The Clouded Title project developed from an initial series of conversations between Fawn Daphne Plessner and Emily Artinian, interrogating assumptions and frameworks surrounding land ownership in North America today. This body of research began with an exhibition, held at Street Road, and a workshop held on Pender Island, British Columbia.
Visit our related pages, specifically Clouded Title 2019, and Clouded Title 2020/21: Conversations, to follow continuing strands of this research, and to join in the discussion.
Visit our related pages, specifically Clouded Title 2019, and Clouded Title 2020/21: Conversations, to follow continuing strands of this research, and to join in the discussion.
1.
Clouded Title Workshop
Pender Island, British Columbia
April 14, 2018, 3-8pm
Pender Island Community Hall
Clouded Title Workshop
Pender Island, British Columbia
April 14, 2018, 3-8pm
Pender Island Community Hall
This event centered around a workshop and interviews, drawing out discussions around Environmental Law and W̱SÁNEĆ Culture. A small, 1 day exhibition was also installed at the Community Hall, presenting the artists' projects investigating ‘ownership’ concurrently showing at Street Road.
The full video of this event is available to view on request.
SPEAKERS
Mavis Underwood
Member of Council, Tsawout First Nation
David Boyd
Environmental Lawyer and Academic, author of The Rights of Nature: a legal revolution that could save the world; davidrichardboyd.com
Earl Claxton Jr.
Elder, Tsawout First Nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ0_bPth_6w
Robert Clifford
Lawyer and academic specializing in W̱SÁNEĆ Law, Tsawout First Nation
–
Special thanks to CRC, Southern Gulf Islands Community Resource Centre
The full video of this event is available to view on request.
SPEAKERS
Mavis Underwood
Member of Council, Tsawout First Nation
David Boyd
Environmental Lawyer and Academic, author of The Rights of Nature: a legal revolution that could save the world; davidrichardboyd.com
Earl Claxton Jr.
Elder, Tsawout First Nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ0_bPth_6w
Robert Clifford
Lawyer and academic specializing in W̱SÁNEĆ Law, Tsawout First Nation
–
Special thanks to CRC, Southern Gulf Islands Community Resource Centre
2.
Clouded Title at
Street Road Artists Space
January 1st – April 30, 2018
Clouded Title is a broad survey, taking in views from diverse groups to build a multi-perspectival understanding of ownership. Participants and projects in this first exhibition were drawn from Street Road's and Fawn Daphne Plessner's networks and in many cases link to ongoing dialogues and past exhibitions.
Clouded Title at
Street Road Artists Space
January 1st – April 30, 2018
Clouded Title is a broad survey, taking in views from diverse groups to build a multi-perspectival understanding of ownership. Participants and projects in this first exhibition were drawn from Street Road's and Fawn Daphne Plessner's networks and in many cases link to ongoing dialogues and past exhibitions.
94 Calls
Denise Holland
60” x approx 110’ (variable), glassine paper, felt pen, 2017.
Denise Holland
60” x approx 110’ (variable), glassine paper, felt pen, 2017.
In 94 Calls, Vancouver-based Denise Holland writes Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action backwards with her non-dominant hand in a gesture of vulnerability and a willingness to see the world from a different perspective. The TRC Report focuses on the Residential School system in Canada, highlighting the contentious underpinnings of colonization and land ownership in Canada. The Calls are written on translucent paper that cascade from the ceiling, forcing viewers to walk through the piece. Holland draws attention to the TRC report and encourages us all to be curious about our own prejudices and oppressive actions toward others. 94 Calls is installed at Street Road for the duration of Clouded Title.
Reconsidering Place: thinking through notions of 'ownership' in the Douglas Treaty
Daphne Plessner
Daphne Plessner
This publication is an intervention in the form of a newspaper on the topic of Canada's Douglas Treaty – a Treaty with a history of disputed interpretations and widely differing world views of land and ownership. The newspaper presents readers with a thought experiment that illustrates various readings (both historical and contemporary) of claim-making, providing readers with an opportunity to puzzle through and reflect upon the implications of being party to and present on Treaty land today. How does the legacy of the Treaty inform current attitudes to ‘being’ on treaty lands? How does a Treaty perpetuate the system of aparthied that is embodied in place? The newspaper will be distributed to non-indigenous residents on First Nations (W̱SÁNEĆ / Saanich) territory on the West Coast of Canada (Gulf Islands), Spring 2018.
For further information visit http://www.citizenartist.org.uk
For further information visit http://www.citizenartist.org.uk
Real Estate Dictionary: IMPROVED EDITION
Emily Artinian
Barron's Dictionary of Real Estate Terms (Jack P. Friedman, Jack C. Harris, J. Bruce Lindeman, editors) is currently in its 9th edition. A key reference text for the US Real Estate industry, this useful but capitalism-centric source omits most concepts related to collective ownership in any form and steers well clear of land appropriation, current and historic. IMPROVED EDITION will unbind a copy of the current text, and will insert many elided terms, ideas, and knowledges. The book will be re-bound, and the new - improved - edition will be sent to the publisher and editors upon completion.
Emily Artinian
Barron's Dictionary of Real Estate Terms (Jack P. Friedman, Jack C. Harris, J. Bruce Lindeman, editors) is currently in its 9th edition. A key reference text for the US Real Estate industry, this useful but capitalism-centric source omits most concepts related to collective ownership in any form and steers well clear of land appropriation, current and historic. IMPROVED EDITION will unbind a copy of the current text, and will insert many elided terms, ideas, and knowledges. The book will be re-bound, and the new - improved - edition will be sent to the publisher and editors upon completion.
4. Dialogues
between Clouded Title and The School of Living, with a focus on Community Land Trusts, Intentional Communities, Homesteading, and Permaculture. Site visits to School of Living sites StellaLou Farm in Cochranville, PA and Heathcote Community in Freeland, MD are included.
Photo: Heathcote Community's greenhouse and gravity-fed rainwater irrigation system.
between Clouded Title and The School of Living, with a focus on Community Land Trusts, Intentional Communities, Homesteading, and Permaculture. Site visits to School of Living sites StellaLou Farm in Cochranville, PA and Heathcote Community in Freeland, MD are included.
Photo: Heathcote Community's greenhouse and gravity-fed rainwater irrigation system.
5. Dialogues between Clouded Title and Our Spaces, The Foundation for Good Governance of International Spaces with participation of Julia Dooley (Polar Educators International), and Julie Hambrook Berkman (Our Spaces).
6 – MINE/YOURS
A Street Road installation comprised of a room cut in half, furnished with items with complex ownership histories, on loan from Street Road friends. Objects and their stories were be collected in an artist's book, copies of which were placed in the cut down the center of the room before was is sealed up upon the exhibition's end.
Thanks to David A. Parker, Seres Hofundor, Thomas White, Carol Maurer, Thomas Savage, Samantha Ferrizzi, and Tony Pratola for contributions to Mine/Yours.
A Street Road installation comprised of a room cut in half, furnished with items with complex ownership histories, on loan from Street Road friends. Objects and their stories were be collected in an artist's book, copies of which were placed in the cut down the center of the room before was is sealed up upon the exhibition's end.
Thanks to David A. Parker, Seres Hofundor, Thomas White, Carol Maurer, Thomas Savage, Samantha Ferrizzi, and Tony Pratola for contributions to Mine/Yours.
7. Dialogues, walk, and site visit with artist Carol Maurer, in connection with her current work, Walking Forward – Looking Back, a practice-based project utilizing a journey through the landscape. The artist walked from her ancestral home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland through Delaware to Chester County PA, collecting stories, photos, memories and objects along the route. (Note: this project was presented as a solo exhibition at Street Road, Fall 2018).
8 – The Eruv: A Spiritual Example of Public Domain
Felise Luchansky
Work by artist Felise Luchansky focusing on eruvim, urban areas enclosed by a wire boundary that symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas. Dialogues between Clouded Title and the artist were also be held.
Photo: F. Luchansky, Los Angeles eruv, 2018.
Felise Luchansky
Work by artist Felise Luchansky focusing on eruvim, urban areas enclosed by a wire boundary that symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas. Dialogues between Clouded Title and the artist were also be held.
Photo: F. Luchansky, Los Angeles eruv, 2018.
9 – Work from project 75ºWest/75ºOeste by artists Maria Möller and Daniel Urrea, focusing on collective re-imaginings of transnational free trade agreements.
10 – 'Ownership by Walking: Traversing Urban Ruins'. Led by Clusters and Entanglements, a Phenomenological Reading Group, based in northeast UK. Walk, workshop, and dialogue with Clouded Title, with visual art outcomes that will be exhibited at Street Road.
Dialogues in connection with the exhibition
1. August 11 and August 18, 2018
In connection with Clouded Title, a two-session discussion of The Rights of Nature: a legal revolution that could save the world by environmental lawyer and academic David R. Boyd, a participant in Clouded Title was held at Street Road's Little Free Library.
In connection with Clouded Title, a two-session discussion of The Rights of Nature: a legal revolution that could save the world by environmental lawyer and academic David R. Boyd, a participant in Clouded Title was held at Street Road's Little Free Library.
2. April 28, 2018: How Much Land Does A Man Need?
A discussion of Leo Tolstoy's 1886 short story, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" was a prompt for a conversation about property ownership here in Chester County, Pennsylvania. We considered alternatives to predominant models, and critiqued existing legal frameworks for ownership, particularly in relation to the United States' colonialist foundations in land appropriation. A number of Clouded Title participants were be in attendance.
A discussion of Leo Tolstoy's 1886 short story, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" was a prompt for a conversation about property ownership here in Chester County, Pennsylvania. We considered alternatives to predominant models, and critiqued existing legal frameworks for ownership, particularly in relation to the United States' colonialist foundations in land appropriation. A number of Clouded Title participants were be in attendance.
- Guests Daphne Plessner and Denise Holland introduced their artworks in the Clouded Title exhibition (via Skype from Vancouver and Pender Island, British Columbia).
- Tolstoy's story and its context will be introduced. Read it here.
- Additional reading: 'Theft is Property! The Recursive Logic of Dispossesion', by Robert Nichols, in Political Theory, 2018, Vol. 46(I) 3-28