Nestled in glass display cases by the entrance to the Music, Art & Architecture (MAA) Library in IKB is the latest exhibition from the library's curatorial team.
Rise Up! Sights, sounds and spaces of protest features materials from the MAA Library collections, the rare books and special collections and the university archives. The exhibition explores forms of protest performance and presentation, highlighting the aesthetics of resistance across space and time.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Christopher Cook’s photo book Black Lives Matter opened to a page with a photograph entitled Streamed. The image shows a man holding a sign above his head that reads ‘THE REVOLUTION WILL BE STREAMED.’ It was captured on film during the marches across the US in 2020.
“The particular protester is referencing a very specific phrase from the Civil Rights Movement but has adjusted the words to reflect the current movement,” said Sara Ellis, curator of Rise Up! and art and visual literacy librarian at the MAA Library. “There very much is one individual there, but then you can see, everyone, the crowd, is behind and it's this interesting juxtaposition.”
The phrase printed on the activist's sign is an interpolation of American artist and activist Gil Scott-Heron’s poem "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," first recorded in 1970. It invites reflection on the role of social media in propagating change in the modern era. Scott-Heron's words remain relevant in the modern day. This past February, Kendrick Lamar echoed the poet at the start of his Super Bowl halftime show, saying, “the revolution is about to be televised.”
“I think, for myself, photo books can be really important for capturing a very specific moment and capturing a very specific feeling or emotion, or a particular message,” said Ellis. “I think when you have a photograph that really does invite further questions and further investigation, that's something that really appeals to me.”
The MAA Library’s previous exhibition, The Heat Is On: Creative responses to climate action in Music, Art and Architecture coincided with last year’s Climate Action Week. This time, Rise Up! encompasses a wide range of social movements beginning in underserved and marginalized communities, rooted in history yet pertinent to modern times. Some of these protests occurred here on campus. The exhibition included photographs of Tent City, for instance, a protest encampment built by students along Main Mall in 1966 to demand adequate housing.
“We do try to have exhibitions that highlight materials from our branch … that are reflective of past histories, movements, events and also responsive to the current moment,” said Ellis.
The conversations Ellis had with her fellow curators, MAA Library head Paula Farrar and music librarian David Haskins, were a highlight of their collaboration. These allowed the curators to learn from one another’s areas of expertise.
“I think … sometimes the specific connections when you're planning on paper might not be super evident. But then, as you actually see the material in front of you, it's like, ‘Oh, actually, these two things are really speaking to each other,’” said Ellis.
Other pieces on display at the library include photographs of an exhibition entitled Not for Sale! by the Architects Against Housing Alienation collective at the 2023 Venice Biennale and the sheet music for “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”, a piano composition by Frederic Rzewski alongside a CD recording of the piece performed by UBC professor and pianist Corey Hamm. Nearby, another photo book open to a page showing the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt rests atop the AIDS Quilt Songbook.
The Rise Up! exhibition will be displayed in the MAA Library until the end of summer, with new exhibitions planned for the upcoming fall semester.
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