LONDON LAUNCH: Kirsty Robertson - Tear Gas Epiphanies

McIntosh Gallery, Western University, London, ON
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Join Kirsty Robertson for the launch of Tear Gas Epiphanies: Protest, Culture, Museums. This will be a joint launch with Cody Barteet (Architectural Rhetoric and the Iconography of Authority in Colonial Mexico).

Kirsty Robertson is associate professor of museum studies and contemporary art at the University of Western Ontario and co-editor and writer of a number of books, including Negotiations in a Vacant Lot: Studying the Visual in Canada.

ABOUT Tear Gas Epiphanies

Though protests at museums are understudied, they are far from anomalous. Tear Gas Epiphanies traces the as-yet-untold story of political action at museums in Canada from the early twentieth century to the present. The book looks at how museums do or do not archive protest ephemera, examining a range of responses to actions taking place at their thresholds, from active encouragement to belligerent dismissal. Drawing together extensive primary-source research and analysis, Robertson questions widespread perceptions of museums, strongly arguing for a reconsideration of their role in contemporary society that takes into account political conflict and protest as key ingredients in museum life.