Elemental Reading Group with Farhia Tato
Tuesday, October 24 and Tuesday, November 28, 7–8 pm
online

The Elemental Reading Group was led by Farhia Tato as part of our parallel program in-conjunction with the exhibition Tim Whiten Elemental Fire, guest curated by Liz Ikiriko. Across this two-part reading group, Tato guided participants through an immersive exploration of Whiten’s cultural objects, the themes referenced in his work, and the concepts drawn out by the exhibition. Tato organized the reading group to draw inspiration from poetry and meditative soundscapes as guiding forces. Through this journey, Tato invited participants to examine the intricate connections and linkages between energy, chance, play, desire, labor, trust, and risk, intertwining them like alchemy transmuting classical elements. This exploration sought to enrich understandings of the multifaceted nature of being encapsulated by Whiten’s use of materials, processes of making, and object formations.
The reading group met online on Tuesday, October 24 from 7 to 8 pm EDT (no recording available) and Tuesday, November 28 from 7 to 8 pm EST (recording above) in conversations using prose and poetry. No previous reading was required and all were welcome to one or both sessions. Discussion was initiated with a five minute meditation led by work from multidisciplinary artist LaMont Hamilton, who deals with the spiritual, ecological, and subconscious through sound, installation, performance, poetry, and lens-based media. Following, participants were invited to read poems or small texts aloud.
The poems/performances read in the course of the second reading group were:
sound meditation by LaMont Hamilton
“& who will honour you right: d’angelo,” Tina Zafreen Alam
“To See the Earth Before the End of the World, ” Ed Roberson
Excerpt from “The Sea Around Us,” Rachel Carson
“Lag Time or Zooted,” Gabrielle Octavia Rucker
Farhia Tato is a Somali-Oromo multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto and Nairobi. Her current projects focus on the parallels between discourses of race and technology. She is interested in the processes that undergird black conception/perception, representation, and sociality. Through storytelling, Tato desires to challenge preconceived notions about our identities and histories. Farhia takes great pleasure in constructing poetic and imaginative narratives rooted in folklore, fairy tales, and mythologies. Cancel
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