Curator discusses provocative exhibit

by Justyn Field | February 5, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

The award-winning curator of “Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate,” which features art made from converted white-supremacist propaganda, said in a lecture Thursday night that she had to overcome her own prejudice while working on the project.

Katie Knight, who won two awards in 2008 for human rights work, said, “I have a lot of prejudice against white supremacists. I struggle to view them as human beings.”

But as she worked on the exhibit, she said, she began reflecting on how the Tibetans don’t hate the Chinese who invaded their country. She said she was influenced by one of the pieces she got for the exhibit. As she continued receiving art, she discovered an even more surprising piece that featured some of the propagandist books wearing knitted caps and standing around like boys in a schoolyard.

From that piece, Knight said, she was again able to realize that all the people involved in the self-titled activist art show were human beings — both the victims and the victimizers.

Avoiding the dehumanization of others is a central message of the 60-piece exhibit that juxtaposes swinging tires, multi-colored cranes and cookies that spell “HATE” with photographs of murder victims and, sometimes, their killers.
Freshman Jessica Neville said she felt moved after seeing the collection, which features work by a religiously-and-ethnically-diverse collection of artists.

“It’s really cool that they’re focusing on everything,” she said. “It equalizes love and hate.  Between love and hate there is a connection.”

And although the exhibit started as an effort to clean out the cubbies of the Montana Human Rights Network, which had acquired 4,000 books that championed hate and horror, Knight said the project become something much more.
She said she saw the art become powerful as she watched artists commit to being “personally vulnerable” as they put parts of their real lives into the work. A piece titled “Hate is a Sin Flag” features an artist’s recollection of hate speech directed at her, while another is a memorial to relatives lost in the Holocaust.

“I was afraid of the response,” Knight said. 

But the exhibit, which has been touring Montana, hasn’t been defaced. Nor have the artists been threatened — something Knight said is a result of them banding together as a community.

And despite her fears, Knight said she feels the messages of the exhibit are too important for it not to be shown because people need to see “how we pass on messages to our children of who’s us and who’s them.”

The “Speaking Volumes” exhibit will be on display at the Masquer Theatre until March 6.

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

This story has been viewed 143 times.