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Artist, writer, and graphic novelist Alan Brooks hosts this conversation series that brings together artists from the Cowboy exhibition with scholars and other guests to unravel the complex history, stereotypes, and legends surrounding the American West through the intersection of contemporary art and American history.
This evening of cinema and conversation begins with a screening of Shotgun Tuding, a Pancit Western directed by Shireen Seno, an artist and filmmaker based in Manilla. In this short film, a young woman named Tuding sets out on a journey to a distant town to hunt down the man who got her youngest sister Teresit pregnant. Pancit Westerns, like Spaghetti Westerns, found their heyday during the 1960s in the Philippines. Filmed in 16mm, Seno's short film is a nod to the genre.
Following the screening, host R. Alan Brooks leads a conversation with artists Yumi Janairo Roth and Emmanuel David about their ongoing project, We Are Coming, currently on-view at MCA Denver. We Are Coming traces eight Filipinos who joined “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show in 1899-1900. These individuals, who rode in the “Congress of Rough Riders of the World,” were largely forgotten to history until Roth and David discovered their names in an 1899 route book. They have since been working with period-era theaters to correct the historical record by displaying the names on vintage theater marquees throughout the United States.
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About the Speakers
Yumi Janairo Roth was born in Eugene, Oregon, and grew up in Chicago, Metro Manila, the Philippines, and suburban Washington DC. She received a BA in anthropology from Tufts University, a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts-Boston, and an MFA from the State University of New York-New Paltz. She currently lives and works in Boulder, Colorado, where she is a professor of Sculpture and Post Studio Practice at the University of Colorado. Roth has created a diverse body of work that explores ideas of immigration, hybridity, and displacement through discrete objects and site-responsive installations, solo project as well as collaborations. Roth has exhibited and participated in artist-in-residencies nationally and internationally, including Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Smack Mellon, and Cuchifritos in New York City; Diverse Works and Lawndale Art Center in Houston; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Vargas Museum, Metro Manila, Philippines, Ayala Museum, Metro Manila, Philippines; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Germany; Galerie Klatovy Klenová, Czech Republic; and Institute of Art and Design-Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Emmanuel David is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work highlights the intersections of gender, sexuality, and globalization, especially in the racialized contexts of US-Philippine relations. He was trained as a sociologist and ethnographer, and his research has focused on global call centers, beauty pageants, and contemporary art, dance, and performance. He is associate professor of women and gender studies at the University of Colorado Boulder.
About the Host
R. Alan Brooks writes an award-winning weekly comic for The Colorado Sun, “What’d I Miss?”. His TED Talk on the importance of art has reached 3 million views, and his graphic novel work is featured in the Denver Art Museum's renovated Western exhibit. He also hosts the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver’s podcast, "How Art Is Born."
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Your ticket to Cowboy Conversations includes admission to MCA Denver anytime before Cowboy closes on February 18. Simply show your confirmation email at the front desk of the museum.