Deanna Bowen: The Paul Good Papers

 “We Got Nothing to Hide,” Harold H. Martin & Kenneth Fairly,
original photography by Lynn Pelham. Saturday Evening Post, January 30,
1965

April 5 – April 21, 2012
Discussion: April 3 at 7 p.m. /204 Spadina Ave
Opening: Thursday April 5, 6 – 9 p.m.
Co-presented with Images Festival
Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography
401 Richmond Street West, Suite 120
Toronto, ON M5V 3A8
T: 416.979.3941
E: sojin@gallery44.org
www.gallery44.org

The Paul Good Papers is an interdisciplinary project based on Bowen’s
research into the third wave Ku Klux Klan and its connections to Canada.
Between April 5 and 21 at Gallery 44, Bowen and actor Russell Bennett will
be staging a series of performances to reanimate a revealing
audio-recorded interview between veteran broadcast reporter Paul Good and
Robert Shelton, the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America Inc.
Bowen and Bennett’s daily performances will be photographed, printed, and
presented at Gallery 44 over the course of the two-week exhibition and
residency. Daily performances begin at 1pm.

The Paul Good Papers also includes the premiere presentation of a
24-minute looping video projection based on Good’s recording of school
integration attempts in Notasulga, AL in February 1964. The work exposes
the Klan’s involvement and opposition to Notasulga school integration
attempts by highlighting the beating of novice broadcast reporter Vernon
Merritt III. A series of related photographs and reproductions provide
additional contextual framing about the Notasulga events, whilst
simultaneously framing the seemingly isolated American incident within
Canadian current events.

DISCUSSION
Deanna Bowen will read from Elizabeth Alexander’s “Can you be BLACK and
Look at This? “: Reading the Rodney King Video(s) in a related reading
event presented in collaboration with No Reading After the Internet.
Co-facilitated by Bowen and cheyanne turions, the open format discussion
will take place at 204 Spadina Ave on April 3 at 7pm. Bowen will read
segments of Alexander’s text and pose initial questions about the
potential that arises from the re-examination of difficult histories.
http://noreadingaftertheinternet.wordpress.com/

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Deanna Bowen is a descendant of the Alabama and Kentucky-born Black
Prairie pioneers of Amber Valley and Campsie, Alberta. She is a
Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited
internationally in numerous film festivals and galleries. She has received
several grants in support of her artistic practice.

 

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