The Professor’s Desk
By Zinnia Naqvi

May 4-31, 2023

A Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts project. Co-presented with CONTACT Photography Festival at Whippersnsapper Gallery

*Gallery hours are every Sunday through May, 1-4PM
Storefront exhibition: viewable 24/7 May 4-31

The Professor’s Desk pairs documents from the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance’s (ACLA) archives within the frame of a professor's office. This project looks particularly at four cases of discrimination on or relating to Canadian universities; the W5 Campus Giveaway TV Special from 1979, Professor Kin-Yip Chun's case of racial discrimination against the University of Toronto, MacLean Magazine's "Too Asian" article from 2010, and current barriers facing international students across the country. This project puts together materials from these events within the artist’s studio/office. In doing so Naqvi considers how these institutions have or have not chosen to support visible minorities within the frame of academia. This series is meant to commemorate the legacy of figures who have publicly spoken out about their experiences and considers how they have made space for future Black, Indigenous, and racialized workers within academic institutions.

This project was developed through Mayworks’ Labour Arts Catalyst program in partnership with Asian Canadian Labour Alliance with the support of OPIRG Toronto. This project will be paired by writing by Anushay Malik.

Accompanying programs

On May 7, join artist Zinnia Naqvi at The Professor’s Desk Opening Reception.
On May 24, attend The Professor’s Desk: In conversation, an artist talk with Zinnia Naqvi, Professor Kin-Yip Chun, and Chris Ramsaroop. From May 4-28, visit The Professor’s Desk TTC billboard at Spadina & Bloor.

Accessibility

We regret that the inside of Whippersnapper Gallery is not wheelchair accessible and does not have a washroom. The storefront installation is viewable from the sidewalk.

Zinnia Naqvi (she/her) is a lens-based artist working in Tkaronto/Toronto. Her work examines issues of colonialism, cultural translation, language, and gender through the use of photography, video, the written word, and archival material. Recent projects have included archival and re-staged images, experimental documentary films, video installations, graphic design, and elaborate still-lives. Her artworks often invite the viewer to consider the position of the artist and the spectator, as well as analyze the complex social dynamics that unfold in front of the camera. Naqvi’s work has been shown across Canada and internationally. She is a 2022 Fall Flaherty/Colgate Distinguished Global Filmmaker in Residence and recipient of the 2019 New Generation Photography Award organized by the the National Gallery of Canada. Naqvi is member of EMILIA-AMALIA Working Group, an intergenerational feminist collective. Naqvi received a BFA in Photography Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University and an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University.

In May 2000, a group of Asian Canadian labour activists met to talk about setting up an alliance representing the voice of Asian Canadian trade union members, Asian Canadian workers and the Asian community at large. Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA) is the fruit of those meetings.

OPIRG Toronto is an intersectional grassroots volunteer-based group at the University of Toronto, with a mandate for action, education, and research on environmental and social justice issues. OPIRG Toronto’s Dr. Chun Resource Library is a space for community members and University of Toronto students to access factual, critical, and alternative materials that facilitate resistance to oppression among and between diverse communities. In particular the library is committed to collecting materials that reflect the local voices of our community, and the voices of those who have been marginalized and oppressed in our daily lives and in political mobilizing.

Established in 1997, CONTACT is a not-for-profit organization celebrating the art and profession of photography. Committed to cultivating an inclusive and accessible approach to the medium, CONTACT builds community by providing a platform for dynamic collaborations and productive engagement between Canadian and international photographers, curators, partner organizations, and audiences, locally and globally.

The artist would like to thank Mayworks Festival, the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, OPIRG Toronto, Lokchi Lam, Professor Kin-Yip Chun, Chris Ramsaroop, the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the librarians at the Toronto Reference Library.