P011 → Yes, What a Wonderful Language
“Speak white and loud
qu’on vous entende
de Saint-Henri à Saint-Domingue
oui quelle admirable langue
pour embaucher
donner des ordres
fixer l’heure de la mort à l’ouvrage
et de la pause qui rafraîchit
et ravigote le dollar”
Speak White, Michèle Lalonde
The process of learning in the context of American Academy has been a particular challenge for me. I have encountered a desire and simultaneous resistance in engaging with more formalist and minimalist approaches to sculpture. The grid as a system of representation can also serve as a tool for homogenization—those who do not fit in it are excluded of it. The fragment of the silent megaphone, only visible from a certain angle and light, was extracted from a poem by Michèle Lalonde in which she denounced cultural and economic domination, and in reference to the slur “Speak White”, also the title of the piece, mainly used by anglophones against Canadian French-speakers in the early 20th Century as a form of socio-economic discrimination. The expression was resignified in the context of anti-imperialist movements in Quebec.
Yes, What a Wonderful Language (To Give Orders), Wood, acrylic, ceramics, 11 in * 17 in * 70 in, 2025
101, 2025, Glazed ceramic, uncoated underglaze. 8 in x 4 in x 8 in.