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About
Photo by Meghan Krauss, 2022Amanda White (she/her) is a white settler artist/scholar living and working on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples in Toronto, Canada.
Amanda is currently a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Curating in the Department of Visual Art at Western University and is also the Co-initiator of the Creative Food Research Collaboratory.
Her work sits at the intersection of art, environmental and cultural studies with a focus on plants. She has exhibited and published her work widely with support from SSHRC, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council among others.
Amanda holds a PhD from Queen’s University and a MFA (Visual Art) from the University of Windsor. Her ongoing works-in-progress include several collaborative and solo studio-based projects, a forthcoming co-edited book and a graphic novel. Amanda has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in studio art, art history and cultural studies at universities including; Queen’s, Western, UofT, McMaster, and supervises research-creation graduate projects at Queen’s University.
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Amanda is currently a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Curating in the Department of Visual Art at Western University and is also the Co-initiator of the Creative Food Research Collaboratory.
Her work sits at the intersection of art, environmental and cultural studies with a focus on plants. She has exhibited and published her work widely with support from SSHRC, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council among others.
Amanda holds a PhD from Queen’s University and a MFA (Visual Art) from the University of Windsor. Her ongoing works-in-progress include several collaborative and solo studio-based projects, a forthcoming co-edited book and a graphic novel. Amanda has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in studio art, art history and cultural studies at universities including; Queen’s, Western, UofT, McMaster, and supervises research-creation graduate projects at Queen’s University.
Get in touch: amanda.white (at) uwo.ca
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News
Dec 2022
Rooted in the Region: Agriculture and the Arts in Southwestern Ontario
Sunday 18 September 2022, 2-5pm
Blyth Festival Theatre’s Harvest Stage
FREE shuttle bus to and from the event, departing from and returning to Western University
This event is FREE and open to the public. RSVP by 5 September 2022 is required.
RSVP HERE
Sept 2022
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Assembling Recipes for Sustainability
LINK TO SIGN UP
Calling all artists, writers, activists, scholars, organizers, visionaries, and revolutionaries: we invite you to contribute to a collective recipe box project through the mail. Let us inspire each other with our ideas, DIY solutions, creative or speculative imaginings, practical tips, inherited strategies, poetic responses and plans for sustaining our work in (the) art world(s).
Participants are invited to contribute a ‘recipe’ for sustainability – with ‘recipe’ to be interpreted as literally or as creatively as desired. These recipes will be submitted on an index card and the collection of cards will be assembled in a recipe box.
There is no cost to participate, and all participants will be provided with a self-addressed stamped envelope and a card to submit their recipe. In exchange for contribution, participants will receive a copy of the entire collection.
This collective mail art project is curated by the Centre for Sustainable Curating’s inaugural postdoctoral fellows, Drs. Amanda White and Zoë Heyn-Jones. “Assembling Recipes for Sustainability” is a component of “Imagining The Centre For Sustainable Curating,” the CSC’s year-long visioning exercise to imagine, collaborate, and discuss the ways we can take seriously the goal of the Centre to be sustainable in all ways: that is, sustainable in teaching about best ecological practices for exhibition making, sustainable in how we might engage with the world around us, and sustainable in the outcomes built through our efforts. “Imagining The Centre For Sustainable Curating” is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
April 2022
Exhibition: From Remote Stars: Buckminster Fuller, London, and Speculative Futures
Museum London
March 5 to May 15, 2022
Museum London link
Remote Stars Podcast and Exhibition Website
March 2022
Public 64: Beyond unsettling
Collaborative work with Brad Isaacs included in this issue of Public Journal, edited by Leah Decter and Carla Tauton.
Link to Issue
“The artworks, conversations and texts in PUBLIC 64: Beyond Unsettling offer innovative perspectives in non-consumptive, collaborative, ethical, and accountable, arts-based approaches to undoing colonial dominance. The issue is 264 pages in length, full-colour, with a wrap-around cover by Afuwa.”
Jan 2022
Some Instructions for Folding Perception
S𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, written to accompany the exhibition:
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘵, Tyler Los-Jones, On now (Nov 19 - Jan 8, 2022) at Norberg Hall Gallery in Calgary, AB. Risograph print was designed with/by Tyler Los Jones and printed by Yolkless press. Copies printed in a variety of colors and available at the gallery, and a plain text version online, on the gallery website: https://norberghall.com/tyler-los-jones-the-knots-of-the-net/
Nov 2021
Do Roses Dream of Freedom?
(link to text pdf): Do Roses Dream of Freedom? An essay to accompany Waard Ward’s floristry project, as part of the exhibition Public Space, Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, 2021. PDF available on The VAC website in English and Arabic. Translation by Talal Baranbo, https://www.vac.ca/waard-ward
“Waard Ward is: Abd Al-Mounim, Hanen Nanaa, Petrina Ng, Laura Ritacca, and Patricia Ritacca. Waard Ward is a collaborative, social practice project that invites newcomers to train as florists and imagine social-entrepreneurial futures. Collectively led by Syrian florist Abd Al-Mounim, community organizer Hanen Nanaa, educator Laurie Ritacca, curator/educator Patricia Ritacca, and artist Petrina Ng, Waard Ward collaborates in floral arrangement, decolonial research, and newcomer community building. Waard Ward's name proposes the idea of a diasporic flower district; "waard" is a romanization of the Arabic word for flower.”
Sept 2021
The Botanical Turn
Image: Zachari Logan, "Nel Mezzo Del Cammi Di Nosta Vita (The Gate)" 2018 (detail). Courtesy of the artist and Paul Petro Contemporary Art.The Botanical Turn
McIntosh Gallery at Western University
September 23 - December 11, 2021
Carrie Allison, Paul Chartrand, Joscelyn Gardner, Zachari Logan, Sarah Maloney, Amanda White, and ZOFFCurated by Helen Gregory
Panel Discussion
Co-presented by McIntosh Gallery & the Art Now! Speakers' SeriesOctober 7, 2021, 7:00 pm EST on Zoom
Register here
Fall 2021
Missing Pages
Missing Pages
A Community centered series of online projects, Fall 2021Presented by BRIDGE Centre for Architecture + Design and Cambridge Art Galleries | Idea Exchange
Reading group on Oct 27th:
https://www.missingpages.space/amanda-white
Fall 2021
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2021-23
I am thrilled to share that I am a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the new Centre for Sustainable Curating, in the Department of Visual Art at Western University.
sutainablecurating.ca
June, 2021
Artists Talk, Nipissing University
October 08, 2020
Plant Encounters
Collaborative work with Brad Isaacs, for a digital project, curated by the Long Walk Collective; Plant Encounters, is online publication hosted by the Long Walk Collective, in the traditional territories of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, also known as Yukon’s Klondike.
August, 2020-2021
A Matter of Taste
Koffler Digital - Group Exhibition,Online: Aug 18-Nov 30
https://koffler.digital/a-matter-of-taste/
Aug 18 -Nov 30, 2020
Garden Relations: Plants + Humans, Gardens and Community,
Web talk on Aug 18 @ 7pm (PT)
Aug 18, 2020
Infinite Silences
A Conversation with Elysia French about some of my recent work recently published in the Summer 2020 Issue #51 of Antennae, The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture: Vegetal Entaglements.“This issue of Antennae is the first of three instalments entirely dedicated to plants in art and culture.”
See link for open access: http://www.antennae.org.uk/
Summer 2020
We Dug Through a Mountain of Gold to Find You
Amanda White & Brad Isaacs
Factory Media Centre, July 1 -31, Hamilton, ON
Screening online and in the Factory Media Centre (FMC) window space as part of the Public Works series.
https://www.factorymediacentre.ca/public-works/
July 1-31 2020
The Old Woman and the Sea Reading Group at Forest City Callery
Forest City Gallery is facilitating an online Reading Group, which will take place on June 4th, 2020. Registered participants recieved a copy of the book to read and the event will offer a shared online space to collectively discuss the newly edited novel.
https://forestcitygallery.com/event/rewriting-wild-reading-group-0
May 2020
Publication Now Available in Paperback:
Why Look at Plants? By Giovannoe Aloi (and including a chapter I wrote about pirate radio, art and plants) is now available in paperback,
You can order it here:
https://brill.com/view/title/33086?format=PBK&offer=552695
Oct 2019
Upcoming Workshop:
Dandelion Variations: Canning Workshop and Conversation
Amanda White and Rav Singh
August 12, 2019
6-8pm
Studio.89, 1065 Canadian Pl #104, Mississauga, ON
Please register online here.
Beginning with a tasting of dandelion-based preserves and pickles, participants will learn a variety of uses and recipes for this common plant along with an introduction to food preservation. Amanda White will demonstrate the basics of hot water bath canning, using a dandelion jelly recipe that is inspired by her great grandmother’s recipe for dandelion wine, with foraged ingredients. This will be followed by a discussion of sustainable agriculture and urban food security featuring White in dialogue with Rav Singh, Urban Agriculture Coordinator, Ecosource.
https://workofwind.ca/programs/dandelion-variations-canning-workshop-discussion/
As part of the SDUK prgramming at Blackwood Gallery, MIssissauga, For more information about SDUK programs visit workofwind.ca/programs
July 2019
New Book Project - Call for Contributions:
In collaboration with scholar Elysia French (Post-doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University), we are seeking contributions for an edited anthology: Making Eco(ogical): Locating the Arts in the Environmental Humanities in Canada
“Bringing together diverse perspectives from artists, scholars, activists, curators, theorists, and makers, Making (Eco)Logical will locate artistic practice within the Environmental Humanities and explore the ways in which cultural production informs perceptions, communications, and knowledge of environmental distress in a Canadian context. The book will address what the arts can do; what making can make, and perhaps what it cannot, in the context of current environmental conversations.”
More info: https://makingecological.wordpress.com/
CALL PDF
Jan 2019
Exhibition
Small Arms Inspection Building /
City of MIssissauga
Public Volumes
April 6 - May 5
Curated by: Noa Bronstein
Artists:
Joi T. Arcand
Cathy Busby
soJin Chun
Stephanie Comilang
Sheena Hoszko
Germaine Koh
HaeAhn Paul Kwon Kajander
Morris Lum
Dawit L. Petros
jes sachse
Kara Springer
LeuWebb
Amanda White
https://smallarmsinspectionbuilding.ca/index.php/event/public-volumes/
Chapter (publication):
“Plant Radio” (P. 198-203) in:
Why Look at Plants?
The Botanical Emergence in Contemporary Art by Giovanni Aloi
https://brill.com/view/title/33086J
Jan 2019
Artwork Index
Welcome Plants
2019 -
Textile works, wool and plant fibres on cotton cloth. These ‘welcome mat’ handmade hooked rugs depicting common wild plants, particularly those often viewed in conflicted ways by humans.
Textile works, wool and plant fibres on cotton cloth. These ‘welcome mat’ handmade hooked rugs depicting common wild plants, particularly those often viewed in conflicted ways by humans.
A Breathing Room
2017-2019
A Breathing Room is a living installation, housing the correct number of plants (Approx 300) necessary for one person to breathe symbiotically with plant life. The architectural component of A Breathing Room was designed in collaboration with Calgary-based architect Matt Knapik in 2015
A Breathing Room is a living installation, housing the correct number of plants (Approx 300) necessary for one person to breathe symbiotically with plant life. The architectural component of A Breathing Room was designed in collaboration with Calgary-based architect Matt Knapik in 2015
Publications
Book Chapters:
“(Un)Welcome Plants”, in Artwork for Jellyfish, Eds. Ted Hiebert and Amanda Boetzkes, Noxious Sector Press, 2022
“Plant radio for Plants”, in Why Look at Plants? the Botanical Emergence in Contemporary Art, by Giovanni Aloi. Brill, 2019
“Notes from the Deep Earth Treatment Centre” in Naturally Post-Natural: Jennifer Willet, ed. by Ted Heibert. Noxious Sector Press, 2018
“Sharing food Sharing Knowledge; food and agriculture in contemporary art practices” in Perma/Culture: Imagining Alternatives in an Age of Crisis, Edited by Molly Wallace and David Corruthers, Rutledge Environmental Humanities 2017
Artists Publications/ Projects:
Roots, Leaves, Stems and Blooms, Dandelion zine and cookbook, 2020
“Two recipes”, The Artists Cookbook, Edited by Carrie Perrault. 2019
The Call of the Wild, ‘re-writing the wild’ re-edited book series, work in Progess, 2019-
Talking Plant PhD Thesis, Cultural Studies, Queen’s University, 2018. https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/25858
“What’s Invisible About a Plant?” Parkhive Collective Research, Co-edited broadsheets with Teresa Carlesimo and Michael DiRisio, Vol. 1-5, 2015 (artists publication)
Random Seeds artists book, in collaboration with Matthew Knapik (self-published) Banff Centre, 2015
Wild Edibles Guide to Downtown Windsor developed in collaboration with Rashel Tremblay, Text and Illustrations, Neighborhood Spaces Residency (artists publication) 2014
Articles:
“Field Guide” with Brad Isaacs, Public 64: Beyond Unsettling: methodologies for decolonizing futures, Eds. Leah Decter and Carla Taunton, Winter 2022
“A Field Guide to Monster Plants”, Blackflash Magazine, 2022
French, Elysia, "Vegetal Entanglements” interview- feature in Antennae-The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. 2020
"Where Do Animals Live in our Subconscious?" Antennae - The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Issue 40, summer 2017
"Engaging Vegetable Others" esse art + opinions, issue # 87, Spring/Summer 2016
“Need a Green Friend?” Neighborhood Spaces Publication, Arts Council Windsor and Region with Neighborhood Spaces. Windsor, ON 2015
“Tracking the Eastern Elk” Text and Artists Project, Art Windsor, Vacancy Issue. Winter, 2015
Recent Exhibiton Texts:
“Some Instructions for Folding Perception”, Written to accompany the knots of the net, Tyler Los Jones, Norberg Hall Gallery, Calgary. 2021
“Do Roses Dream of Freedom?” Written to accompany Waard Ward’s floristry project, as part of the exhibition Public Space, Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. 2021.
Rewriting the Wild
this projectexists as objects and events- reading groups or book clubs. The work evisits well known novels that feature ‘man-vs-nature’ conflict narratives, editing the gender of the protagonists. To date this project
includes The Old Man and the Sea (The Old Woman and the Sea), and The Call of the Wild, with two more in
progress. The Call of the Wild Was printed and sent out to 25 participants for review, to gather responses to the project and the new story. With designer Tetyana Herych (of Furrrawn Press) the beeks are being designed as a series, starting with The Old Woman and the Sea.
This artistic experiment is concerned with generating discussion and debate; will this slight but important shift change the story’s human-nature narrative in interesting ways? Will it generate new themes, metaphors, and meanings?
This artistic experiment is concerned with generating discussion and debate; will this slight but important shift change the story’s human-nature narrative in interesting ways? Will it generate new themes, metaphors, and meanings?
Movement Compositions
2017
The cyanotype prints that comprise Movement Compositions are presented as four different maps, each a specific collection of ten figures of plant movement from The 1886 book The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin. The figures are recontextualized within a community of plants as one might imagine them together in a garden or in the wild:
Movement Composition for Ten Flowers; Movement Composition for a Vegetable Garden; Movement Composition for a Forest; and Movement Composition for Ten Cabbages
The cyanotype prints that comprise Movement Compositions are presented as four different maps, each a specific collection of ten figures of plant movement from The 1886 book The Power of Movement in Plants by Charles Darwin. The figures are recontextualized within a community of plants as one might imagine them together in a garden or in the wild:
Movement Composition for Ten Flowers; Movement Composition for a Vegetable Garden; Movement Composition for a Forest; and Movement Composition for Ten Cabbages
Research Projects
Terence McKenna
Vision Plants: Transpersonal Challenge
Label: Sounds True Recordings
Format: Audio Cassette
Country: USA
Year: 1990
Vision Plants: Transpersonal Challenge
Label: Sounds True Recordings
Format: Audio Cassette
Country: USA
Year: 1990
Terence Kemp McKenna was an American ethnobotanist, mystic, psychonaut, lecturer, author, and an advocate for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, metaphysics, alchemy, language, philosophy, culture, technology, environmentalism, and the theoretical origins of human consciousness. He was called the "Timothy Leary of the '90s", "one of the leading authorities on the ontological foundations of shamanism", and the "intellectual voice of rave culture"
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini Legge Pasolini, Poesia in forma di rosa
Label: RCA Italiana
Format: Vinyl, 7"
Country: Italy
Genre: Poetry
Year: 1962
Pasolini Legge Pasolini, Poesia in forma di rosa
Label: RCA Italiana
Format: Vinyl, 7"
Country: Italy
Genre: Poetry
Year: 1962
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual, who also distinguished himself as an actor, journalist, novelist, playwright, and political figure. He remains a controversial personality in Italy due to his blunt style and the focus of some of his works on taboo sexual matters. He was an established major figure in European literature and cinematic arts. His murder prompted an outcry in Italy and its circumstances continue to be a matter of heated debate.
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