Premium
pamela masik and the forgotten exhibition: Controversy and Cancellation at the Museum of Anthropology
Author(s) -
Pinto Meg
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/muan.12001
Subject(s) - exhibition , downtown , colonialism , art history , portrait , history , visual arts , normalization (sociology) , sociology , anthropology , media studies , art , archaeology
Abstract This paper examines the exhibition process behind Pamela Masik's The Forgotten at the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. Set to open in February 2011, the exhibition featured 69 portraits of missing and murdered women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Masik's work is highly controversial, and the museum chose not to proceed with the exhibition after local Aboriginal activists from the Women's Memorial March intercepted the curatorial process. I argue that the way the museum staff negotiated the collaborative process reflects a contact zone mentality that has been deeply internalized in museums. This normalization of conflict poses the risk of negatively affecting relationships with communities and ought to be rethought by those in the field. [missing women, Downtown Eastside Vancouver, contact zones, controversy, colonialism, Women's Memorial March, Pamela Masik]