Fillip

Reading Group: A History of Resistance with Grace Ndiritu
March 31st, 2018

Join Fillip and nomadic artist and writer Grace Ndiritu on Saturday, March 31, at 2pm for a seminar-style discussion on intersections of hippie counterculture and radical leftist activism. The conversation will begin with a discussion of Simon Sadler’s text “Mandalas or Raised Fists? Hippie Holism, Panther Totality, and Another Modernism” (PDF) which unpacks California’s Bay Area 60s activist scene and the overlaps and distinctions between the Black Panthers and the activism that ermerged around the Whole Earth Catalog, a hippie almanac published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972. The discussion will be punctuated by short silent meditation breaks led by the artist.

In 2012, Ndiritu left London to live in a series of rural, alternative communities, expanding an ongoing body of research into non-rational methodologies, New Age nomadic lifestyles, and shamanism. This research developed into a body of work entitled Healing the Museum which sought to re-activate the “sacredness” of art spaces and restore a meaningful relationship between museums and their audiences. During the seminar, she will discuss her latest project, The Ark: Center For Interdisciplinary Experimentation — a post-internet living research/live art project founded in 2017.

This Reading Group is presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Blue Hour, at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, which features the work of Joi T. Arcand, Kapwani Kiwanga, Colin Miner, Grace Ndiritu, and Kara Uzelman. Ndiritu’s participation is generously supported by The British Council.

Grace Ndiritu’s work exists between performance, writing, experimental photography, and painting. Recent solo performances and screenings of her work include those at the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris, the Glasgow School of Art, the Museum Modern of Art, Warsaw, and the 51st Venice Biennale. Ndiritu’s work has also been widely published, including by The Paris Review, Le Journal Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Animal Shelter, Metropolis M, and many others.

Current Fillip Members get priority registration to all events. Members receive all of Fillip’s titles published in the current calendar year, including books released in the ongoing Supplement and Folio Series plus full access to our digital archives for twelve months and priority access to special events! Entrance to this event is free but space is limited and an RSVP is required.