Queering Abhinaya - Assignment #3

This assignment is inspired and informed by a talk I went to given by Professor Gayatri Gopinath at UCLA on April 17th, 2014 as part of Professor Anurima Banerji and Sue-Ellen Case's course "Queer Performance and Politics." Gopinath used queer theory as a tool of analysis (not as a term of identity) to connect diasporic communities and indigenous peoples as part of the same colonial expansionist project that among other things, attempts to contain and police racialized bodies (often literally i.e. low income housing projects and residential schools were mentioned). Gopinath analyzed the work of visual artists Tracey Moffatt (Australian Aboriginal) and Sehar Shah (Pakistani US) to develop a strategy that was termed as a "queer pairing" in order to talk about braided histories and non-normative bodies. For this assignment: 1) Choose an indigenous artist (the artist identifies as indigenous) that works with any medium - photography, sculpture, movement, performance, film, sound, poetry etc. I am most familiar with indigenous communities in North America so First Nations, Native, Aboriginal. However, please invite into this assignment what indigenous might mean in relation to places you have lived - Germany, India, Taiwan, Hawaii or other places. I am interested in this idea of home - who used to call the places we now call home, home? 2) Including abhinaya, however you might define it for this assignment, create an artistic conversation with your chosen artist/one of their works. 3) Similar to the last assignment, work in pairs. Cynthia and Babli Shyamala and Meena Due May 30th. Feedback June 2.