Savant from an Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters/AKA The Full-On Mask
2020
It is fascinating to find this image. I wasn't looking for it, but rather found Kara Walker, whom I know as the "cut-out" artists, a black American women - married, by the way to two white men, one she divorced and with whom she has a daughter - who spent her artist's career finding ways to malign white America (and America in general).
Her masked black woman is of course a metaphor for the "muzzling" that whites have done to blacks - her own radical perspective, which she hypocritically holds as she lives her life with those muzzling white men, and as she finds prestige in those very same white-built and white-organized museums, who genuflect to her otherness induced by their centuries-induced guilt for an event that took several hundred years ago, and for which, for all practical purposes - including monetary - they have redeemed themselves.
Still, the unforgiving, and money-grabbing, Walker will have none of this.
The muzzling mask is prescient. This is now happening on a global scale, but through which her own black "brothers and sisters" are suffering the most.
Full-on is what we should expect, metaphorically or not.
Clockwise from bottom left: MacArthur Fellows Ta Nehisi Coates, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jad Abumarad, Kara Walker, David C. Page, Angela Duckworth, Robert Axelrod and Junot Diaz.
So. How exactly did Walker come up with this mask, an (almost) exact rendition of the mask the American, and Canadian, Sheep, are wearing? All that is left, and as we can conclude, is that the future of the mask is a la Walker. The Full-On.
Above, Kara Walker with daughter Octavia Brugel (image source) from around 2007.
Brugel appears to be in her very early teens (she was born in 1997),
I wrote earlier that textile artists Chung-Im Kim is married to potter Steven Heinemann. It appears not so. A recent profile states him acknowledging: "...my remarkable partner and fellow artist Chung-Im Kim, my profound gratitude." [Source: Steven Heinemann Culture and Nature catalog for his exhibition at the Gardiner Museum, in Toronto]. Married folk don't call each other "partners."
In the same reference as above, during an interview for his retrospective exhibition at the Gardiner Museum, Heinemann discuses his pottery:
In 1979, the start of my last year at Sheridan College, we were all asked to make work for a fundraising mug and bowl sale...it was like I sat down at the wheel to work, and never looked up. This humble and almost inconsequential form became utterly absorbing, and I literally spent the rest of that year making bowls. And uncannily, the more I narrowed down the more it would open up in possibility. Inadvertently and unconsciously, I had found my life’s work.
[...]
Out of that early obsession came an abiding interest in volume and contained space, which has informed everything
I’ve done.
[...]
It’s also connected to my interest in “the meditative image,” which you find in things like Tantric art [Link by KPA]. And like those paintings, they have a function: to gather and transform the attention of the viewer...
This gives him ample space and time to meditate the image, to transform the attention of the viewer.
And assist in ancestral bowing with his Korean "partner" Kim.
Chung-Im Kim
Bow
2005
8" x 9.5"
Ramie, Hemp, Natural Dyes, Silkscreen Printing, Machine & Hand Stitching
[Source]
On a related note: Where do such artists acquire enough funds to live in such places, and practice "meditative imaging," i.e. looking out into space, by selling their works at $8-10,000 apiece? A converted barn?! How much did that cost? And how much does it cost to heat, ventilate, etc, especially during those cold, frozen, Ontario winters?
The only conclusion I could come up with is the art's welfare, otherwise known as The Canada Council for the Arts, and The Ontario Arts Council. This information is not readily available (I found two resources under the Canada Council for the Arts from 2006-2007 and 2002-2003, for $500 and $2500 for Heinemann), but more searching showed nothing more. But those are early days. 2020 must be much more lucrative, with numerous shows, including a recent, 2018, retrospective under his belt. Heinemann doesn't teach, at least according to his CV, but his partner, Kim, is associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. That should add to the couple's finances.
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This land is located in Cookstown Ontario.
I believe that Kim has nothing to emulate, nothing to draw inspiration from, in the Canadian landscape, but rather looks back thousands of miles, and cultures, away to her Korean background.
Kim's designs are a combination of..."deconstructed-reconstructed" works of postmodern art and works that reference her Korean/Asian background.
Kim writes about her textiles and her inspirations:
...the familiar Korean textile never fail to encourage my search --- perhaps it is a consolation that I look for unconsciously living so far away from Korea.
Chung-Im Kim
Bow
2005
8" x 9.5"
Ramie, Hemp, Natural Dyes, Silkscreen Printing, Machine & Hand Stitching
[Source]
Below is my post, from August 2018 on Kim, her designs, and her loyalties:
At the end of the article, I write;
Their ethnic references are too far away, and they are too alienated from their current country, and all that is left is the "structure" of the image: its shape, its empty outline.
I should add to that:
...its empty outline, ready to fill up with foreign, alien forces.
After all, Kim's fungal protrusions are titled" Mutations."
I've always, since my Ontario College of Art Design days, tried to master textile art and design. My instructor was a Korean woman. It was then that I intuitively realized that "Asians" had an inherent dislike of whites. I went to "night school" and took only one course for four consecutive sessions. This course was open to the public and not just OCAD students. It became an issue for her after the second course, but I was paying the $200/course fee. If she had any sympathy for me and my ideas, I would have told her that I was there to use the equipment.
By the third session I had developed many of my ideas. I had briefly started doing the geometric border patterns found in Ethiopian dress, but my models for my work were the historical textiles of the Western World up to the early 20th century. Anything beyond that took on the modernists' "destruction of the image" ideology.
The textile instructor, Chung-Im Kim, who I believe didn't have the rigorous "image-making" background required of textile design - including drawing and painting - vociferously pushed me to "design something Ethiopian." Eventually I came to the course randomly and spent my time - evenings and weekends - in the textile workroom, mixing paints, cutting cloth and printing. I did the blueprints at home on a makeshift IKEA work table.
I wondered later why she never introduced us to the endless list of "white" designers. All artists, however limited their education, at some point come across some textiles which are too breathtaking to ignore. I don't think she was intellectually limited. Nor can she use the "excuse" that she is an immigrant. She had lived in Canada by then too many years to not even have casually wandered across some of these works.
I believe it was (is) this inherent dislike of whites. Perhaps not individual whites, and certainly not the leftist whites which now make up Canada and America who hate "whites" or white civilization themselves, but the white people as a collective, the white civilization, the white mind.
Kim's designs are a combination of these "deconstructed-reconstructed" works of postmodern art and works that reference her Korean/Asian background.
ALL non-whites at some point begin to refer to their ancestral lands for inspiration, artistic or otherwise. And the constant, daily reminder that art created by whites has always been SUPERIOR to their art, from their specific non-European or North American region or country (Asia, South America, Africa, the Caribbeans) must ignite their fury.
I believe, though, that I am the exception.
As I write in an unpublished article:
My family and I left Ethiopia in 1973, a year before the “Ethiopian Revolution” which occurred in 1974, when Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed and a communist regime ran the country for almost two decades. I was ten years old. My father secured a post in UNESCO in Paris. My brothers and I initially attended school in Paris, but our parents sent us to England to boarding school a year later.
That dramatic, but fortuitous exit sent me across the globe from France to England and America to Canada. Our first landing point in Paris separated us from the usual flow of Ethiopian emigrants and refugees who set sail for America (and fewer to Canada). We were alone in our havens. My eleven years in France and as a student in boarding schools in England gave me the unique vantage point of discovering the West without the biases and interpretations of other Ethiopians and Africans. I was able to discover them on my own terms. I learned to love the West through the beautiful city of Paris and the paradisaical countryside of southern Kent.
My informal education had taken a Western orientation, but...I eventually obtained Bachelor and Masters degrees in the Biological and Health sciences in the United States. While pursuing my PhD, I lived in Mexico for two years working on my research work in clinical nutrition. The results of my PhD research eventually produced a unique testing method which was published in various academic science and medical journals.
By the end of my doctoral studies [we] obtained residency...in Canada [where] I was finally stable and able to make decisions about my activities without affecting my residency status. In Toronto, I obtained various certificates and qualifications in film and photography. I also studied textile design, and painting and drawing. I was determined to become an artist.
My constant displacement, my rigorous science education, and my artistic training allows me to ask: What is art? What is beauty? And why is Western beauty and art so singular? I have tried to answer these questions over the years.
I was waiting behind this gentleman in Walmart. There was the usual bustle of people in line where we have no cultural or social ties to induce or encourage civil behaviour. For one, many people still communicate in their "native" languages. Stay on line, keep a distance between shopping carts, avoid conversation which can lead to miscommunication, and pay your grocery bills with a friendly "hello" to the physically and mentally overworked cashier.
This old man was clearly in a hurry and, as luck would have it, he landed on a cashier with very limited English (a nice, old Italian woman). She got some figures wrong and he brought it to her attention, politely and quietly. Then, as he left, he saw a pile of cardboard in the way. He could have walked around it as most people would do, but he took the time to push them aside onto a ledge. Then he walked off to whatever engagement he had, without too much hurry and with no irritation.
This is the white man that multiculturalists are demonizing and slowly pushing out.
The AGM provides platforms for exhibitions, collections and experimentation in contemporary culture with a recent focus on artists and cultural producers from Indigenous, newcomer and youth communities. Through a broad range of educational programs, artist projects and other forms of critical dialogue, the AGM seeks to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, foster community, and provide spaces where alternative modes of thought are supported and activated in tangible ways.
I posted on the the Art Gallery of Mississauga's "White Out' snow closure where I surmise that it could be a long-term strategy to reduce the gallery's fees and operating costs (e.g. staff salary), which mostly come from grants provided by taxpayers' government funds.
The gallery was also closed for ten days, from December 22-January 9. That is 20 days!
The Christmas holidays, after the actual Christmas celebrations, are when people have time to venture out and visit museums and other such venues. It must be worth shutting down the gallery despite a guaranteed hike in gallery visitors. The thing is, there is no admission fee, so it costs the gallery money (those taxpayers' funded grant monies) to keep open. Shutting down saves money on staff salary, building maintenance, and other costs. The Canada Council for the Arts must be congratulating its Mississauga employees on their fund-saving strategies!
The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto was closed early on Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas Day, and again early on New Year's Eve an New Year's day. Here is their instagram notice.
Could that be why Kendra Ainsworth, the white curator of the gallery, was recently fired? There was none other than Kendra who forcefully defended the gallery, its projects, and its "multicultural" views.
The problem is the gallery has now a majority of non-Whites running the show. And multi-cultis are easily offended, especially when a White tries to act as a champion for their "cause."
Here is the list of the current AGM employees and board members:
"The AGM welcomes an active interest from artists and cultural producers with broad cross-cultural perspectives and seeks out opportunities to engage migrant, indigenous communities and visible minority groups to create synergies through art and culture.
The Gallery is a creative platform for equal opportunity that actively seeks out and welcomes cultural diversity. We are interested in hearing from exceptional people. Our recruitment and selection process is comprehensive and rigorous to ensure that all applicants receive fair, equitable and objective treatment."
"...In her Brampton [Ontario] living room, a Ganesha statue sits on a side table...Now, Eswar is bringing her grandmother's ancient stories, and some contemporary South Asian tales, to life in the GTA [The Greater Toronto Area, which includes Mississauga]."
Megan Judd, name withstanding, is Asian-Indian. Her professional LinkedIn page lists her "language" skills as: English, Hindi and Urdu.
Her LinkedIn page also states that she is certified or licenced in "Intercultural and Conflict Resolution Training," but there is no reference to the school or program which awarded her this credit. NOnetheless she felt it important to include it in her professional profile.
"As a dedicated professional, I have passionately contributed towards education of marginalized groups, school reform, early childhood development, women empowerment, conservation of environment and promotion of art as a bridge, a catalyst and a connector. I blend my commitment to social change with focused expertise in operations, financial management, stakeholder engagement and donor liaison. A thorough planner and implementer, my work is an interesting amalgam of conceptual depth and practical ideas. I have been consistently involved since 2000 with groups as varied as the civil society, community consortia, private companies, donor agencies, public sector organizations and the non-profits. Coordinating thrusts of multiple stakeholders for societal enrichment and synergizing development efforts is the most rewarding part of my work."
[Source: Zuberi's LinkedIn page]
Jessica Palada's facebook page has Spanish as one of her languages; the other: Canadian English. She communicates in Spanish on her Facebook posts. Although the facebook page doesn't indicate her AGM connection, I have met her and spoken with her.
"I worked for Fashion magazine in the early '90s and that is how I was introduced to Maria and her incredible custom swimwear - thank you FASHION! Some 20 years later I'm still enjoying her masterly suited bikini's - original fabrics, perfectly fitted, I could never wear an 'off the rack' bikini again...oye, feh, never! In fact, I wore a black velvet CC bikini for a recent photo shoot ...which appeared in Fashion magazine - full circle, what goes around comes around. Coral Coast suits last and last and always look amazing! Thank Maria, see you soon - XO"
[Source: Mathieson's LinkedIn page]
"Zainub Verjee is a major driving force on the global cultural landscape distinguishing herself as a thought leader, innovator, policy maker and administrator."
[Text and photo from Zainub Verjee's website]
"Vandana Taxali is an art agent an lawyer and the founder of We Heart That. She is passionate about bringing art in the streets, instagram and other unconventional places to the forefront...We Heart That curates, creates and inspires by showcasing art content around the globe"
[Text from Taxali's website We Heart That]
[More information at Taxali business website Entcounsel]
[Note: I am unable to find reliable information on Jafari. Although there are a couple of sites which identify a "Saiyid M. Jafari," a chartered accountant from Oakville Ontario (a town near Mississauga), none show his position at the Art Gallery of Mississauga.]
“A lot of my experience was built around seeing myself as a facilitator and liaison with different communities. It’s really important to me that the communities being represented in an exhibit have a role and a voice in that process...That is what so much of my work is about – using creative work to initiate dialogue and ask tough questions...[Source: Curating Creativity, Sheridan COllege]
"The countdown is on to [Mississauga's] Carassauga 2017. Carassauga is a city-wide multicultural festival featuring live performances, artisans,food, history and culture with 31 pavilions representing over 70 cultures. On May 26, 27 and 28, come out and travel the world without leaving the City!" [Source: John Kovac Ward 4 News, Spring/Summer 2017]
[Note: Partly because of the length of this article and partly that I have other notes to make regarding the topic (ethnic art) for another post, I missed out on some small - mostly typo - errors in the last update. This should be it! Although you will not have missed the point, and message, of the article.]
Meena Chopra, a poet and artist, officially launched her book of poetry and art SHE! The Restless Streak on August 26 at the Mississauga Central Library with Mayor Bonnie Crombie making the introductory presentation.
Above is a view drawings by artist Meena Chopra's She! The Relentless Streak art exhibit on now at the Mississauga Central Library
Below is Meena Chopra with Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie at the book launch for She! The Relentless Streak, a collection of poems and drawings, on Saturday, September 22, 2018
"My art is my search for the moments beyond the ones of self knowledge. It is the rhythmic fantasy; a restless streak which looks for its own fulfillment! A stillness that moves within! An intense search for my origin and ultimate identity". Source: Meena Chopra's Art World
Below is the completed article from my May 25, 2015 draft Meena Chopra's Ephemera: Art in the Multicultural Era
Meena Chopra is the Indian, Third World Goddess that has evoked Mississauga's awe and wonder.
Chopra knows this.
And she and her world are systematically undermining and curtailing the white West's civilization. She says so, clearly, in this presentation:
World is transitioning into a global village where English language is taking the front seat but not in a traditional British, American or any other way. [KPA Note: I suspect the grammatical deficiency might be because these are the notes she was reading at the lecture, but submitting that for publication is lax and lazy.]
She then continues to talk of the "visual" importance of modern-day communications, neglecting to mention the small fact, or covering it up, that she is reciting her poetry in English words, and much more often than her native country's Hindi words.
But, rather than talk about this usurpation of the English language by non-Anglo worlds, and discussing their variations on the English language, including the addition of many non-English words, she deviates from this by writing:
The biggest influence on new English is of the technological culture and the dynamism of the young who are the creative compelling users of technology.
(I should add here that Chopra's written text is probably the notes she was reading from at the presentation. And for a literary person, one would expect the final, public, version of her transcript not to include so many errors).
She says that now, since the English language has become this universal world language, and where the Third World has appropriated it to suit its cultural needs, a new generation is using it in a very different, visual way, and casting aside the scripted, textual language.
Chopra's thesis that language is getting more "visual" is badly developed. She seems to support at times the linguistic idea and at others the visual one. She exemplifies the intellectual laxness of these non-Western sophisticates. But it could be more astute than mere laziness. Her Hindi culture, despite its very well evolved written language, is still a culture of visuals. And with large parts of the population illiterate, or close to illiterate, only the elite educated would be able to read her books. And it is probably the same elite which is educated in advanced English and which could also read her books in English. And there is the major problem in India of the myriad of competing "national" languages. Not all (elite) Indians can speak Hindi fluently, but all elite Indians can speak English fluently (or with close to fluency).
And many elite Indians, including her, have travelled the thousands of miles across oceans to arrive at Canadian shores, manipulating all the tricks in the immigration how-to book, and with full assistance from Canadians themselves.
But these immigrants have come to invade and take over a country which let them in through peaceful acquiescence. Which is the more incredible: that they came at all, abandoning country, culture, peoples and ancestors, for opportunistic gains, or that they were let in without a single fight?
And once here, since their agenda, implicit, complicit, deliberate or instinctive, is a take-over and a transformation of this country so it resembles the one they left behind, they wll be incessant critics of everything Canadian, until things start to change according to their prescriptions. Until things start to look like them.
But what happens when this world does begin to change, and it beings to resemble their native lands? What happens when the sophistications they expect began to erode? What happens, for example, when first-class libraries as the Mississauga Central Library, which shelves their multicultural prize-winning books, is no longer the efficient and organized entity which we all unquestioningly expect it to be, and the literary sophisticates, Indians and whites, can no longer find where their books are stacked, since although the computerized system says "it is there" the book is conspicuously absent from the shelves?
What will they do with their criticisms then, their multicultural agendas, their dismissal and eradication of the culture for which they traveled thousands of miles to make sure that their books were shelved on the right spot in the public library so that people, they, could read them.
The literary textual world, the subject of Chopra's flippant verses, may not come to her rescue. But she is ready for that. She already has her faithful, complicit, visuals ready.
Chopra with at the launch of her book of poems and drawings SHE! The Restless Streak
on September 22 2018 at the Mississauga Central Library,
with the display of the drawings on the background wall
[Image source: Mississauga Library Twitter page]
Marian Kutarna with Chopra, holding Chopra's book of poems Ignited Lines.
Chopra's 2010 poetry reading and book launch
where she recited in Hindi and in English "Adieu to the Dawn" at her book launch
on February 2010 at a Mississauga Central Library event.
Marian Kutarna, then manager of the History & Art department (now manager of library circulation), says, after Chopra read one of her poems in Hindi:
"The sound of a language is poetry. The human heart is the same heart in all of us."
Followed by a round of applause.
Below is the more complete video from which Kutarna's excerpt (from 1:45 min - 3:30 min) is taken:
Glimpses of the Setting Sun - A multilingual poetry celebration
Book Launch and Art Exhibition
Sunday February 28, 2010, 2 pm - 4 pm
Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
But I find Chopra uncomfortable with the Kutarna's effusive admiration. Chopra make subtle and begrudging jabs at the English and American civilizations and language (which she posts at her blog - I've posted the full article at the end of this blog as well as a bref excerpt above) to whom she owes everything for her highly lucrative and esteemed literary life in Canada.
Chopra is of course a seasoned ethnicist, who has used Canada's infrastructure to its maximum. She is "Friend of the Library" at its most opportunistic.
Below is Chopra reading a poem with those special sounds that Kutarna found so compelling (and incomprehensible!).
I saw a collection of Chopra's paintings and drawings at the Living Arts Centre here in Mississauga. The center is trying to promote the various arts, and has a full-scale concert hall, a gallery, and various artists' workshops. It is quite a formidable building. I saw Chopra's work hanging somewhere in the gallery, and looking online, I realized it was at the LIVE Restaurant, which is mostly used for after-concert meals and refreshments.
Art and Gastronomie
Chopra's works hanging above wine glasses and folded napkins: the epitome of Western sophistication,
but with the Eastern content
Hanging here are oil paintings "Hope" and "Afloat"
and selling for $285
The center, including the restaurant, is partially funded by government grants, and is losing money, and is accepting all kinds of events to cover its costs. One recent one was a body builders' gathering, where strange, inflated humans were circling around the hallway. Anothers is to hold various ethnic festivals, and their programs includes a recent presentation by a Chinese circus and an Indian religious event to celebrate one of their gods. Chopra's program fits that bill.
Chopra's works at LIVE were:
"SHE: A Restless Streak" Art Show by Meena Chopra
CELEBRATING THE SPIRIT OF WOMANHOOD
At:
"Live Cuisine" at Living Arts Centre Mississauga from March 9, 2015 until May 25, 2015.
4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga, Ontario L5B
9th to 25th May
10:30am to 5:30pm everyday
Below is a drawing hanging at the LIVE restaurant, but which I also found online. The photograph of her paintings hanging in the restaurant is what I took, as well as the view of the LIVE restaurant's entrance.
Drawing:
Meena Chopra
Pastel on paper 11'x8"
From Chopra's series: She: A Restless Streak
Poem
Excerpt from Chopra's poem Iconoclast (full poem below)
The real in her
longs to be
revealed through layers
seeking identifications
undraped
in a figureless
formless existence.
Iconoclast
Is she a vase
or a statue on a pedestal ?
She is no icon!
Her feet strong
firm on ground.
The earth supports her.
The real in her
longs to be
revealed through layers
seeking identifications
undraped
in a figureless
formless existence.
In vain,
she searches - an iconoclast,
beyond the turbidity of love.
Will she find one in you ?
Is this the forceful Hindu Goddess, the statue on a pedestal, that Kutarna is looking for? Will she find this figureless, formless, elusive creature?
Chopra may present herself as a modern, progressive oriental with Western ideas. But, as we look deeper into her thoughts, she remains much more Indian than Western. And she is not forthright with Kutarna, whom she will surely abandon when her authentic "identity" trumps pleasantries, leaving Kutarna with nothing but those incomprehensible sounds.
An Indian Woman at the LIVE Restaurant
At one time (about a year ago) the restaurant had changed its buffet style menu from an exclusively European menu and had added one or two Indian dishes. I asked recently about booking the restaurant, and found out that one of the chefs was Indian. When I looked at the buffet, the menu included only one Indian dish, and that was a simple chickpea dip. I asked to meet the chef to inquire about group rates, and was introduced to what looked like a cook. "You can order anything you want. Yes, we can do Indian dishes, butter chicken, anything."
My conclusion was that the attempt to turn this wonderful little place into an Indian/ethnic restaurant didn't work. How many folk festivals are there going to be, and how many are "inclusive" enough to attract a wider audience than just Indians?
Chopra's work is hardly that of the goddess/artist of Kutarna's eulogy. She has managed to convince the ethnicist Indians who still require the admiration of white Canadians - and they got one at least via Kutarna, and those multi-culti whites who still run the organizations - that she is worthy of their attention. And, following the multi-culti/ethnicist recipe, that is not hard to do. I don't doubt that Chopra has artistic ability, but she wouldn't have reached such a level of recognition hadn't she had all these underlying "qualities," and all that "support."
Chopra with her painting Eyes of Time, with a snake-like sign on her forehead [Image Source: The Hamilton Spectator, Sept. 2017]
Chopra eschews the bindi, a traditional decorative red dot painted on the forehead. Instead, she paints a bold black snake figure in its place. Like the bold images of her paintings, it has what she calls her “artistic signature.“ It is me,” she said. “It is a part of who I am.” [Image and text source: Toronto Star, August 9, 2010]
Note: "Celebrating 150 years of Canada" was a nationwide observance of many types of events and festivals commemorating the 150th anniversary of the country's Confederation
“Aankhen uthin to dekha kaynaat jal rahi thi
jab ye jhukin to tum the aur kuchh bhi nahin”
Roughly translated from Hindi:
When the eyes rose outwardly they saw the entire universe aflame.
When they opened inwards, it was you (the one reality of life) and nothing but you.
(From Chopra's Hindi poem And Nothing Else)
Art Exhibition: EYES OF TIME - The eye as a channel into the new dimensions of life.
By Artist and Author Meena Chopra
(Celebrating 150 years of Canada)
“Eyes wear the wings of time to fly beyond the cry of human desires, reveries and the realities,
penetrating the boundaries of the visible universe into the unknown, invisible realms".
Exhibition is on view from 8th August to 15th September 2017
Venue: Heritage Mississauga 1921 Dundas St W, Mississauga
Below is text from Chopra's writing from her blog page written in 2013. I tried to shorten it, but I think it should be read in its full, error-filled (for a wordmonger! but she does tell us of her Hindi bias) totality to understand in the scope of its message:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One World, One English, The Many Languages of the Imagination
World is transitioning into a global village where English language is taking the front seat but not in a traditional British, American or any other way. It is evolving with variety of different realistic cultural influences. The biggest influence on new English is of the technological culture and the dynamism of the young who are the creative compelling users of technology. The idiom and syntax are changing fast.
Manifestation of the subtle thought imaging is taking over directly from the mental sound vibrations in a language where we have started expressing in symbols like smilyes, pictograms and info-graphics etc. This visual expression of subtle thought is the immediate outer expression of our mental imagery perhaps descended on us from that one ultimate sound vibration (Shabd Brahm). The entire generation is on the thresh hold of being more and more visual in their expression of thought.
Underneath this visual explosion, English, with its new tools of expression is threading the beads of different languages so to speak, where the images of mind in their visual expression have started taking the lead.
What language does imagination has? It is a question that eludes many of us. Whatever way our creativity gets stimulated, according to the researchers, as humans our thinking is mostly in images and is visual. To add, from generations, powerful imagery has always been an intrinsic part of any creative writing which actually surpasses the barriers of language and language becomes a medium of creative expression.
Einstein said that he always thought in images, in his words, "I very rarely think in words. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards,"
So what we have observed with any of our senses, we can imagine; what we imagine, we image.
Traditionally in a country like Canada with its English predominance, linguistic diversity definitely breaks down the barriers to intercultural dialogue and promotes multilingualism as a fundamental tool for the prosperity of literature. Linguistic diversity also contributes to enhancing creativity and innovation at all levels of education and learning. There is a clear link between multilingualism and creativity because knowledge of languages gives access to other ways of thinking and to other cultures as well, reinforcing our creative capacities. This in turn has a positive impact on innovation.
In the changing environment where English is the predominant world language, Hindi like many other languages of the world is also transforming. It is becoming richer because of cultural influences for both in its usage, vocabulary and expressiveness. English language definitely has a major influence on Hindi as well as it has on many other languages in many ways.
There are many remarkable Hindi literary blogs on the net. It is adapting very well to the transition and the idiom. This change is inevitable with technological progression where English is predominant.
Some facts and observations about Hindi language:
- After Chinese, Hindi is the maximum spoken language of the world.
- Hindi has been one of the first languages which was picked up by Google when they started adding and introducing languages to the net for a wider usage of technology with languages.
- Instant Google translations are available at hand for all languages.
Hindi Writers' Guild, the organization I represent here, was formed in June 2008. It is the first of its kind multi-faceted organization in Canada. Its prime objective is to educate and increase public understanding of Hindi literature and the language, also to develop the writing skills in Hindi language. Organization promotes South Asian writers and literature through seminars, lectures and conferences etc. Computer literacy and promotion of book publication in Canada are the main intents of Hindi Writers’ Guild.
To elaborate the organization is involved in the following:
- GUIDANCE IN THE ART OF HINDI WRITING AND HINDI LITERATURE
- FACILITATION OF COMPUTER LITERACY IN HINDI WRITING
- FACILITATION OF EDITING AND PUBLICATION OF HINDI BOOKS
- TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF NON - HINDI LITERATURE IN HINDI
- ARRANGING LECTURES BY EMINENT LAUREATES ON HINDI LITERATURE, BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENT AND PHILOSOPHY
- HOLDING BOOK EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES TO PROMOTE HINDI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
- PROVIDE TRANSLATION SERVICES FOR HOSPITALS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS WHOSE MOTHER TONGUE IS NOT ENGLISH
- LIAISON AND COLLABORATION WITH CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS, NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAMS RELATING TO HINDI LANGUAGE AND HINDI LITERATURE
- HELPING IMMIGRANTS ASSIMILATE INTO CANADIAN SOCIETY BY DEVELOPING HINDI INDO-CANADIAN LITERATURE IN CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
- MAINTAINING HINDI WEB-SITE FOR E-MAGAZINE AND E-LIBRARY FOR MEMBERS
Here's post at The Council of European Canadians (I've embedded the video):
Here are very reasonable and realistic proposals from The Mark Collett Podcast on how we can dismantle multiculturalism and prevent further mass migration into Western nations. As Mr. Collett says, we have said a lot about the problems we are facing; it is high time we start "suggesting solutions that are peaceful, morally acceptable and actually viable". Take a listen:
Here is one comment:
Was it peaceful when this multiculturalism was forced upon Whites with coercion, lies and duplicity?
When democracy means all important decision are kept out of the political process at all costs.
Being taken advantage with mass immigration of non-Whites is called 'peaceful'?? Well reversing it with deportation is equally just and peaceable.
That some will choose to be violent to stop it only belies the inherent violence in the original agenda. Its just coming to light when its actually addressed.
The elites agenda has always been, force non-Whites in as covertly and quickly as possible. Hoping that this makes any reversal or reseparation to the previous freedom impossible. We must reject this. It is possible, and required. Period.
[Note: Partly because of the length of this article and partly that I have other notes to make regarding the topic (ethnic art) for another post, I missed out on some small - mostly typo - errors in the last update. This should be it! Although you will not have missed the point, and message, of the article.]
Meena Chopra, a poet and artist, officially launched her book of poetry and art SHE! The Restless Streak on August 26 at the Mississauga Central Library with Mayor Bonnie Crombie making the introductory presentation.
Above is a view drawings by artist Meena Chopra's She! The Relentless Streak art exhibit on now at the Mississauga Central Library
Below is Meena Chopra with Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie at the book launch for She! The Relentless Streak, a collection of poems and drawings, on Saturday, September 22, 2018
"My art is my search for the moments beyond the ones of self knowledge. It is the rhythmic fantasy; a restless streak which looks for its own fulfillment! A stillness that moves within! An intense search for my origin and ultimate identity". Source: Meena Chopra's Art World
Below is the completed article from my May 25, 2015 draft Meena Chopra's Ephemera: Art in the Multicultural Era
Meena Chopra is the Indian, Third World Goddess that has evoked Mississauga's awe and wonder.
Chopra knows this.
And she and her world are systematically undermining and curtailing the white West's civilization. She says so, clearly, in this presentation:
World is transitioning into a global village where English language is taking the front seat but not in a traditional British, American or any other way. [KPA Note: I suspect the grammatical deficiency might be because these are the notes she was reading at the lecture, but submitting that for publication is lax and lazy.]
She then continues to talk of the "visual" importance of modern-day communications, neglecting to mention the small fact, or covering it up, that she is reciting her poetry in English words, and much more often than her native country's Hindi words.
But, rather than talk about this usurpation of the English language by non-Anglo worlds, and discussing their variations on the English language, including the addition of many non-English words, she deviates from this by writing:
The biggest influence on new English is of the technological culture and the dynamism of the young who are the creative compelling users of technology.
(I should add here that Chopra's written text is probably the notes she was reading from at the presentation. And for a literary person, one would expect the final, public, version of her transcript not to include so many errors).
She says that now, since the English language has become this universal world language, and where the Third World has appropriated it to suit its cultural needs, a new generation is using it in a very different, visual way, and casting aside the scripted, textual language.
Chopra's thesis that language is getting more "visual" is badly developed. She seems to support at times the linguistic idea and at others the visual one. She exemplifies the intellectual laxness of these non-Western sophisticates. But it could be more astute than mere laziness. Her Hindi culture, despite its very well evolved written language, is still a culture of visuals. And with large parts of the population illiterate, or close to illiterate, only the elite educated would be able to read her books. And it is probably the same elite which is educated in advanced English and which could also read her books in English. And there is the major problem in India of the myriad of competing "national" languages. Not all (elite) Indians can speak Hindi fluently, but all elite Indians can speak English fluently (or with close to fluency).
And many elite Indians, including her, have travelled the thousands of miles across oceans to arrive at Canadian shores, manipulating all the tricks in the immigration how-to book, and with full assistance from Canadians themselves.
But these immigrants have come to invade and take over a country which let them in through peaceful acquiescence. Which is the more incredible: that they came at all, abandoning country, culture, peoples and ancestors, for opportunistic gains, or that they were let in without a single fight?
And once here, since their agenda, implicit, complicit, deliberate or instinctive, is a take-over and a transformation of this country so it resembles the one they left behind, they wll be incessant critics of everything Canadian, until things start to change according to their prescriptions. Until things start to look like them.
But what happens when this world does begin to change, and it beings to resemble their native lands? What happens when the sophistications they expect began to erode? What happens, for example, when first-class libraries as the Mississauga Central Library, which shelves their multicultural prize-winning books, is no longer the efficient and organized entity which we all unquestioningly expect it to be, and the literary sophisticates, Indians and whites, can no longer find where their books are stacked, since although the computerized system says "it is there" the book is conspicuously absent from the shelves?
What will they do with their criticisms then, their multicultural agendas, their dismissal and eradication of the culture for which they traveled thousands of miles to make sure that their books were shelved on the right spot in the public library so that people, they, could read them.
The literary textual world, the subject of Chopra's flippant verses, may not come to her rescue. But she is ready for that. She already has her faithful, complicit, visuals ready.
Chopra with at the launch of her book of poems and drawings SHE! The Restless Streak
on September 22 2018 at the Mississauga Central Library,
with the display of the drawings on the background wall
[Image source: Mississauga Library Twitter page]
Marian Kutarna with Chopra, holding Chopra's book of poems Ignited Lines.
Chopra's 2010 poetry reading and book launch
where she recited in Hindi and in English "Adieu to the Dawn" at her book launch
on February 2010 at a Mississauga Central Library event.
Marian Kutarna, then manager of the History & Art department (now manager of library circulation), says, after Chopra read one of her poems in Hindi:
"The sound of a language is poetry. The human heart is the same heart in all of us."
Followed by a round of applause.
Below is the more complete video from which Kutarna's excerpt (from 1:45 min - 3:30 min) is taken:
Glimpses of the Setting Sun - A multilingual poetry celebration
Book Launch and Art Exhibition
Sunday February 28, 2010, 2 pm - 4 pm
Mississauga Central Library, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
But I find Chopra uncomfortable with the Kutarna's effusive admiration. Chopra make subtle and begrudging jabs at the English and American civilizations and language (which she posts at her blog - I've posted the full article at the end of this blog as well as a bref excerpt above) to whom she owes everything for her highly lucrative and esteemed literary life in Canada.
Chopra is of course a seasoned ethnicist, who has used Canada's infrastructure to its maximum. She is "Friend of the Library" at its most opportunistic.
Below is Chopra reading a poem with those special sounds that Kutarna found so compelling (and incomprehensible!).
I saw a collection of Chopra's paintings and drawings at the Living Arts Centre here in Mississauga. The center is trying to promote the various arts, and has a full-scale concert hall, a gallery, and various artists' workshops. It is quite a formidable building. I saw Chopra's work hanging somewhere in the gallery, and looking online, I realized it was at the LIVE Restaurant, which is mostly used for after-concert meals and refreshments.
Art and Gastronomie
Chopra's works hanging above wine glasses and folded napkins: the epitome of Western sophistication,
but with the Eastern content
Hanging here are oil paintings "Hope" and "Afloat"
and selling for $285
The center, including the restaurant, is partially funded by government grants, and is losing money, and is accepting all kinds of events to cover its costs. One recent one was a body builders' gathering, where strange, inflated humans were circling around the hallway. Anothers is to hold various ethnic festivals, and their programs includes a recent presentation by a Chinese circus and an Indian religious event to celebrate one of their gods. Chopra's program fits that bill.
Chopra's works at LIVE were:
"SHE: A Restless Streak" Art Show by Meena Chopra
CELEBRATING THE SPIRIT OF WOMANHOOD
At:
"Live Cuisine" at Living Arts Centre Mississauga from March 9, 2015 until May 25, 2015.
4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga, Ontario
Mississauga, Ontario L5B
9th to 25th May
10:30am to 5:30pm everyday
Below is a drawing hanging at the LIVE restaurant, but which I also found online. The photograph of her paintings hanging in the restaurant is what I took, as well as the view of the LIVE restaurant's entrance.
Drawing:
Meena Chopra
Pastel on paper 11'x8"
From Chopra's series: She: A Restless Streak
Poem
Excerpt from Chopra's poem Iconoclast (full poem below)
The real in her
longs to be
revealed through layers
seeking identifications
undraped
in a figureless
formless existence.
Iconoclast
Is she a vase
or a statue on a pedestal ?
She is no icon!
Her feet strong
firm on ground.
The earth supports her.
The real in her
longs to be
revealed through layers
seeking identifications
undraped
in a figureless
formless existence.
In vain,
she searches - an iconoclast,
beyond the turbidity of love.
Will she find one in you ?
Is this the forceful Hindu Goddess, the statue on a pedestal, that Kutarna is looking for? Will she find this figureless, formless, elusive creature?
Chopra may present herself as a modern, progressive oriental with Western ideas. But, as we look deeper into her thoughts, she remains much more Indian than Western. And she is not forthright with Kutarna, whom she will surely abandon when her authentic "identity" trumps pleasantries, leaving Kutarna with nothing but those incomprehensible sounds.
An Indian Woman at the LIVE Restaurant
At one time (about a year ago) the restaurant had changed its buffet style menu from an exclusively European menu and had added one or two Indian dishes. I asked recently about booking the restaurant, and found out that one of the chefs was Indian. When I looked at the buffet, the menu included only one Indian dish, and that was a simple chickpea dip. I asked to meet the chef to inquire about group rates, and was introduced to what looked like a cook. "You can order anything you want. Yes, we can do Indian dishes, butter chicken, anything."
My conclusion was that the attempt to turn this wonderful little place into an Indian/ethnic restaurant didn't work. How many folk festivals are there going to be, and how many are "inclusive" enough to attract a wider audience than just Indians?
Chopra's work is hardly that of the goddess/artist of Kutarna's eulogy. She has managed to convince the ethnicist Indians who still require the admiration of white Canadians - and they got one at least via Kutarna, and those multi-culti whites who still run the organizations - that she is worthy of their attention. And, following the multi-culti/ethnicist recipe, that is not hard to do. I don't doubt that Chopra has artistic ability, but she wouldn't have reached such a level of recognition hadn't she had all these underlying "qualities," and all that "support."
Chopra with her painting Eyes of Time, with a snake-like sign on her forehead [Image Source: The Hamilton Spectator, Sept. 2017]
Chopra eschews the bindi, a traditional decorative red dot painted on the forehead. Instead, she paints a bold black snake figure in its place. Like the bold images of her paintings, it has what she calls her “artistic signature.“ It is me,” she said. “It is a part of who I am.” [Image and text source: Toronto Star, August 9, 2010]
Note: "Celebrating 150 years of Canada" was a nationwide observance of many types of events and festivals commemorating the 150th anniversary of the country's Confederation
“Aankhen uthin to dekha kaynaat jal rahi thi
jab ye jhukin to tum the aur kuchh bhi nahin”
Roughly translated from Hindi:
When the eyes rose outwardly they saw the entire universe aflame.
When they opened inwards, it was you (the one reality of life) and nothing but you.
(From Chopra's Hindi poem And Nothing Else)
Art Exhibition: EYES OF TIME - The eye as a channel into the new dimensions of life.
By Artist and Author Meena Chopra
(Celebrating 150 years of Canada)
“Eyes wear the wings of time to fly beyond the cry of human desires, reveries and the realities,
penetrating the boundaries of the visible universe into the unknown, invisible realms".
Exhibition is on view from 8th August to 15th September 2017
Venue: Heritage Mississauga 1921 Dundas St W, Mississauga
Below is text from Chopra's writing from her blog page written in 2013. I tried to shorten it, but I think it should be read in its full, error-filled (for a wordmonger! but she does tell us of her Hindi bias) totality to understand in the scope of its message:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One World, One English, The Many Languages of the Imagination
World is transitioning into a global village where English language is taking the front seat but not in a traditional British, American or any other way. It is evolving with variety of different realistic cultural influences. The biggest influence on new English is of the technological culture and the dynamism of the young who are the creative compelling users of technology. The idiom and syntax are changing fast.
Manifestation of the subtle thought imaging is taking over directly from the mental sound vibrations in a language where we have started expressing in symbols like smilyes, pictograms and info-graphics etc. This visual expression of subtle thought is the immediate outer expression of our mental imagery perhaps descended on us from that one ultimate sound vibration (Shabd Brahm). The entire generation is on the thresh hold of being more and more visual in their expression of thought.
Underneath this visual explosion, English, with its new tools of expression is threading the beads of different languages so to speak, where the images of mind in their visual expression have started taking the lead.
What language does imagination has? It is a question that eludes many of us. Whatever way our creativity gets stimulated, according to the researchers, as humans our thinking is mostly in images and is visual. To add, from generations, powerful imagery has always been an intrinsic part of any creative writing which actually surpasses the barriers of language and language becomes a medium of creative expression.
Einstein said that he always thought in images, in his words, "I very rarely think in words. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards,"
So what we have observed with any of our senses, we can imagine; what we imagine, we image.
Traditionally in a country like Canada with its English predominance, linguistic diversity definitely breaks down the barriers to intercultural dialogue and promotes multilingualism as a fundamental tool for the prosperity of literature. Linguistic diversity also contributes to enhancing creativity and innovation at all levels of education and learning. There is a clear link between multilingualism and creativity because knowledge of languages gives access to other ways of thinking and to other cultures as well, reinforcing our creative capacities. This in turn has a positive impact on innovation.
In the changing environment where English is the predominant world language, Hindi like many other languages of the world is also transforming. It is becoming richer because of cultural influences for both in its usage, vocabulary and expressiveness. English language definitely has a major influence on Hindi as well as it has on many other languages in many ways.
There are many remarkable Hindi literary blogs on the net. It is adapting very well to the transition and the idiom. This change is inevitable with technological progression where English is predominant.
Some facts and observations about Hindi language:
- After Chinese, Hindi is the maximum spoken language of the world.
- Hindi has been one of the first languages which was picked up by Google when they started adding and introducing languages to the net for a wider usage of technology with languages.
- Instant Google translations are available at hand for all languages.
Hindi Writers' Guild, the organization I represent here, was formed in June 2008. It is the first of its kind multi-faceted organization in Canada. Its prime objective is to educate and increase public understanding of Hindi literature and the language, also to develop the writing skills in Hindi language. Organization promotes South Asian writers and literature through seminars, lectures and conferences etc. Computer literacy and promotion of book publication in Canada are the main intents of Hindi Writers’ Guild.
To elaborate the organization is involved in the following:
- GUIDANCE IN THE ART OF HINDI WRITING AND HINDI LITERATURE
- FACILITATION OF COMPUTER LITERACY IN HINDI WRITING
- FACILITATION OF EDITING AND PUBLICATION OF HINDI BOOKS
- TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF NON - HINDI LITERATURE IN HINDI
- ARRANGING LECTURES BY EMINENT LAUREATES ON HINDI LITERATURE, BUSINESS, ENVIRONMENT AND PHILOSOPHY
- HOLDING BOOK EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES TO PROMOTE HINDI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
- PROVIDE TRANSLATION SERVICES FOR HOSPITALS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS WHOSE MOTHER TONGUE IS NOT ENGLISH
- LIAISON AND COLLABORATION WITH CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS, NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROGRAMS RELATING TO HINDI LANGUAGE AND HINDI LITERATURE
- HELPING IMMIGRANTS ASSIMILATE INTO CANADIAN SOCIETY BY DEVELOPING HINDI INDO-CANADIAN LITERATURE IN CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
- MAINTAINING HINDI WEB-SITE FOR E-MAGAZINE AND E-LIBRARY FOR MEMBERS
