Their work against the archive has led to a practice of counter surveillance that examines the politics of place, sight, and scarcity, in which found material is used as a means of imagining abundance in the face of widespread dispossession. Through the pursuit of alternative modes of documentation and cultural preservation in collaboration marginalized and oppressed communities, they seek forms and means of memory work that do not rely on imperial and colonial tools of capture and subjugation and instead rehearse collective liberation. Their work is highly informed by the resilience of organizing movements for abolition, self-determination, and liberation in Chicago, SE Michigan, and the broader Midwest.
Mira holds a Master of Art’s in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from the University of Michigan where they studied Ethnic Studies, Art History, and Ceramics.
They currently work with the following organizations: Walls Turned Sideways, The Digs, Patric McCoy Legacy Project/Diasporal Rhythms, Groundcover News, Michigan Student Power Alliance, and NON:Opera Arts & Humanities.
MISC WORK —
chronologically arranged
to the best of my ability
Laser engraved scrap fabric
- my country kills people August 2-24, 2024 SPACE.01
- Through reverence, through invocation … Is it possible for us to discover a balm in the knotting of past, present, and future? By honoring those violated by the knife of the archive, may we exceed the limits of the academy’s narrow conception of knowledge and create our own reservoirs of knowledge? May we produce our own body of knowledge, and may this body with your finger, my elbows, and your grandmother’s tongue transcend the false scarcity and limitation imposed by capitalism, neoliberalism, and the violent legacies of imperialism, colonialism, and state violence persistent within the institution?
Is there not enough meat on these bones to feed us all? Or must we reproduce the violence of the archive …
Bibliography:
Cha, Theresa Hak Kyung. Dictee. Second edition. Berkeley, California ; University of California Press, 2001.
Hartman, Saidiya. “Venus in Two Acts.” Small Axe : A Journal of Criticism, vol. 12, no. 2, 2008, pp. 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1215/-12-2-1.
Lewallen, Constance., Rinder, Lawrence., & Trinh, T. M.-H. (Thi M.-H. (2001). The dream of the audience : Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982). University of California Berkeley Art Museum.
Trinh, T. Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Ha), Thị Hiển Trần, Lai Khien, Kim Nhuy Ngo, Thi Bich Yen Tran, Lan Trinh, and Thu Vân. Mai. Surname Viêt, given Name Nam. United States: [Publisher not identified], 1989.
Trinh, T. Minh-Ha (Thi Minh-Ha). Framer Framed. New York: Routledge, 1992.