Reading Group: Under the Waqwaq Tree
Facilitated by Naz Cuguoğlu, Mine Kaplangı, Hakki S. Cacekli (Collective Çukurcuma)
Entering the world of Under the Waqwaq Tree, this reading group will be guided by a reading list engaging with hybridity, monsters, mythological creatures, and speculative fiction as a methodology to imagine alternative worldbuilding. Artists featured in the exhibition will attend some of the sessions, suggesting texts and readings about their works in the show.
The reading group will meet for four sessions online and in person at the Asian Art Museum and / (slash) art space. Participants may attend as many of the sessions as they wish.
Schedule:
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- Session 1: Nov 6, 2021 1-2pm, in person at the Asian Art Museum with artists Cathy Lu & Ranu Mukherjee
**Please note that this session will take place as part of the Asian Art Museum’s After Hope Symposium: Future Forms and Alternative Methods and requires the museum admission fee for attendance along with proof of vaccination and ID. - Session 2 (Cancelled): Nov 20, 2021 12-1:30pm, in person at / art space (no attendance fee)
**Please note that / will be requiring masks indoors as well as proof of vaccination and ID. - Session 3: Dec 4, 2021 12-1:30pm, online (no attendance fee)
- Session 4: Jan 22, 2022 12-1:30pm, online (no attendance fee)
**Please note that / will be requiring masks indoors as well as proof of vaccination and ID.
- Session 1: Nov 6, 2021 1-2pm, in person at the Asian Art Museum with artists Cathy Lu & Ranu Mukherjee
Please click here to sign up for one or more sessions. We will follow up with everyone who registers with details, including PDFs of the readings.
Readings across all four sessions will include excerpts from Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler, Can the Monster Speak?: Report to an Academy of Psychoanalysts by Paul B. Preciado, Regarding The Pain Of Others by Susan Sontag, Woman, Native, Other by Trinh T. Minh-ha, “Uses of the Erotic: the Erotic as Power” by Audre Lorde, and Our Fatal Magic by Tai Shani.
There is also a recommended reading list for Under the Waqwaq Tree, including texts and books chosen by Naz Cuguoğlu, Mine Kaplangı and all artists featured in the exhibition. Many of the books on the list are available for browsing at the / library.
Collective Çukurcuma Reading Group is a platform that foregoes institutional hierarchies in favor of a horizontal learning environment where the resources are shared and repurposed to create a more equal and accessible space for knowledge production.
Collective Çukurcuma Reading Group was initiated in 2015 by Naz Cuguoğlu & Mine Kaplangı. The two founding members were joined by Gökcan Demirkazık and Hakkı Serhat Cacekli in 2016. In addition to facilitating semester-long thematic discussion sessions on such subjects as hauntology and archive-based artistic practices from SWANA, the reading group has been invited to organize meetings in conjunction with various exhibitions in Istanbul and abroad, most notably as part of the public program of the 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017); 4th Istanbul Design Biennial (2018); Basis Frankfurt (2020); and Asian Art Museum’s After Hope Program (2020).