#motherland monument

[w-armansky-blog]

Sophia has already thrived off, twinkled off the lilac trusses. You went to me, yet lingered too long for the first scream, for the first thunder. Like a monster in a circle of Hell – for the shadows are all around, the weakly are. I bless your willfulness, oh road of fate, oh road of pain. The snow and the cold. The winds and the frost. The whistles and shouts. The blackest cursing. The barking of dogs. The scream of a loco. And zakmachines, and zakwagons. Cross-sleepers and headlights, dogs and soldiers, railings, and bars, and fences. Drop and go. Rise and go. The machine guns shove our shoulders. A square heart in a squared circle, in a mortal square we shall fall to the fate. I bless your willfulness, oh road of fate, oh road of pain. At the final crossing of rage and horror, at the final insight of mortal scream, grant, oh Ukraine, a proud path, grant, oh Ukraine, a proud face! Vasyl Stus, 1986

Уже Софія відструменіла, відмерехтіла бузковим гроном. Ти йшла до мене, але не встигла за першим зойком, за першим громом. Немов почвара в пекельнім колі, довкола ж тіні, довкола кволі. Благословляю твою сваволю, дорого долі, дорого болю. Сніги і стужа. Вітри й морози. Гудки і крики. Чорні прокльони. Собачий гавкіт. Крик паровоза. І закмашини і заквагони. Шпали і фари, пси і солдати, рейки, і пруття, і загорода. Впали і хода. Встали і хода. В плечі штовхають нас автомати. Квадратне серце — в квадратнім колі, в смертнім каре ми падемо долі. Благословляю твою сваволю, дорого долі, дорого болю. На всерозхресті люті і жаху, на всепрозрінні смертного скрику дай, Україно, гордого шляху, дай, Україно, гордого лику! Василь Стус, 1986

Джерело: Із забуття — в безсмертя.

source: https://www.readingkyiv.net/

#ukraine #independence day #24th august #31 #ukrainian #poetry #motherland monument #Kyiv #capital #statue #shield #hammer #glory #stay strong #stay alive #stand up for ukraine #heros #nation #ukrainewar

[ukraineblr]

#ukraine #kyiv #lifestyle #monument #life in ukraine #ukraineblr #motherland

[ulysses000]

Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. Translation: Dreams come true if you're not an asshole

"Wave" by Aivazovsky is kept in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

I can't remember the exact name of the village, but it's somewhere in Crimea, presumably south.

Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. The photo shows a part of the Kul Sharif Mosque. Sanji holds echpochmak, a Tatar and Bashkir national dish, a bun with meat. On the territory of the Kazan Kremlin there was a New Year's fair, where I tried my first echpochmak with duck liver and finally fell in love with it.

A monument to flooded ships in my hometown of Sevastopol. I drew this because of a phrase I saw a long time ago. "Why do we need Paris and the whole world? Imagine me in Sevastopol kissing with you." "Зачем нам Париж и весь шар земной? Представь: я в Севастополе целуюсь с тобой."

Does it all make any sense? I don't know. I just decided to put northblueboys in Russian cities and go through my pics. Next year I'm going to visit Volgograd and I'm in great anticipation because I'll be able to see the Motherland Calling with my own eyes, like for real, like wow. (Also, @/sobakensyn's gift made me think of rusreal)

#one piece #lawsan #trafalgar law #sanji #rusreal #Russia

[riverpiracy]

Soviet time capsules?

Yeah it’s those radioisotope, thermal electric generators scattered throughout the former USSR territories.

“Dear comrades-descendants, the labourers of the 20th century are writing to you."

"We know our time is interesting, but yours is much more so. We are building communism and you live it."

"We are a little jealous of all you who are celebrating the centenary of our Soviet motherland. But we also know that you will be a little jealous of our restless young generation. We have a clear aim, a great future ahead of us and lots of things to accomplish. We have things that we can invest our hearts, brains, energy and labour in, and this is the source of our happiness."

“You’ve never had to chant: ‘Shame on the Israeli aggressors!’, you’ve never had to protest the criminal war in Vietnam, read news about provocations in revolutionary Cuba. How far away these events are from you! […] Young crowd of 2017!"

"We know that you will have better lives than us [...] You will do great things in our galaxy, will make our planet great."

“...we address you, those who don’t know what war is. We urge you to remember and respect the memory of those who gave their lives in the fight for socialism, who died defending the freedom of the motherland and European nations from foreign invaders. Guard like sacred relics the monuments we have built to commemorate those who died.”

"We are sure that you have justified the trust your heroic predecessors have invested in you, that you have created a new world.”

[X] [X]

[marykk1990]

My next post in support of Ukraine is:

Next site, some sculptures in Kyiv. 1, Ukrainian Motherland Monument. 2, Kyiv Founder's Monument. 3, Independence Monument. 4, Volodymyr The Great Monument.

#StandWithUkraine

#СлаваУкраїні 🇺🇦🌻

And, here's another Volodymyr Zelenskyy quote.

"We Ukrainians are a peaceful nation. But if we remain silent today, we will be gone tomorrow."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

#Stand With Ukraine #Слава Україні 🇺🇦🌻

[uwu-co-in]

What majors 'Attack on Titan'characters would have in college AU (part 2):

Source: My Majors

Word count: 1.1k

(part one)

11. Sasha: Crisis/Emergency/Disaster Management

• Sasha was first admitted to a college with the major Culinary Science, along with her boyfriend, Niccolo, but left the course after a month

• I want to eat food not study it was what she retorted to everyone, but in reality, she just felt she would not be contributing enough to the community

• As the major took out for a lot of field work, she signs up for all, and even joined internships from the first year itself, regarding the same

• A procrastinator; crams on the night of the exam, while Niccolo is cooking her assortment of dishes and gets super groggy on examination mornings :')

12. Connie: Graphic Design

• His mother was extremely proud of her son getting into the college; so much that she had told every other person passing on the streets how Connie will be a genius, in whatever tech stuff he is doing

• Opted for a college far away from home, because he wanted to experience life to the fullest by living alone, and learning to fend for himself

• Teaches basic computer science to two kids, and works as a freelancer digital artist, along with juggling his classes

• Loves his subject and puts effort behind it quite regularly, but call him for a party he'd be there with two extra beer bottles, ridiculously shimmery clothes and a party popper!

13. Jean: Architecture

• Look me in the eye and tell me that Jean doesn't look like a dreamy arch student, always carrying his sketchbook along with him and sitting down to draw the building or monument designs that seem to intrigue him

• Was in eighth grade, when Mikasa told him that the way he draws the buildings are very clean. Boom, and he wants to draw them for the rest of his life

• For some reason, his mother did not approve of his subject choice, until one day she found a few building designs doodled in placards sprawled over his desk and reconsidered her opinion

• Loves a good party once in a while, but really wants to work behind the subject so sometimes, calls a rain check

14. Erwin: Intelligence

• Ever since Erwin can remember, he wanted to be in the army, fighting for his motherland. That was what he had wanted all his life, and he had every quality to enlist himself for it until he sustained incurable injuries on his right arm trying to save an elderly couple from an accident

• Intelligence major was a piece of cake for Erwin, for he was a natural leader, acing all his classes with ease. He loves spending time in the library a lot, and his favourite book is rumoured to be 'Crime and Punishment' by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• He is equally loved and lusted by the women in his university, but apart from occasional casual flings, he does not want to engage in a relationship because it 'fuddles his mind'

• His room is speck clean and he likes working out regularly and eating healthy (cooks his own food and is distrustful of the canteen meals)

15. Zeke: Law

• In school, Zeke was reprimanded a lot because according to his teachers, he was 'always quipped with a brash follow-up question, with no regards to authority'. In college, he encashed it by enrolling himself in a law major programme

• He is a big believer in practical knowledge and quickly networked to find internship opportunities to practice and observe lawyers alongside his regular studies

• With an absentee father, he worked two side jobs as a cashier at Starbucks and a private tutor

• He participated a lot in debate competitions and moot courts to enhance his critical thinking and analytical skills

16. Marco: Film Studies

• Always a sweet and dreamy guy, Marco chose film studies because he passionately believes films influence people a lot

• Ask him, and he will name the most obscure movies just to seem like a film student with a mysterious air, while in reality, his favourite movie is Mean Girls

• Likes people watching and tries to do all his college work sitting in a cafe, with 'coffee, coffee, coffee!'

• Has tried making short films, and although the themes and plots have been pretty good, he is yet to get real recognition for them

17. Porco: Aviation

• Ever the cocky guy, Porco took aviation because it made him feel like he was on top of the world

• Scored average in theory but was very skilled in practical knowledge

• His professors have often recommended he enlist for the air force, but he doesn't want to; he wants a low-key life without stress (staning a king who knows the importance of mental health!)

• Flirts A LOT with his fellow classmates, and 10/10 uses his charm to get his homework and assignments done

18. Pieck: Inorganic Chemistry

• Pieck's main goal in life is to see more women in STEM, and thus, her major

• Has excellent mathematical and statistical skills and uses them efficiently to excel

• Straight A student, has the special lucky glasses that she wears while taking her exams

• Very humble and soft-spoken, she is often forced to help others even when she doesn't really want to

19. Gabi: Marketing Research

• Gabi originally wanted to become a footballer and had once run away from home because she felt her parents did not approve of her career choice

• While football is still her passion, she has a newfound love for marketing

• Immense persuasive skills and great essays make her one of the toppers of her batch

• Feels stressed trying to juggle studies and football, but she loves both and can't live life with one without the other

20. Falco: Art History Criticism and Conservation

• Falco loved visiting art museums as a kid, and this love of his followed well into adulthood

• His favourite artist is Monet, and his core memory of college is their field trip to the Sistine Chapel

• Loves art, any art in any form, and appreciates every art he sees; is passionate about learning more and has inculcated the skill of finding beauty in everything

• His dorm room is filled with paintings from roadside artisans that he fell in love with, and on Sundays, he tries painting himself (and fails miserably, but is the happiest)

#aot #snk #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #aot college au #college au #aot headcanons #anime headcanons #sasha blouse #connie springer #jean kirstein #erwin smith #zeke yeager #marco bott #porco galliard #pieck finger #gabi braun #falco grice

[victusinveritas]

The Motherland Calls Stalingrad Monument under construction, April 1963 -- Daily LIFT #1212

From the Soviet Press, April 1963:

Overgrown with wormwood, torn by shrapnel, furrowed by grenades and soaked with blood, Mamayev Hill, where the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 stood their ground to last. Now the ring of the stonecutters' chisels fills the air, and the jibs of tower cranes float slowly in the sky: a monument to the men who fell in that battle is nearing completion.

The photo shows a section of the monument: a soldier with a submachine gun in one hand and a grenade in the other rises from a huge boulder. Engraved on the rock are the words, "Stand to the last, not a single step backward." Although the monument is not yet finished, visitors have been coming to Mamayev Hill to pay tribute to the heroes.

https://www.theleftchapter.com/post/daily-lift-1212

#soviet union #wwii #stalingrad #1960s #soviet monuments

[fatehbaz]

Designed by architect Albert Laprade, the Palais de la Porte Dorée, whose construction began in 1928, stands at the entrance to the vast space designed to house the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris. [...] [Its] style was a perfect example of a colonial modernity [...].

The display of riches extracted from the colonies, and the depiction of people bent over working, busy doing a thousand actions destined to enrich France, make up the Palais de la Porte Dorée’s 1,200-square-meter façade. It was realized at a time when many cracks were showing in the colonial empire, and when anticolonial groups in France and Europe were honing their arguments. Far from the peaceful image of worlds laboring to enrich France portrayed on this façade, [...] [t]he 1931 International Colonial Exhibition fabricated an illusion: that of a successful pacification and a working empire. [...] The government wanted to impress and dazzle the public [...].

A veritable tour de force, in a day, the public could visit Angkor Vat, Timbuktu, the palaces of Niger, or of the Queen of Madagascar. These monuments of vanquished civilizations -- now “French possessions” -- proved that access to fabulous riches had been secured. The 1931 Exhibition glorified the French colonial “civilizing mission,” but behind this euphemism were assimilation policies based on dispossession, the Code de l’indigénat (Indigenous Code), which legalized various forms of discrimination in the colonies, forced labor, and exploitation. [...] The colossal aspect of the Exhibition only fleetingly masked these fissures. [...] By its very inordinateness, the Colonial Exhibition [...] inadvertently revealed the illusion that underlay the colonial project. [...]

---

In Europe and France in the 1910s to 1920s, Black, Asian, and Arab people organized, wrote, and mobilized. Examples include the Pan-African Congress in Paris in 1919 [...]. The constituent congress of the League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression was held in Brussels in 1927. [...] [I]t was attended by representatives of the African National Congress, [...] Albert Einstein, Henri Barbusse [...]. Let us not forget either [...] the uprisings in Vietnam in 1908; [...] the 1925 revolt in Syria; or again in Vietnam in 1930. [...] Revolts and demonstrations demanding rights broke out throughout the entire French colonial empire, including [...] the demonstrations in Abéché (Chad) in 1917; the demonstrations of the people of Gabon and the Middle Congo from 1917 to 1918 [...].

---

As an institution, the museum partook in the invention of homogeneous, racialized categories (“Africans,” “Asians,” “Arabs,” “Europeans”) [...]. The Palais de la Porte Dorée’s multiple bas-reliefs [...] form a veritable “stone tapestry” and an imposing fresco of imperialist power. The work of sculptor Alfred Auguste Janniot (1889–1969), it constitutes a colonial encyclopedia. Entitled: “L'Apport des territoires d'outre-mer à la mère patrie et à la civilization” (“The Overseas Territories’ Contribution to the Motherland and to Civilization”), it is the only of its kind in France in terms of size.

In this bas-relief, a vast, diverse, and complex world is reduced to a flat surface on which these figures’ labor contributes to the greatness of France. [...] The colony as disciplinable “Nature” [...]. Humans and animals, plants and pirogues intermix and intertwine. Here, half a body emerges from the foliage; there a child perched on a woman’s hip hovers over a cactus. Further on, the name “Sudan” spills from a lion’s mouth. There is no social life, [...] the colony is “Nature.”

This disorder contrasts with its orderly finality: the anticipated export of products to France. But it is also a disorder that evokes the ordering of the world through colonization. [...]

---

The colony was a huge enterprise in taming fauna, flora, humans, rivers, forests, and mountains. Nothing was to escape the colonizers’ eye, or control. Everything had to be renamed, ordained, arranged, distinguished according to norms that reinforced an epistemology and imposed rigid binarities on worlds that had complex understandings of the living. Colonization was a project of control, possession, and transparency.

Thanks to this bas-relief, the French were given the impression of knowing everything about a world laying at its fingertips, that colonization offered them the entire diversity of the world, pacified, disciplined, subjected. [...] The Exhibition’s Jardin d’Acclimatation was an instrument of this organization; the public could imagine it was visiting the jungle, the savannah, tropical forests, and seas comfortably and safely. [...]

We also see the extent to which structures of racism destroy the possibility of living differently, [...] the imagination, that they stifle us, that they sever ties [...]. We want to retrace the cartographies of transnational and transcontinental resistance, to give voice [...]. We no longer want to be put under house arrest, confined.

---

All text above by: Françoise Vergès. “Decolonize the City.” e-flux Architecture (Appropriations series). May 2023. [All bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. At e-flux, Vergès explains, in an introduction, that this text “is a compilation of several extracts of the book De la violence coloniale dans l’espace public: Visite du triangle de la Porte Dorée (Of Colonial Violence in the Public Space: A visit to the Porte Dorée Triangle)“.]

#ecology #imperial #colonial #abolition

[piizunn]

fur, money, adventure: mechanisms of colonialism and survivance

riel ✰ | march, 2023

“Of all the things on earth, the motherland is the most important  

and sacred to us because we inherited it from our ancestors,”  

- Louis Riel 

Fig. 1, Wilson. I. Former Jean Caron Sr. House, Batoche Saskatchewan. Image courtesy of I. Wilson and Parks Canada

I am Red River Métis, descending maternally from historic Métis families by the names of Berthelet, Caron, Ste. Germain, Larivière, Dazè, Dubois, and Boudreau; we come from the Red River Settlement in Manitoba and Batoche, Saskatchewan. My Berthelet family members were employees of the North-West Company and community leaders in the town of Pointe à Grouette, now Ste. Agathe (St. Onge). My fifth great uncle Jean Caron Sr. fought in the Battle of Duck Lake of the North-West Resistance of 1885, with his sons and under the command of Gabriel Dumont, Jean Caron Sr’s house still stands in Batoche to this day (fig. 1). I introduce myself in this way, the traditional way of the Métis to situate myself on this land and contextualise my knowledge and experiences. 

My practice serves to counter the settler-colonial understanding of Métis people and our history and establish us as a people who have been practising survivance for generations. With the help of aesthetics of survivance I oppose mechanisms of colonialism; aesthetics including the Hudson’s Bay Company’s bloody legacy, the monuments and public art installed throughout Calgary, the suburban cowboys that come out of hiding in their McMansions on the outskirts of the city, riding their steel steeds, raised trucks, to the summer Stampede. The aesthetics of survivance are “[...]more than survival, more than endurance, or mere response, [...] stories of survivance are the creases of sovereignty,” (Vizenor, 15). In her 2019 book The North-West is Our Mother by Jean Teillet, the author compares the birth of the Métis Nation to human birth; messy, bloody, painful. Our history is vastly complex and controversial in the eyes of the average Canadian settler today. It is a history that makes settlers uncomfortable, confused, sometimes defensive and angry in response to lack of knowledge and this ignorance is often no fault of their own. Canada has a carefully curated canon of history that we are all spoon-fed in school until given the chance to learn the other sides of this history, to think critically and hear stories of survivance. 

Fig. 2, The Bay “Shopping is Good” advertisement, 2000. Courtesy of the HBC History Foundation

Countering aesthetics of survivance, The Hudson’s Company has developed their own aesthetics of colonialism. “Fur! Money! Adventure! That [is] what the Hudson’s Bay Company territory had to offer Englishmen and Canadians three hundred years ago,” (Sealy, 1). From the very beginning of the point blanket, with its iconic stripes on white wool, traded for a single beaver pelt to an advertisement from the year 2000 (fig. 2). An image of a nuclear family wearing matching white outfits in a clean white room. Everything accented with green, red, yellow, and indigo stripes, down to the scarf that the grandmother is knitting, referencing the histories of trade and handmade goods long abandoned by the HBC in favour of their modern department store model and multiple aesthetic rebrands throughout the years after the industrial revolution (Toneguzzi). The advertisement simply states, “Shopping is Good, Toronto”. Pro pelle cuttem, a pelt for a skin, a skin for a skin.

Fig. 3, Starr, Riel. Image of the original HBC logo, downtown Calgary. Image courtesy of the artist.

The HBC shield on a building in downtown Calgary (fig. 3) is a grim reminder of the bloody birth of this country, laughing in my face. As Billy Ray Belcourt puts it: “Canada is still in the business of gunning down NDNs. […] Despite the stories of progress and equality at the core of Canada’s national identity, a long tradition of brutality and negligence is what constitutes kinship for the nation of citizens sat atop the lands of older, more storied ones. […] What I can do is love as though it will rupture the singularity of Canadian cruelty.” (Belcourt, 5)  

Fig. 4, 5, Starr, Riel. Otipemisiwak Fantasy Husband, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

A Spectacle of Me for You: Otipemisiwak Fantasy (2022-present) is an ongoing body of work that explores the Métis identity through a modern and Indigiqueer lens, and through humour and the NDN belly laugh (Whitehead). The work consists of a series of photographs of myself wearing a costume I created using a combination of found and handmade garments. In the photographs from 2022 titled Otipemisiwak Fantasy Husband, (figs. 4 and 5) which have been printed in the form of stickers and two different postcard designs, the character Otipemisiwak Fantasy Husband (OFH), the masked trickster, poses with wood leftover from building a Red River cart in 2022. The aesthetics of survivance often incorporate embodying the skewed image that settlers have of the savage Indian, over exaggerating it so that that the joke remains in our own hands, and we can laugh at the ignorant moniyaw. In these photographs OFH is wearing a red and black lumberjack flannel over a red shirt with a black graphic of Louis Riel’s Face and white text that reads “Keeping’ it Riel,”. Around his waist is a ceinture fléchée, and a beaded leather strap on harness worn over brown dress pants. On his head is a latex mask of Louis Riel, his skin is placid and his features cartoonish, in the style of the masks of American presidents used in the 1991 film Point Break (directed by Katherine Bigelow) (fig. 6).

Fig. 6, Patrick Swayze, James Le Gros, Bojesse Christopher, and John Philbin in Point Break (1991), dir. Katheryn Bigelow. Image courtesy of Twentieth-Century Fox. 

This work explores the aestheticization of colonialism through these political figures and latex masks which can be attributed to the abstraction of the real person from their caricature in history and in the cultural zeitgeist. One postcard design contains a full body shot of the character in a comically dominant pose with a log positioned suggestively between his legs, standing in for the strap on harness’s missing toy. The second design is a close-up shot of the character’s pelvis, the strap on harness visible with his thumbs hooked casually on the straps.  

Referencing other Indigenous artistic personas such as Adrian Stimson’s “Buffalo Boy” and Lori Blondeau’s “Belle Sauvage” (fig. 7), my artwork including OFH satirises the settler-colonial understandings of Louis Riel as a violent traitor to the government by pointing to the ways his story has grown into a mythology of sorts in the eyes of Canadians in a similar manner to other related figures like the former presidents represented in Point Break.

Fig. 7, Stimson, Adrian; Blondeau, Lori. Belle and Boy’s Savage Buffalo Happy Hour. Image courtesy of Adrian Stimson and Lori Blondeau.

Like Stimson’s Buffalo Boy, my character represents an exaggerated Métis identity in order to “[…] camp up colonialism, sexuality, and authenticity,”  embodying the trickster archetype like Buffalo Boy in the words of Stimson, “he’s campy, ridiculous, and absurd, but he is also a storyteller, who exposes cultural and societal truths,” (Rice, Taunton, Stimson). OFH mimics the over-sexualized settler-colonial perception of Indigenous masculinity, sexuality,  and queerness and is an exploration of the ways in which my identity is tokenized: sexually, spiritually, academically, and culturally. 

A Spectacle of Me for You: Otipemisiwak Fantasy is a way of participating in the phenomenon within contemporary Métis art of Louis Riel related kitsch objects that flood markets across the Métis homeland. Alongside and juxtaposing red and white Canadian kitsch that litters tourists' traps and contemporary art galleries across this land, appears the stoic face Louis Riel, gazing out at the country that has developed since his murder in 1885. As Marilyn Dumont puts it: “Riel is dead, but he just keeps coming back,” (70) Contemporary artists like Jessie Ray Short embody Louis Riel by taking on his likeness as a costume. The short film Wake up! (2015) (fig. 8) is a queering of this popular trend.

Fig. 8, Short, Jessie Ray, still from Wake Up!, 2015, video with sound, 5:58 min. Courtesy of the Artist, via Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen

The artist, transforms herself into Louis Riel by applying facial hair, a wig, and clothing to mimic the most famous portrait of Riel in a drag-esque performance. The work asks, “How do you explain a culture in small talk?” and is an example of the “re-examining the cultural significance of Louis Riel [that] allows us to consider the ways in which we can question representation while still respecting the importance this history holds.” (Junker) 

Fig. 9 (left), Danger, Dayna. Digital print of Adrienne Dagger, wearing one of Dayna Danger's fetish mask. Image courtesy of the artist and CBC news.

Fig. 10 (right), Danger, Dayna. Big’Uns: Adrienne, 2017. Courtesy of the artist’s website. 

The beaded strap-on worn over the pants and the explicit nature of the posing is in reference to Dayna Danger’s Big’Uns (2017) (fig. 10) series, as well as their series of beaded fetish masks for their emphasis on material and process (fig. 9). The result is what Danger refers to as “the most Native BDSM thing ever,” to wrap yourself in beads. Like Danger’s beaded mask project, the Otipemisiwak Fantasy Husband persona came about partly out of a joke, the desire to make something humorous and sexy. Being queered by my Indigeneity, my sexuality, and gender, I consider Sara Ahmed’s words from the introduction of her book Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others,

 “A queer phenomenology, perhaps, might start by redirecting our attention toward different objects, those that are “less proximate” or even those that deviate or are deviant. And yet, I would not say that a queer phenomenology would simply be a matter of generating queer objects,” 

The emphasis on the strap-on harness points to a specific queer object with cultural associations within the concept of queer phenomenology and orientations. It functions not only as a deviant object or a queer object but also an Indigiqueer “orientation device,” (Ahmed, 3). 

Fig. 11, Starr, Riel. Spread from Reading Marilyn Dumont to A Railway Berm, 2023. Image courtesy of the artist.

The most recent work in A Spectacle of Me for You: Otipemisiwak Fantasy is a performance titled Reading Marilyn Dumont to A Railway Berm (2023) in which OFH, sporting a new fringed leather jacket and matching tan suede Manitobah Mukluks reads poetry by Métis poet, author, and academic Marilyn Dumont to the dismantled railway that once entered the former Fort Calgary. The title of the poem is A Letter to John A. MacDonald and the author directly addresses the first prime minister and informs him of his failed railroad project. In addition to the Louis Riel mask, I had also begun the process of making a mask in the image of John A. MacDonald but had not found a use for it until reading the poem by Dumont. The performance is documented in the form of a hand-bound zine using imitation sinew, with photo documentation of the performance of reading to the railroad and John A. as well as the action of “scalping” the John A. mask to remove it from the base. This is contrasted with documentation of the site using both historical and modern images taken during the performance and sourced from the museum of Fort Calgary’s website (fig. 11).   

Fig. 12, Starr, Riel. Prairie Vessel, 2022. Image courtesy of the artist.

Prairie Vessel (2022) (fig. 12) is an exploration of Métis aesthetics of survivance, specifically the Red River Cart and its material and physical qualities, as well as its history and symbolism in our culture. The Red River Cart is represented in the contemporary Métis Nation of Alberta and Manitoba Métis Federation logos, the cart being revered as an important symbol of survivance to our people. Historically the carts were built without the use of standardised measurement or plans, however there were two defining design features common to all Red River carts; their two wheels and lack of any metal joinery, only using wood and rawhide in their construction. The research for this piece included scouring online databases like the Louis Riel Institute and the Gabriel Dumont Institute in order to find any sort of construction plans for the carts. George Fayant is one of the few Métis makers with this skill, and has been building them for over two decades, since 1998 (Patterson). Prairie Vessel (2022) is a study of Métis material culture out of the need to preserve a lesser-known art form, and to practise survivance both personally and for my people so that I may keep knowledge and ways of making beyond alive, to keep them thriving in the spirits of my ancestors and all living Métis. 

I am just one Halfbreed, but I am still Halfbreed. My ancestors' spiritual and genetic material makes up my personhood and part of that personhood is in all Métis. I do not yet know who I am to my people, but I carry an important name and an old spirit. I would like to be a trickster, “lotta raven in that one,” they’ll say (Maracle, 19). I would like to be like old James Bird Jr., trickster, trader, smart as a whip, a deadly sense of humour, and mean to missionaries. Wiisakayachack, Nanabush, Bluejay, Raven, Coyote, Li P’tchi Mond, Chi Jean, James Bird Jr., I long to be a chakapish.

Works Cited  

Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, 2006.

Barkwell, Lawrence. Métis Mythology and Folklore: Mythological figures. Métis Museum, Louis Riel Institute.  

Belcourt, Billy-Ray, et al. A History of My Brief Body. Two Dollar Radio, 2020.   

Bigelow, Katheryn. Point Break. Twentieth Century Fox, 1991.  

Danger, Dayna. “The most Native BDSM thing ever”: Dayna Danger’s Fetish Masks Challenge Indigenous Sexuality Taboos. CBC Radio, 2018. 

Danger, Dayna. Big’Uns: Adrienne. The Resilience Project, 2017.

Dumont, Marilyn. A Really Good Brown Girl. Brick Books, 1996. 

The Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation. The Bay, “Shopping is Good” advertisement, 2000. 

Junker, Jocelyn. Capture Photo Festival: Jessie Ray Short’s Wake Up! (2015), 2022. 

Maracle, Lee. A Really Good Brown Girl: Introduction. Brick Books, 2019. 

Patterson, Dayne. Red River cart unveiled at U of S celebrates Métis presence on campus. CBC News, 2022. 

Rice, Ryan, and Carla Taunton. “Buffalo Boy: Then and Now.” Fuse Magazine, vol. 32, no. 2, 2009, pp. 18–25. 

Sealey, D. Bruce. Stories of the Métis /. Manitoba Metis Federation Press, pg. 1, 1973.  

Short, Jessie Ray. Wake Up!, 2015. Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, 2022. 

Stimson, Adrian, “Buffalo Boy: Then and Now.” Fuse Magazine, vol. 32, no. 2, 2009, pp. 18-25. 

St-Onge, Nicole J.M. “The Dissolution of a Métis Community: Pointe à Grouette, 1860–1885.” Studies in Political Economy 18.1 (1985): 149–172. Web. 

Toneguzzi, Mario. Hudson’s Bay Co. Launches Strategic Rebranding Amid Privatization. Retail Insider, 2020. 

Vizenor, Gerald. Fugitive Poems: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence. Lincoln, Nebraska: First Bison Book 2000, p.15. 

Whitehead, Joshua. Full Metal Indigiqueer: Poems. Talon Books, 2017. 

Wilson, I. Former Jean Caron Sr. House, Parks Canada, 2002. 

#this is my grad paper!!!!! #riel text #undergrad #art writing #contemporary art #indigenous #métis #michif #my work #writing #academia #academic writing #my practice #indigenous art #first nations art #please read or else!!!

[prussianmemes]

The construction of the 'Motherland Monument' (Батьківщина-Мати) in Kyiv, 1979.

Designed by Soviet Ukrainian sculptors and artists Yevgeny Vuchetich and Vasyl Borodai, the monument stands at 102 meters tall, and was opened to the public in a grandiose ceremony in 1981 by Leonid Brezhnev.

The sculpture was based on the Ukrainian female painter Nina Danyleiko, and wields a sword and a shield emblazoned with the Soviet coat of arms. It stands above a memorial hall with the names of over 12,000 soldiers and 300 workers of the home-front, honored during the war with the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Hero of Socialist Labour, for their defense of Soviet Ukraine.

The monument still stands proud today, as perhaps the most iconic landmark of Kyiv, but is soon to be anachronistically and controversially 'retouched.'

#pic #history

[unhonestlymirror]

A sculptural composition dedicated to the January Uprising appeared in Vilnius Old Town

The composition is dedicated to the January Uprising:

“March 22, 2024 marks the 160th anniversary of the murder of Konstantin (Kastuś) Kalinoŭskij. In Vilnius, the memory of this hero from the time of the struggle against the Russian Empire, as well as Sigismund Sierakowski, Titus Jakub Dalewski and the Franciscan monks, has finally been immortalized, the monument will be illuminated. Here, six months before the start of the uprising, protests of Vilnius residents against the tsarist power began in the cemetery near the church. A copy of the statue of the Mother of God, in front of which the rebels swore allegiance to God and the Motherland, will also be consecrated."

#Vilnius #Lithuania #Belarus #Poland #photography

[warriormale]

Drone with Ukrainian flag over the Motherland Monument.

Support Ukraine Freedom!

WarriorMale

#warriormale #sfw #Always seek Manliness

[mariacallous]

Ukraine is chipping off the Soviet symbol on the Motherland Monument's shield to replace it with a Ukrainian trident, which... like wow Russia you really did fuck up

I mean, it was a matter of time. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, tbh

[marykk1990]

It seems like there's a few accounts out there who appreciate my posts in support of Ukraine, which I will be doing another one later this evening. I still need to look up what I want to post about today.

I just want to say that I am not Ukrainian myself, and I didn't really know much about Ukraine before the full-scale invasion by muscovy started. But I was absolutely horrified when terrorist muscovy attacked, and that very day, I started a Twitter thread about Ukraine.

I have been doing cultural heritage threads on Twitter ever since the orange mango (donald trumpf) threatened to bomb ancient cultural heritage sites in Iran, which really pissed me off. Iran's ancient cultural heritage sites are not just important to Iran. They're important to world archaeology. I am fascinated by ancient history. It's the first thing I ever geeked out about in my life. After the Iran thread, I started a new thread on countries that trumpf called "shithole" countries. Obviously, I'm definitely not a trumpf supporter at all. After he lost in 2020, I continued my threads as they were a little popular on Twitter, but I opened it up to different countries, not just ones the orange mango threatened or insulted.

So, I am not an expert on Ukraine or any of the countries I've visited in any of my threads. I get all my pics off of Google, so I don't own them, and I get all of my information off of sites like Wikipedia and other sites. For Ukraine, I do like the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. If I post anything incorrect, my apologies for that. I am learning as I go, and after almost two years of posting about the amazing country of Ukraine, I have absolutely fallen in love with Ukraine and Ukrainians.

I am very happy that my Ukraine thread seems to be appreciated, and I will continue doing it for as long as it takes. Ukraine will win!

And, if anyone is interested, I had as my lock screen an awesome edit someone made of President Zelenskyy with the Ukrainian Motherland Monument in the background, but it was before the soviet symbol was removed. Since that has now been removed and the Ukrainian Tryzub has taken its place, I wanted a new updated lock screen, but still with President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian Motherland Monument. I couldn't find one I liked, so I made my own. I'm going to share it here, and if anyone else likes it, please feel free to use it as your lock screen or wallpaper.

#Stand With Ukraine #Slava Ukraïni 🇺🇦 🌻 #Zelenskyy War Hero #“russia” is a terrorist state