Karthik Pandian, மனசு (manasu), 2025. Video still. Courtesy the artist.
Pandian’s Forsythia cycle is a multifaceted project which originated in the 2020 uprising in Minneapolis, and activists’ toppling of that city’s monument to Christopher Columbus. The project is rooted in long-term collaboration to address colonization, translation, responsibility, and accountability. Encompassing film, performance, and installation, the Forsythia cycle foregrounds the relations necessary to imagine a survivable future, and ways of creating culture in exile, diasporic, and settler colonial contexts.
Join us for a screening of new films by Pandian from within the larger Forsythia cycle, followed by a conversation between the artist and Mike Forcia. Forcia (Bad River Anishinaabe) is an American Indian Movement activist who lives in Minneapolis, MN, and collaborated closely with Pandian. Forcia describes having “hollow bones” as an Anishinaabe spiritual practice rooted in becoming a moral and unselfish vessel within one’s community.
Accessibility
Innis Town Hall is a physically accessible venue. There are four dedicated spaces for assistive mobility devices at the rear of Town Hall, and the theatre has power-assisted doors. Assistive-listening devices are also available. An accessible gender-neutral washroom is located next to the café.
Jan 23, 2025 – Jan 23, 2025
Past
Hollow Bones: Screening and Conversation
Thursday, January 23, 2025, 7–9pm
Innis Town Hall Cinema, 2 Sussex Ave, Toronto
Screening of works by Karthik Pandian and a discussion with Pandian and Mike Forcia
Presented in partnership with the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities at UTM and the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto.
Karthik Pandian is an artist working to unsettle colonial time. He uses film, sculpture, drawing, and performance to find openings into collective liberation. Supported by a 2022 Creative Capital Award and a 2024 MacDowell Fellowship, Karthik is currently at work on his debut feature film, Lucid Decapitation. The film is a collaboration with Mike Forcia (Bad River Anishinaabe), the American Indian Movement activist who orchestrated the takedown of the Columbus monument at the Minnesota State Capitol in June of 2020. Karthik has presented his work internationally at exhibition venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer, and the Palais de Tokyo and on digital platforms such as the Criterion Channel and Triple Canopy. He is a professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University and a guide, certified in offering Lama Rod Owens’ Seven Homecomings practice.
Mike Forcia (Bad River Anishinaabe) is an American Indian Movement activist and collaborator with Karthik Pandian on the Forsythia cycle. Forcia lives in Minneapolis, MN.
Fraser McCallum is Project Coordinator at the Blackwood Gallery. In this role, he works primarily on programs outside of the gallery spaces, including offsite exhibitions, public programs, virtual programming, and publications. Fraser is an interdisciplinary artist of settler Euro-Canadian ancestry, whose practice often draws together histories and ongoing sociopolitical conditions through archives, places, and stories. Fraser has held previous roles at Gallery 44 and Art Metropole, and received a Master of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. His work has been exhibited at HKW, Berlin; Sheridan College, Oakville; Modern Fuel, Kingston; and The Art Museum at the University of Toronto. His video works have been screened by the plumb, LIFT, Hamilton Artists Inc., and Trinity Square Video. Fraser’s writing has been published in the Blackwood’s Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge series, PUBLIC, and Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for South Asian Critical Humanities at UTM and the Cinema Studies Institute. With the support of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
The Blackwood gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, Jackman Humanities Institute, Instituta Italiano di Cultura, and Mondriaan Fund.
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The Blackwood
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6
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(905) 828-3789
The galleries are currently closed, reopening March 27. Hours of operation: Monday–Saturday, 12–5pm.