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THE CAGE ITERATIONS

The Cage Iterations (I, II, and III) are reflections on the continuation of colonial legacy in museums and galleries from the maintenance of White curational narratives, hostile Western museum infrastructures, and oppressive Western aesthetics, leading to cultural objects acquired through colonial enterprise to continue to be severed from their communities and cultural heritages. The Cage series began in response to the Hornbill Carvinga sculpture made in Northern New Ireland in 1880, now displayed at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK. Like many non-Western art objects taken from Indigenous lands at that time, its history is shrouded by its colonial acquisition, leading to the majority of the available history of such artifacts being the narratives recorded by the White man. This continues to be perpetuated by Western institutions today, resulting in curational environments that are hostile to the cultures they display. The evolution of the project culminated in an essay titled Liberating Culture: The Museum as Weapon, Discourse, Medium, an advocacy for museum reform in order to foster cultural sustainability.

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