photo: Manuel Vason
racecards
British artist, writer and performer Selina Thompson has brought her theatrical performance piece Salt to the 2019 PuSh Festival.
She also created the art installation Race Cards, which invites up to six participants at a time into a space lined with one thousand sparkling white rectangular cards. On each card is a hand-written question about race. Some questions are broad and need little context. But the cards are numbered and to read them in order creates a narrative. Many refer to the question before or after, and are part of a continuous train of thought rather than random thoughts on the subject. Viewers are invited to chose one question to answer, and to add their card to the exhibition.
Some are simple (though not easy to answer). What does it mean to be black? To be white? Others are specific and nuanced.
Discussions of race seem to be everywhere at this moment in time. But, do we talk about race too little or too much? (Question 63) Why are we afraid to go deep on this issue, Thompson asks. Is 'race' as a concept receiving actual depth of attention? It is truly a lived reality, but it is also a construct, and it is important to expose that within its history, as an idea created for specific reasons (mostly to aid economic exploitation) at specific times. Thompson chooses to take race as a given, however, she does ask a key question on this front: What is the difference between racism and prejudice? (Question 210)
Some of the questions in Race Cards relate specifically to the production process itself, and the existence of this piece of art. For example, Thompson wonders, What does it mean to ask these types of questions within an arts festival? Will her producer be upset that this is the material she wants to tackle? What does it mean to be black in the arts? How do you go about exposing white supremacy in the arts? (Question 6, and the one I chose to tackle.)
Race Cards is also intersectional and asks questions about how attitudes towards race relates to being a woman, to being queer, to being fat.
How do kids learn about race? How could that experience be better? What is the white gaze? How do you resist this gaze? How do you answer when told you are not black enough? How do you reconcile a brilliant artist with their racism or their sexism? Thompson asks us to think about so many dense, loaded questions, including topics such as the concept of black people passing as white, the meaning of statements about being specifically attracted to other races, and the ubiquitous character of the sassy black best friend.
The effect of all these questions will be different for every viewer but, as a whole, the project is certainly successful in its goal to bring questions about race to the forefront and demand serious contemplation. It turns out it takes a long time to read a thousand questions, especially when they tell a long, complicated story, one which demands deep thought. It is almost an impossible task to find just one question to answer.
Race Cards is at the Roundhouse in Vancouver until February 2nd, free and on view from 12-8pm every day.