on international practices and dialogues. We are committed to facilitating meaningful, pluralistic, interdisciplinary, historically-engaged and imaginative conversations about art.

C readers are visual arts professionals and those with a keen interest in the forms, content and meaning of contemporary art – including artists, curators, art writers and critics, dealers, educators, students, consultants and art collectors. 

_C Magazine_ is published three times each year by C The Visual Arts Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization established to present ideas, advance education and document contemporary visual art and artist culture. _C_ features the work of more than 200 writers and presenters each year in the magazine and related projects. 

**Diversity, Equity Access and Inclusion**  
_C Magazine_ acknowledges that the majority of discourses pertaining to contemporary visual art have been informed by Western European thought, values and practices. The inclusion of perspectives from diverse groups is central to the vitality of contemporary art, art criticism, its communities and more broadly, society. [Please see our policies and procedures](https://cmagazine.com/about/accessibility).

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C Board FAQ:

1\. What kind of experience are you looking for in a Board Member?

Members are contemporary art “stakeholders,” and may have one or more of the following professions or practical experiences, though we value many other experiences not listed:  
\- Publishing operations (magazine or other)   
\- Editorial (magazine or other)   
\- Professional art practice (cross-disciplinary, emphasis on visual arts)  
\- Art education (teaching, public programming, related knowledge)  
\- Critical writing (and related research practices)  
\- Curation (and related research practices)  
\- Arts administrator (grants, operations, technology)   
\- Business director (finance, planning, HR)  
\- Fundraising (donor and sponsor relations)  
\- Lawyer (contract, employment, copyright, governance)  
\- Philanthropist, collector

2\. How many new members are you looking for?

We aim for a steady group of 9 to 13 members, and aim to add 3 to 5 new members in 2023.

3\. Do you have specific equity, diversity, and inclusion targets?

Our equity, diversity, and inclusion target, to be maintained over a two year period, calls for minimum 50% of appointed members to self-identify as BIPOC, and minimum 60% as BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIPA+, deaf, mad and disabled. These goals also apply to staff hires, and to contributors to the magazine and related programming. 

4\. Are Board Members involved in editorial or programming work? Can Board Members write for C Magazine?

Our board and its individual members are at arms-length from commissioning and editing the magazine—in fact, because of this separation, you will be able to pitch to write for the magazine. Our board has a standing Educational Program committee that advises in all relevant areas, and occasionally contributes to programming.

5\. How will my talents be used? How will I contribute?   
Directors must attend 75% of meetings each year.

Directors join minimum two committees, including one standing committee, and one other standing or ad-hoc committee. All members participate in the annual Fundraising Auction in some manner. 

Standing committees: the Executive; Educational Program; Equity committees.   
HR; Finance; and Nominations Executive sub-committees must include members of the Executive, along with others.

The board recruits, nominates, and selects new members each year.  
The board hires the Executive Director, and Board Members will also sit on various hiring committees.

Directors are asked to donate, subscribe, or engage others in doing so, raising $500 to $1000 per year, directly or indirectly.

6\. How frequent and how long are meetings?

\- We have a schedule of 6 full board meetings annually.  
\- Currently, we meet at 5:30pm ET (on Zoom) or 1.5 (to max. 2) hours.  
\- We aim to accommodate our members’ various locations. 

Apply by

C Board of Directors: Call for Members

C The Visual Arts Foundation, publisher of _C Magazine_, is seeking dynamic and devoted Board members to lead and represent the organization. 

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