Laiwan
| Laiwan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Known for | Artist, Writer, Educator |
| Website | http://www.laiwanette.net/ |
Laiwan (1961, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Laiwan was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1961. Her family emigrated to Canada in 1977 to leave the war in Rhodesia. She graduated from Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1983. In 1999, she received an MFA from Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts, also in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she currently lives. She is an interdisciplinary artist interested in poetics and philosophy. She was a founding member of the Or Gallery where her intent was to dispel myths about the impossibility of founding and operating a gallery, particularly for women. She was Chair of the grunt gallery Board of Directors from 2010-2014. Laiwan currently teaches in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College in Washington State.
Laiwan investigates embodiment through performativity, music and audio works, in a variety of media. Her practice unravels and engages in the idea of presence by way of bodily and emotional intelligence. Her work is held in Vancouver Art Gallery collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Collection, and other private collections, and her time-based work is available from VIVO Media Arts Centre in Vancouver, and V-Tape in Toronto.
In Laiwan's 1986 slide sequence work, The Mesmerization of Language: The Language of Mesmerization, she deals with language as a structure which has a life independent of its conveyed meaning. There are three parts to this artwork. Part One, titled "OBSESSION : POSSESSION" shows the poem Sappho 31 in both the original Greek and as an English translation. Part Two is titled "SPELL", wherein Laiwan translates the Christian prayer Our Father from sign language into words, deconstructing and breaking apart the text, phrase by phrase, word by word, and letter by letter. "Untitled", which is Part Three of the project, moves from language into images of landscapes.
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