It is the last week of installation before Iniva’s exhibition
Progress Reports: art in an era of diversity previews Wednesday 27th January, and the library is coming alive!
As part of the public programme the library is working with performance poet Joyful Noise in a research project culminating in a unique live performance in the library Saturday 20th February. Joyful Noise (aka Charlie Weinberg) has been working with the librarians researching the work of Iniva, looking through the archives, and exploring themes of cultural diversity. Her journey through the library has taken her from Arts Council reports, to the works of Ghada Amer, from articles by Eddie Chambers to works by Zarina Bhimji. Charlie is weaving and threading her own unique map through the library collections and creating poems accompanied by an audiovisual presentation in collaboration with artist Trevor Mathison.
Charlie has been documenting her research project so far and here is a sneak peek into her library experience.
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- The Iniva archive
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- Inside the archive
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- Exploring the library stacks
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- Ghada Amer’s exhibition catalogues
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- States of Exchange,Iniva 2008
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- The Ghost of Songs: The art of the Black Audio Film Collective, Liverpool University Press 2007
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- The Unmapped Body:3 Black British Artists, Yale University Art Gallery, 1999
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- Sonia Boyce exhibition information
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- Redwhiteblue: Here/There/Everywhere, MCCM Creations 2005
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- Let the canvas come to life with dark faces, Herbert Art Gallery 1990
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- Books waiting to be catalogued
Charlie is working with the librarians to compile all the resources used in the research project and final performance as part of an ongoing bibliography which will be available to view online.
While the Stuart Hall Library is a fantastic and unique resource vital to Iniva’s exploration of cultural diversity, it is by no means a definitive collection. Charlie’s research is now beginning to broach the topic of the missing voices/texts/ histories from the library and is questioning the gaps in the collection as a means of questioning the missing voices in the wider exploration of cultural diversity. Throughout the exhibition and during Charlie’s research and performance project, we are inviting our library visitors to engage with the representation of cultural diversity within the library collections. While the librarians continue to work with Charlie we will explore together examples of the voices and histories missing from this library and will be encouraging all members of the public to do the same.
Throughout the exhibition we will be compiling an annotated bibliography identifying specific key resources that explore notions of cultural diversity, including those key resources currently missing from this collection based on suggestings from the public. We will be updating the library blog and website shortly with more information on how to take part and how add your own contributions to the interactive Progress Reports bibliography.