The Unlearning Collective: still processing

Join us for the opening reception of still processing, Artspace New Haven’s first iteration of The Short Shift micro-residency and pop-up exhibition by The Unlearning Collective.  Curated by Laurel McLaughlin and Gabriel Sacco, the exhibition will feature paintings, video works, performances, drawings, and writings by collective members Renée Bouchard, Julie Graves Krishnaswami, and Matthew Gernt, surrounding the idea of unlearning imperialism.

The Unlearning Collective seeks to challenge imperial thought and influences embedded in everyday experiences. In our work, we interrupt the normalization of violence in language, historical narratives, and social, economic, and political othering. Through the generous support of the Puffin Foundation, we investigate what it means to unlearn: as a process of recognizing through shared reading and conversation about our individual art practices. In the book Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism, scholar Ariella Azoulay posits that the camera’s shutter creates imperial violence by drawing “three dividing lines: in time (between before and after), in space (between who/what is in front of the camera and who/what is behind it), and in the body politic (between those who possess and operate such devices and appropriate and accumulate their product and those whose countenance, resources, or labor are extracted).” *

* Ariella Azoulay, Potential History, Unlearning Imperialism (Verso, London, New York, 2019), 5.