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Artist’s Talk - Crafting Sweet Resistance: From Mexican Sugar Skulls to Colonial Critique

 

Facilitated by Dr William Franco

1pm – 2pm, Saturday 26 July

Toi Pōneke Gallery

Free

Dr William Franco

In the second of three artist’s talks about Azúcar/Sugar, the latest installation from With Lime, hear about Dr William Franco’s journey from travelling in Mexico to learn how to make Mexican sugar skulls for Dia de Muertos to exploring the connection between sugar and colonisation of the Americas to expanding the boundaries of this traditional method of sugar art.


Artist Biography

Dr William Franco

William Franco has a B.A. in Fim and Video from California Institute for the Arts, M.F.A. in Installation - Digital Media from Massey University, and a PhD and Graduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Victoria University of Wellington. Since 2007 when he was a Fulbright Fellow, he has lived in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.

 A Chicano (Zapotec and Mixtec), he is a border crosser, choosing the best form and media to embody his performative ideas. His multi-disciplinary approach grows out of his collaboration with the original members of The Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo.

His installations reflect his technical expertise in lighting, audio and video honed through his extensive production experience in film, video, sound and theatrical/dance performances in site-specific, studio and museum settings. He is best known for “The Illustrated Chicano,” his interactive installation on being a Chicano in diaspora, and mounting the HAKO Virtual Projection Mapping Festival during the COVID pandemic.

 

Azúcar/Sugar

12 July - 8 August

What is the connection between sugar, colonisation, global trade and climate change?

Azúcar/Sugar is an explorative gallery experience that uses sugar sculptures, videos and digital art to trace how European and US conquest terraformed the environment from a living entity that encompassed the living spirits of the land, water, plants, animals and humans into an inert repository of resources to be harvested and harnessed for profit. Azúcar/Sugar is the latest installation from With Lime, the long-standing collaboration between William Franco and Miki Seifert.